Tim Condon of the New Hampshire RLC has written an article entitled “Former New Mexico Governor a Hit in New Hampshire.” According to Condon,

During the question and answer session, one member of the audience noted that Johnson seemed to be responding to the questions clearly and directly “without trying to avoid giving an answer. Do you think you could give lessons to other politicians?” The crowd roared with laughter.

The general impression of Gov. Johnson seemed to be positive. At one point a questioner, clearly pleased with Gov. Johnson’s political positions and recommendations, asked “What would it take for you to consider moving to New Hampshire?” Johnson grinned back, saying: “How could you not consider moving to New Hampshire when the license plate says ‘Live Free or Die’?”

Read more at the RLCNH website.

Jim Forsythe, New Hampshire RLC Chair, introduced Gary Johnson.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire will host an educational forum with Gary Johnson on Saturday evening, January 23 in Concord.

Gary Johnson is the former two-term Governor of the swing state of New Mexico. He is the Chairman of Our America Initiative.

In 1999, Johnson became the highest-ranking elected official in the United States to advocate the repeal of drug prohibition. Saying the War on Drugs was “an expensive bust,” he advocated the decriminalization of both drug use and possession in order to save money and potentially regulate currently illegal drugs.

In the 2008 election campaign, Johnson endorsed Ron Paul for the Republican presidential nomination. He is an avid triathlete who runs extensively and abstains from all recreational drug use, caffeine, alcohol, and some sugar products.

The event will be a reception with a cash bar. Food will not be served, however, we’ll be inviting guests to join us at a local restaurant afterward, for further camaraderie and discussion. The event will be held at the Grappone Center in Concord, NH, and starts at 4:30pm.

REGISTER ONLINE today!

Proceeds from this forum will support pro-liberty Republican candidates for New Hampshire House and Senate. (Thanks to New Hampshire RLC Chair Jim Forsythe for organizing this event.)

The Republican Liberty Caucus is pleased to announce the latest candidates we’re recommending you support in 2010.  They include:

* Congressional candidates Brian Miller (AZ-08), Adam Kokesh (NM-03), Jaynee Germond (OR-04), and Terri McCormick (WI-08);

* Virginia State Senate candidate Steve Hunt (January special election); and

* State House candidates Jenn Coffey in NH (incumbent) and Paul Curtman in Missouri, as well as Missouri House incumbents Shane Schoeller, Tim Jones, and Jim Guest.

Learn more about these and other endorsed candidates at our 2010 endorsements page.

Another election gone by, and it turned out quite well for the Republican Party overall and the Republican Liberty Caucus in specific.

Republicans elected new Governors in New Jersey and Virginia. Neither of the candidates, Chris Christie or Bob McDonnell, was endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus, but we believe they will provide a better vision for their states than their respective opponents.

In Virginia, voters elected State Senator Ken Cuccinelli to the post of Attorney General. Cuccinelli is a social and fiscal conservative, and some RLC members have been offended by his social conservatism. Still, he seems to be one of the few politicians in the state that understands the concept of limited government, and has a voting record consistent with the RLC’s goals. His new position elevates Cuccinelli to one of the most high-level advocates of limited government in the country.

RLC members in Virginia worked hard to help Cuccinelli win the nomination for Attorney General, and many contributed to his campaign directly. Cuccinelli has said that he will not enforce laws he deems unconstitutional. In 2007, Cuccinelli took the time to drive several hours to address a small group of RLC members. View his speech to RLC members at YouTube.

In the RLC’s biggest victory of the night, RLC National Committeeman Dan Halloran was elected to the New York City Council in a Queens district that leans heavily Democrat. Halloran is also the state Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus in New York. He worked tirelessly to become elected and will join just four other Republicans on the 51-member City Council.

The RLC also had some other significant victories in New Jersey and New Hampshire. Incumbent Michael Patrick Carroll, who the RLC discovered earlier in the year, was re-elected to his New Jersey House seat. Perhaps the most successful liberty-oriented politician in the state, Michael Doherty, was elected to an open seat in the New Jersey State Senate. The RLC profiled Doherty in an earlier edition of our newsletter.

In the Granite State, Jim Forsythe led a team of liberty-loving Republicans that successfully helped three candidates obtain victory. Political newcomer Lynne Blankenbeker was elected in a special election to the New Hampshire House, and RLC members Phil Greazzo and Cameron DeJong were elected to Alderman and Selectman positions in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Several non-endorsed candidates with strong libertarian leanings were also successful on Election night, including Kim Rafferty, who was elected to the Birmingham City Council in Alabama, and Shaun Kenney, who was elected to a County Supervisor in Fluvanna County, Virginia. In Minnesota, RLC member Luther Stueland won a position on the Moorhead City Council and Patricia Barnum was elected to the West St. Paul ISD 127 School Board.  Additionally, Lisa Marie Coppoletta has advanced to a run-off in a race for San Marcos City Council in Texas.

Unfortunately, TABOR ballot initiatives — which would tie revenue increases to population and inflation growth to keep spending in check — were defeated by voters in Washington state and Maine. The gay marriage ballot initiative in Maine passed, overturning gay marriage in the state, while voters in Washington state chose to extend rights for gays and lesbians.

The nine victories for RLC-endorsed candidates this fall combined with the five spring victories (in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Texas) have resulted in a very successful off-year election for liberty-focused Republicans.

Congratulations are extended to all of the above candidates, our other endorsed candidates, our supporters, and the folks that helped our endorsed candidates succeed.

Complete RLC election results are available here.

The Republican Liberty Caucus and PAC in New Hampshire have put together an excellent event for liberty-lovers in the Northeast. On Saturday, November 7, bestselling author and economist Tom Woods and venture capitalist Lawrence Lepard will be speaking at a fundraiser to support New Hampshire Liberty Republican candidates in 2010.

Please register for this event today. Tickets are $100, but well worth it to help an important cause.

Everyone (or couple) who registers by Monday, October 26 will get a free copy of Dr. Woods’ book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Proceeds will go to the Republican Liberty Caucus PAC.

Register today!

New York Times bestselling author of nine books Dr. Thomas E. Woods, Jr. will be joining Republican Liberty Caucus supporters in New Hampshire on November 7. Woods holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and a master’s, M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Woods will do a fundraiser for the Republican Liberty of New Hampshire PAC and Caucus! Tickets will go on sale shortly, and will be $100. Says RLC Chair Jim Forsythe, “Although the price may be steep, meeting Dr. Woods in person, hearing him speak, and supporting our pro-liberty candidates in 2010 will be well worth it.”

Dr. Woods’ most recent book, Meltdown, does an outstanding job describing why the economy collapsed, and the Federal Reserve’s role in the collapse. He also recently testified in front of Congress in support of Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Fed. It’s an honor to get him here to speak with us, and we’re very much looking forward to the event.

If you are interested in sponsoring the event, please contact the New Hampshire RLC Chair. In the meantime, make sure to mark Nov 7th on your calendar!

As an aside, the New Hampshire RLC would like to bring students from the UNH College Republicans to the event. The students they are in touch with are energetic and enthusiastic and put a lot of work into New Hampshire campaigns. They deserve to hear the message of individual liberty, free-markets, small government, sound money, and non-interventionist foreign policy.

Of course, college kids are mostly broke, so they need your help. Please consider making a $25 donation to cover the cost of a UNH College Republican coming to our event. Or donate $100 to cover the cost of four. A donation link page for this event is not yet up and will be up shortly, but please contact Jim Forsythe if you can assist with a contribution.

And remember to mark November 7 on your calendar.

On Friday night, members of the Republican Liberty Caucus in New Hampshire converged in Concord to set the tone for the upcoming election cycle. In attendance were three State Representatives (Will Smith, Jenn Coffey, and Paul Ingbretson) as well as numerous former candidates for public office in the Granite State.

After a discussion about the history of the RLC from Tim Condon and Dan McGuire, Dr. Jim Forsythe discussed his newly formed New Hampshire Republican Liberty PAC. The PAC is designed to get pro-liberty candidates elected in the state and raised over $30,000 in the last election cycle, dividing that money to over 50 endorsed candidates. The desire is to continue to use the PAC and incorporate it into the RLCNH.

The New Hampshire RLC elected its new officers, including Jim Forsythe (Chair), Tim Condon (Vice-Chair), Carolyn McKinney (Secretary), and Bob Hull (Treasurer); At-Large Board members elected included State Rep. Paul Ingbretson, former State Rep. Paul Mirski, Chris Lawless, Joe Frazier, and Dan McGuire. Alternate Directors elected were Peter Bearse, State Rep. Jenn Coffey, and Brink Slattery.

Jim Forsythe is the perfect leader who can move the RLC forward in New Hampshire.  Jim and his wife currently lives in Strafford, NH, where he chairs the Strafford town GOP, the Strafford Taxpayer’s Coalition and was the Cub Master of the town’s Cub Scout pack. The Forsythes homeschool their kids and have been active in school choice reform in several states.

Dr. Forsythe earned undergraduate and Masters degrees from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Wichita State University.  As a KC-135 pilot and aircraft commander in the U.S. Air Force, Jim received three aerial achievement medals for combat support operations during his three tours in Saudi Arabia enforcing the no fly zone over Iraq, two tours in France and Italy in support of Bosnia, and launching off alerts for Somalia.  Finally, Jim is also a college professor while also running his own business.

After the election, Jim Forsythe and Tim Condon made brief statements on their desires to have the RLCNH focus on bringing in new libertarian-leaning Republicans into the GOP, and to get pro-liberty folks elected to the State House.

Look for good things to come from the New Hampshire RLC.

Jim Forsythe, RLC New Hampshire Chair.

According to the AP, the New Hampshire State House on Thursday voted narrowly to make that state the third that would allow gay couples to marry.

The bill, HB 436, which passed the House 186-179, next goes to the Senate, where its future is uncertain. Governor John Lynch (D) claims to oppose gay marriage but has not said specifically that he would veto it. Two years ago, the Legislature approved, and Lynch signed, civil unions for gays, which provide all the rights of marriage, except in name.

Currently, only Connecticut and Massachusetts allow gay couples to marry. The Vermont Senate sent a gay marriage bill to the House this week, but Gov. Jim Douglas (R) says he will veto it if it reaches his desk.

Rep. Melanie Levesque (D-Brookline), who is black and married to a white man, said her marriage was still a crime in Virginia in the mid-1960s. “We have had a long history of challenging conventional wisdom — the Earth is flat, people from different continents should not marry, people who are the same should not marry,” she said.

Never one to be shy, longtime RLC ally Steve Vaillancourt (pictured, right) defended his vote in favor of gay marriage in an e-mail to me (posting permission granted):

“As happy as I was over the victory of gay marriage yesterday, I was deeply saddened that only 13 Republicans were on board for the first vote and then only 12 for the second vote (and only five for the vital bill of granting equal rights to transgendered folks). I am ashamed of the Republican Party; I am especially ashamed of Republicans who claim to be libertarians who could not bring themselves to vote for this bill.“

“I am disgusted by Chairman Sununu’s attempt to brand New Hampshire as San Francisco. As wrong as he is morally, he is equally as wrong politically. These scare tactics will not merely fair, but they will backfire. He is leading the party to permanent minority status. Republicans are losing the moral authority on spending and less government issues by insisting on staking out the immoral ground on social issues from marriage to — dare I say it — the humane issue of medical marijuana.”

“We must end all discrimination, and we must do it now. There’s never been a better time.”

In addition to the correct vote cast by Vaillancourt, RLC-endorsed State Rep. Calvin Pratt also was one of the thirteen courageous Republicans with a backbone.  RLC-endorsed Rep. Jenn Coffey was not able to vote on the measure because she was at work.  (New Hampshire does not have a full-time legislature.)

Even past RLC allies were wrong on this bill: for example, State Republican Party Chairman John H. Sununu criticized the House vote as an “attempt by the liberal Democrats in the Legislature to impose their San Francisco agenda on the state of New Hampshire.” Additionally, State Rep. Nancy Elliott of Merrimack said marriage was instituted by God and that “marriage between a man and a woman is perfect and holy.” Perhaps so, but the government has no reputation of sanctioning that which is holy or perfect, nor is that the role of government.

As controversial as this post may be, it is important that it be made. Please note that I am writing to express my own view on the issue of gay marriage (which is not necessarily representative of other opinions within the RLC).

Personally, I hope the bill passes the Senate and is signed by the Governor.  Thanks to Reps. Vaillancourt and Pratt for representing the correct libertarian perspective on the issue — EQUAL RIGHTS!

Efforts in more than half of the state legislatures to assert state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution and prevent unwanted impositions by the federal government are now facing serious partisan opposition.

Most of the bills have been introduced and are supported by Republican legislators and Democrats are doing everything they can to block them and make sure that their states comply with federal mandates issued by a national Congress dominated by their party. They seem more concerned with profiting from their control of the federal government than in protecting the rights of their citizens and being fiscally responsible.

In the last week, three states with Democrat dominated legislatures have rejected state sovereignty resolutions. The Arkansas state sovereignty resolution was defeated in Committee along straight partisan lines with a 10-8 vote. In Washington, the Democratic chairman of the committee on Government and Tribal Affairs killed the bill by refusing to put it on the agenda. In New Hamphire, Representative Dan Itse’s radically-worded sovereignty resolution was one of the first entered and one of the most widely supported. Yet last week, with hundreds protesting in the snow and freezing temperatures outside the New Hampshire State House, it was defeated in a 216-150 vote along party lines. The enthusiasm of the citizens of New Hampshire (shown in the video at right) for their Constitutional rights was not enough to wake up Democratic legislators and convince them to vote against unfunded mandates and federal attacks on citizen rights.

In addition to these three states (where sovereignty has been blocked), two states (Ohio, Florida) are long shots for passage of sovereignty because they are trying to do it through petitioning their state legislatures. That still leaves 23 states with resolutions in some stage of development or consideration. Of those states, 12 have at least one house of their state legislatures dominated by Democrats, including Oklahoma — which has been one of the leaders in the movement. The current trend suggests that none of these states will be able to pass a sovereignty resolution until the composition of their legislatures changes, though there might be a slim hope for Oklahoma and Louisiana, where some of the Democrats are more conservative, and in Kentucky, where the bill has bipartisan support.

That means we’re down to 12 states with a reasonable chance of affirming state sovereignty this legislative session. They include Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming. Of these, South Carolina, and Texas are the farthest along towards passage and Virginia is probably on the fence, based on the past history of Republicans in its legislature.

It has become clear that there is a coordinated Democrat campaign to oppose the sovereignty movement on a nationwide basis in the state legislatures. Although sovereignty remains on the agenda in more than 20 states, with partisan opposition passage in more than a dozen states is very unlikely. If that many states do pass sovereignty measures it will be mostly symbolic, because with barely a quarter of the states on board, it isn’t a big enough accomplishment to send a message which the federal government cannot ignore.

With the economic crisis worsening, federal spending out of control, and the Obama Administration targeting gun rights and raising taxes, popular opposition to overreaching government is growing stronger and stronger. Sadly, the power of the ascendant Democrats both at the national level and in so many state legislatures is too great to challenge effectively through legislating state sovereignty or with a few governors taking a stand against excessive spending. It is becoming increasingly clear that if we are to restore government which serves the best interests of citizens and protects their rights, the people will have to demand change from the grassroots on a nationwide basis with a movement so strong that it cannot be ignored or suppressed by the dominant political establishment in the states or in DC.

It is time to put an end to the politics of partisan greed and the ongoing erosion of our rights by whatever means are necessary. If that cannot be accomplished on the grounds of state sovereignty and by state governments it must be done by individuals in the streets of the nation, in the corridors of power, and at the gates of the enemy. As the economic crisis intensifies and the enemies of liberty use it as a pretext to expand their power, we can’t afford to sit on the sidelines and hope for the best any longer.