Activists Robert Hornak, Daniel Peterson, and Raquel Okyay organized a New York City meeting of the Republican Liberty Caucus Tuesday night in Manhattan. The turnout was excellent, with around 45 activists in attendance — many of whom became members of the RLC for the first time.

Notable guests included New York City Council member (and RLC member) Dan Halloran, Co-Chair of the Kings County GOP David Storobin, former Libertarian Party leader Gary Greenberg, Ron Paul NYC Meetup organizer Bill Buran, Assembly candidate William Gouldman, former Peekskill City Council member Bill Schmidt, New York RLC Officers/Board members, and several other organizers of local GOP groups.

The goal of the event was to charter a New York City chapter of the RLC. A New York state chapter already exists. Guests were asked to join the RLC and were treated to free food and great company.

Thanks to the organizers of the event for making it a success. Below are some photos from the event.

New York RLC Chairman/City Councilman Dan Halloran.

David Storobin, Alice Lemos, and Harry Lewis.

Daniel Peterson, Raquel Okyay, and Robert Hornak.

Republican Liberty Caucus chapters in at least nine states will be holding meetings in the coming month. They include:

Alabama: The Alabama RLC affiliate will hold a meeting in the coming weeks. Please contact Stephen Gordon for details.

Arizona: The Arizona RLC affiliate will hold a meeting in the coming weeks. Please contact Ken Rineer for details.

District of Columbia: DC Republican City Council candidates Jim DeMartino (Ward 6) and Tim Day (Ward (5) will present and answer questions at the RLC-DC meeting on Monday, August 30, along with Ward 1 School Board candidate Patrick Mara. The event will take place in the Community Room K at City Vista Condominiums (12th Floor), 475 K Street NW, equidistant from Gallery Place/Chinatown and Mount Vernon Square/Convention Center metros at 7pm. RSVP on Facebook.

Florida: The Florida RLC will have an outreach table, make a short presentation about the RLC and hold an informal RLC update and discussion get-together in conjunction with the Campaign for Liberty’s Summit at the Rosen Centre in Orlando. The informal RLC statewide meeting will be held at 12:30-1:30 pm on Saturday, August 12 at the RLC outreach booth at the Summit. Also, RLCers and friends who are not attending the Saturday night banquet are welcome to join us for dinner offsite, but nearby! Pick up the details at the RLC booth. See you there!

Indiana: The state RLC affiliate will hold its Convention at George’s Neighborhood Grill (6935 Lake Plaza Dr) in Indianapolis on Saturday, September 25. The keynote speaker will be Attorney General Greg Zoeller. RSVP on Facebook.

Maine: The Maine RLC will host its first annual Calvin Coolidge Clambake with John Fund of The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, August 26 in Portland. Learn more at http://www.rlc.org/2010/08/08/maine-rlc-hosts-clambake/.

New York: The RLC will host a kickoff meeting on Tuesday, August 17 at 7pm at the HOUNDSTOOTH PUB (520 8TH AVE – W37 St) in Manhattan. There will be a cash bar and free food. RSVP on Facebook.

Virginia: The Northern Virginia RLC will host a happy hour in Arlington in late August. Contact Mitchell Bemos for details. The Central Virginia RLC will host a meeting on Thursday, August 19 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at Isis, Inc. (2727 Enterprise Pkwy, Suite 100) in Richmond, VA. This is the first meeting of the RLCCV following elections of chapter officers. RLCCV will discuss our goals with the RLC and welcome new members and all who are interested in becoming members of the RLCCV. Please RSVP by Thursday, 8/19 at 1pm. RSVP on Facebook.

Utah: An immigration debate hosted by the Utah RLC chapter will occur and will feature key policy leaders in the state. Exact date/location TBA. Contact Julian Babbitt for details.

PO Box 130
West Shokan, NY 12494

June 12, 2010

Lazio 2010, Inc.
P.O. Box 4818
New York, NY 10185

Dear Mr. Lazio:

I am writing as a registered Republican and a member of my Town’s Republican Committee.

Your opponent, Carl Paladino, has publicly stated that during your tenure as a full-time employee and lobbyist for JP Morgan Chase you lobbied for and arranged a payment of $25 billion from the US Treasury to your employer. In other words, Mr. Paldino has publicly alleged that you participated in the “bailout.”  In return you received a $1.3 million bonus.

If Mr. Paldino’s allegations are inaccurate, please respond to this inquiry publicly.

If Mr. Paladino’s allegations are accurate you are morally unfit to serve in public office.  I am posting this letter on my blog and stating explicitly that if Mr. Paladino’s allegations are accurate you are morally equivalent to a common criminal and belong in jail.  Consequently, I would urge you to step down from the gubernatorial candidacy and allow the better man to run.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of New York recently discussed whether to support Republican Otis Jennings for Mayor of Syracuse. The Democrat who will oppose him is anti-libertarian. Mr. Jennings voices an interest in budget cutting but is also in favor of education spending. Of the two, Jennings is less likely to increase taxes, but the odds are not enough to make libertarians enthusiastic. In other words, he is probably the lesser of two evils.

One response to this scenario, which is actually preferable to much of what occurs in the socialist Empire State where left-wing Republicans compete with Democrats who are less so, is to sit out the election or vote for an ideologically pure third party candidate. The problem with that strategy is that probably no more than two percent of the population of a rust belt city like Syracuse agree with libertarianism.  Therefore, you get to feel good about your choice but have no chance of influencing policy. That is the easy route because you do not need to work hard to influence candidates and incumbents. Rather, you get to have a clear conscience and enjoy a life of leisure because no one pays attention to you.

The harder way is to sully your conscience and support an ideologically impure candidate who is closer to your views by some degree, whether its 10 or 20 percent.  Then, work hard to influence that candidate, whether it be through campaigning and voicing your views; contributing and lobbying, or getting onto your county committee and voicing your views there. That way is hard work; stressful; and makes it more difficult to have a clear conscience.

The left has been successful because it has been willing to do the work. Libertarians need to re-think the path of ideological purity.

Mitchell Langbert can be visited at http://www.mitchell-langbert.blogspot.com.

With its multi-trillion dollar subsidy to the financial community,  the Democratic Party has become the party of the super-rich.  The Democrats complained (and rightly so)  for eight Bush years about subsidies to Halliburton, but from the moment that they took control a year ago  their chief achievement has been  to hand massive amounts of public money to Wall Street.

The magnitude of their subsidy is greater than any previous subsidy to wealthy interests in American history. Rockefeller and his bribes for oil rights of way; Jay Gould and the railroads; the S&L bailout of the late 1980s; Halliburton in Iraq,  all were small change compared to the Democrats’ subsidization of the banking industry and Wall Street.

The multi-trillion dollar transfer to Wall and Broad was facilitated by the Democratic media’s bamboozling the public with a single word: “Depression!” But it’s not so clear that people will continue to believe them as they did in the 1930s.  A small amount of public education will go a long way.

Households are faced with increasing property taxes and other costs, but are being told that there’s deflation.  Their wages have not grown, but government spending and taxes are rising, and they can see that something’s out of whack.  Moreover,  the Democrats have gotten sloppy and there is now increasing transparency.  The old lies about cost-push inflation and how complicated it all is have been brushed aside.  Their lies have become sillier and more difficult to defend.

This would seem to open up considerable opportunity for Liberty Republicans. But there is a difficult obstacle:  the Republican Party is still dominated by the Roosevelt-Rockefeller-Bush Progressives, and they are not going away.

New York’s Ulster County Republican Committee, to which I belong, hosted a dinner this past Thursday that featured a speech by Rudy Giuliani.  In his speech, Mr. Giuliani made clear that he supported the bailout. His claim that he is in favor of less spending and lower taxes sounds tired and unconvincing after he served for eight years in New York City.  During his term the massive waste in City Hall was not in the least remedied.  Now he speaks in favor of the bailout.  He seems irrelevant.

Moreover, I chatted with my State Senator, John J. Bonacic (R-NY), and he said that he supports George Pataki for US Senator.   George Pataki? Mr. Tax-and-Spend who ended up kowtowing to Dennis Rivera, the head of the hospital workers’ union?  Bonacic’s a great guy, but come on!

There is a big opportunity for the RLC. The Progressive Republican leadership is bereft of ideas.  They are tired. They are irrelevant. The public is ready to explode over the Democrats, the party of greed. They see themselves getting poorer. They know they’re being lied to.

The Liberty Republicans have innovative solutions. But we are faced with a critical strategic question: how do we overcome the GOP Progressives? It will require very fancy footwork in places like New York, where the Republicans are to the left of the Democrats.   The next two years are the years to do it. We must out-maneuver McCain and come up with viable candidates.  The opportunity is too big to miss.

Eric Dondero at Liberty Republican Reports:

Halloran already seen as a “Top US Politician.”

Dan Halloran, former Chairman of the New York Republican Liberty Caucus, and a longtime member of the Libertarian Party, won election to the New York City Council, representing an upper Queens district last November. Halloran was elected on both the Republican Party and Libertarian Party lines. He currently serves as the highest elected Libertarian Party member in the Nation.

Since being on the Council, he’s been a lightening rod for tax relief and loosening of regulations on small business. Now, he’s taking his hardline free market message international.

From the Sofia News Agency April 17 “Top US Politicians Vow Support for Bulgarian Conservatives”:

The conservatives, led by party leader, Yane Yanev and party members, Atanas Semov and Zhivko Temelkov were met in New York by Dan Halloran, who is a Republican, Libertarian, Independence and Conservative member of the New York City City Council.

Holloran greeted the Bulgarian delegation with: “The Republican Party stands by you, by RZS and Yane Yanev. You can count on us any time!”

The meeting brought a conclusion to a series of intense discussions with high-ranking American politicians, including former US Defense Minister, Donald Rumsfeld.

During the conversation with Halloran, the parties have exchanged ideas about the need t change Bulgaria’s Constitution in order to provide citizens with more opportunities to control State and local power structures. Yanev had appraised the US Republicans with his party’s effort to call a national referendum for a new Constitution, a move strongly acclaimed by Holloran.

Dan Holloran had further accepted to visit Sofia in the summer and share his experience in constitutional law, municipal management, and campaign organization. The Republican leader has agreed to lead a training course for the RZS candidates for the local elections in 2011, and invited Yanev to send young leaders to New York for education and training that would be financed by the Republican Party and the City Council. Other high-ranking Republicans have further stated their readiness to serve as moderators along with their teams for the RZS election campaign.

Note – besides Halloran, Libertarians also serve on the City Councils in Indianapolis, Springfield, MO, Cedar Rapids, IA, and numerous other towns and cities nationwide, most especially California, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania.

The New York Republican Liberty Caucus has been ecstatic over the victory of our state chair, Dan Halloran, in his New York City (Queens) City Council bid. This may make Halloran the highest-ranked Libertarian Party elected official (he ran on the Libertarian -LP-  as well as the Republican, Independence and Conservative tickets).

A message for liberty Republicans is that they need to find imaginative hot button issues that respond to the voters. Once in office, then cut programs, waste and corruption.  As an issue,  government cutting appeals to a segment of the population. But this concern needs to be coupled with other, imaginative ones.

Via e-mail, I interviewed a member of  Dan Halloran’s campaign team, Phil Orenstein of Queens, New York, as to the strategies that Dan used in his campaign.  Phil’s remarks suggest that  Halloran won by marketing himself to the Queens voters.  His ability to win emanated not only from his libertarian ideology but also from his understanding of his constituents.

Halloran is a genuine libertarian who won by articulating a message that appealed to Democratic Party voters.  In this he contrasts with the passing generation of Republicans such as Newt Gingrich, George Pataki and George W. Bush, who are Progressives at heart.  The 1988-2008 Republican generation pandered to conservatives during elections but expanded government when elected. Halloran is a libertarian who appealed to Queens voters and so overrode the anti-libertarian New York City media.

Halloran emphasized traditional achievements and traits such as life-long residence in the community (in contrast to his opponent, New York Times-supported Kevin Kim, who had moved to the neighborhood less than a year earlier).  The aggressive support of a popular New York State Senator, Frank Padavan, also helped.

As well, Halloran emphasized cultural and value issues such as immigration that are non-libertarian and perhaps anti-libertarian.  In a democracy, the voters need to be anticipated.  A libertarian who wins by catering to social or cultural issues can still implement libertarian solutions in many areas.  It is a hard balance between morality and moral flexibility, but that is the nature of democracy.  A hard morality with respect to political packaging is not going to be consistent with libertarian victory in a city like New York, where the citizens are subjected to 12 years of ideologically statist indoctrination in the public schools.

In the end, pressing the flesh, endorsements from well-respected sources, and understanding voters’ key concerns were the tactics that won the race.  Orenstein and his colleagues used imaginative Alinsky-like tactics such as storming the opponent’s political rally.   Education of voters alone, the worn tactic of the LP,  will rarely if ever be a winning strategy in a democracy.

Langbert (L): How did you package yourself to be attractive to the voters in the district?

Orenstein: (O): Dan’s campaign stressed his 4 party line endorsements from the Independence, Conservative, Republican and Libertarian Parties and touted the local Fire Marshal’s and Police Sergeant’s endorsements. He highlighted his life long residence in the community in contrast with his opponent Kevin Kim an interloper who just moved into the District last Feb in order to grab a council seat. Dan’s family has been active in district 19 in civic affairs and politics for over 100 years. Also Padavan’s appeal to all voters including Dems played a big part in marketing Dan. Padavan was out 24/7 campaigning for Dan and we always said “endorsed by Sen. Padavan” to prospective voters. Padavan offered his generous coattails which played a big part in the campaign.

L: Were there one or two “hot button” issues?  Were voters frustrated with the candidates or did you create an issue or two?

O: Yes. The big issue was overdevelopment and the increasing loss of American values and culture in the community. Simply put there was frustration with the mass influx of Korean immigrants who fail to Americanize. Korean store signs, Korean language only churches and private schools are proliferating, thus balkanizing the neighborhood. A once bucolic American neighborhood is now being festooned with signs all over in Korean. English is soon to become a forgotten language.  We ran with this issue…and heard the voters’ frustration and buoyed their confidence that Dan will be their Councilman to fight against overdevelopment, and fight to restore American language and values, and “take back” their communities. Of course the Kim campaign, backed up by the media and local politicians, shot back and condemned this approach as racist. Some people bought this line, but much fewer than the long time residents who are dismayed with the changing landscape. Many of these same people were also frustrated with the direction of our country under the Obama admin and especially with ObamaCare. We expressed the need to awaken the voters to take this election very seriously, get out the  vote & take our country back starting with our city government and then go on to Congress in 2010.

L: What was the role of pressing the flesh, meeting voters individually?

O: This was the most important aspect of the campaign IMO. The biggest hurdle to overcome was voter apathy. City Council races notoriously bring out few voters and few were excited with the NYC mayoral race to boot. Anthony Carollo, myself and a few Tea Party folks organized weekly supermarket leafleting campaigns where we met the voters face to face, distributed Dan’s literature and talked to the voters about the issues. This was the hardest, but most necessary grunt work which we did for 2 months of Saturdays and Sundays nonstop. The voters were apathetic and didn’t want to be bothered for the most part, but we kept up the drum beat, and even chanted loud cheers “Dan’s our Man!” at the shopping malls and I believe turned the voter apathy around into excitement and in the end the turnout was good, better than most other districts, I believe. Our passion and excitement for Dan’s candidacy rubbed off on the voters and spread to others as word got out. Senator Padavan and other supporters were constantly campaigning at train stations in the AM and PM. The contrast between the paid campaign workers and Dan’s volunteers was quite noticeable. The climax of the campaign was the last Sunday, Nov 1, when 2 dozen of us crashed the Senator Chuck Schumer rally to endorse Kim at Bay Terrace Shopping Mall. They didn’t know what hit them as we fired back in answer to their religious bigotry, lies and dirty campaign tactics. Even some Kim supporters at the rally told me they wish they had more time to properly vet the candidates and one guy asked me serious questions about what Dan stands for.

L:  Were there specific environmental dynamics (voter frustration with the economy, Obama, etc.) which you believe contributed to your victory?

O: Yes. Many prospective voters who were frustrated with the economy and Obama, became supportive and excited with Dan’s candidacy when we enlightened them as to where Dan stands on the issues: cutting taxes, reduce dependency on governmentt, fight to cut the size of government by 50% by cutting overlapping agencies, fight against fraud and abuse in City Hall, fight for individual liberty, be a dissenting voice on the council, support police and firefighters first, etc.

L: What was the role of building a good campaign support staff?

O: Daryl, Giulliani’s former NY campaign manager, was Dan’s campaign manager. Queens GOP Party leaders were all on the scene. It was disorganized at first with more chiefs than Indians, and no real organized plans. But things got organized, calling lists, speaking engagements, press conferences, etc. were organized and campaign volunteers flowed in steadily and were immediately utilized.

L: Did the New York City media play a role pro or con?

Con. They attacked Dan’s religion making it a political issue, exposing their own bigotry and hypocrisy as the so-called “champions of diversity” The Queens Tribune, the Daily News, Village Voice, New York Post all followed the herd in beating up on a minority whom they thought would take the beating in silence. But they all lost!

L:  What advice would you give to future libertarian candidates:

O: They should capitalize on the frustration with Obama and the state of the economy and the socialist direction our country is taking. They had better know their Constitution and Declaration of Independence backwards and forwards, otherwise the Tea Party crowd and many awakened citizens will have nothing to do with them. Dan knows his Constitution by memory!  Honesty counts, integrity counts, ethics is the key, and sticking to principle and never pandering for votes, is the winning strategy in these Obamanation times. People are looking for leaders of character and principle not sleazy lawyers and political hacks. Those days are over.

Mitchell Langbert can be visited at http://www.mitchell-langbert.blogspot.com.

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.

Republican Liberty Caucus of New York Chairman and National RLC Committeeman Dan Halloran was elected to the New York City Council yesterday — 53 percent to 47 percent over Democrat Kevin Kim.

Halloran ran a tremendous race and was incredibly focused on winning. Dan will represent District 19, the communities of Queens.

Congratulations, Dan!

Prominent right-wing blogger (and apparent closet Bircher) Eric Odom has decided to spend a lot of his time covering the controversial special election for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, in which liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava has received the backing of the GOP establishment, and her Conservative Party opponent Doug Hoffman has attracted the support of a lot of the more outspoken pundits on the right and a number of religiously extreme anti-liberty groups like Eagle Forum.

In his latest article Odom makes the peculiar observation:

The race represents a clear message being sent to the RNC. And the message is simple… the liberty movement is not going to tolerate liberal Republicans anymore.

Now, I’m not sure who appointed Odom the spokesman for the liberty movement, but he seems to have forgotten that an essential component of that movement is, oddly enough, support for liberty. In all its forms. Not just the economic liberty of lower taxes, but also the other liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and granted to all people under natural law; liberties like freedom of association, of religion, of speech and of privacy.

I don’t know all that much about Doug Hoffman’s politics. He manages to avoid mentioning most of the tough issues on his website. But I can guess what some of them are by his list of endorsements, which includes a number of groups which can only be considered strongly anti-liberty and even among the greatest enemies of liberty on the political right.

Eagle Forum is certainly the worst of the lot. This group of bigoted biddies is headed up by Phyllis Schlafly. They are in favor of war, torture, abstinence and creationism. They are strongly anti-gay, not only opposing gay marriage, but also actively homophobic and supportive of gay reeducation programs. They’re also against gambling, divorce, pornography, immigration, birth-control, marijuana and vaccines. In my opinion no candidate endorsed by Eagle Forum could ever be considered a “liberty” candidate. Eagle Forum would basically like to turn the country into a totalitarian theocracy. Any candidate who loves liberty should publicly reject their endorsement.

Some of the other groups endorsing Hoffman are nearly as bad: GING-PAC is an extreme religious right group which promotes “family values” and “biblical government” which seems pretty ominous. The National Organization for Marriage is an anti-gay group claiming to be “the preeminent organization dedicated to preventing the legalization of same-sex marriage,” which makes them strongly anti-liberty. Many of the other groups endorsing him are pro-life groups; in itself not a problem, but many of them also promote a religious agenda which includes opposition to gay rights and birth control, and even support for school prayer.

Now, I’m by no means a fan of Dede Scozzafava, but she does at least have a reasonable record on many issues of individual liberty. She’s too supportive of unions and too tied into the New York leftist establishment, but she is relatively fiscally conservative, in favor of gun rights and for cutting taxes. I would never pick Scozzafava as a candidate or encourage a group I was part of to endorse her. But that said, she’s still less anti-liberty than Hoffman is. If his endorsements represent his views, Hoffman is actively opposed to a great many of our basic liberties, while Scozzafava is just another opportunistic moderate-to-liberal Republican who will vote with other Republicans more often than most Democrats will, and certainly more than any Democrat far enough to the left to get elected in her district.

There are some Republicans who claim to be part of or even speak for the “liberty movement” within the party who are not really part of it. They’re just religious fanatics and single-issue social conservatives who pay lip service to the idea of smaller government and want to cash in on the momentum they see growing. Their dirty secret is that they oppose Scozzafava not because of her level of commitment to liberty, but because she’s pro-choice and pro-gay. Nothing else matters to them. They are one of the groups which got us in the mess the GOP is in today, as bad as the neocons and big-business Republicans. They’re statists on too many issues and that makes them enemies of liberty.   They must not be allowed to hijack the liberty movement and drive the party in the wrong direction.

The truth is that liberal Republicans still have more in common with the liberty movement than Democrats or even most socially conservative Republicans, and while that doesn’t mean you should support an uninspiring candidate like Scozzafava, don’t let anyone get away with a big lie like claiming that a candidate like Doug Hoffman, who is endorsed and funded by Eagle Forum and other groups of bigots, extremists and theocrats, is in any way a candidate who supports liberty.

Hoffman may be a conservative, but he’s not a liberty conservative. He’s just another statist who wants to use the power of government to dictate how people live.  He’s not that different from Scozzafava, he’s just bad in different ways.  Don’t waste your time and effort on this pointless contest between two bad choices.  Spend your money and enthusiasm to support the many Republican candidates in other campaigns who are authentic advocates for individual liberty, free enterprise and limited government.