The Republican Liberty Caucus endorsed fourteen candidates in yesterday’s Texas primary.

One positive note is that Debra Medina, RLC-endorsed candidate for Governor, received nearly 300,000 votes — which would have been something totally unmanageable just a few months back. Congratulations to RLC member Penny Langford Freeman for running Debra’s campaign and to Debra for being an attractive spokesperson for limited government.

Other than Congressman Ron Paul, who won his primary easily with nearly 80% of the vote against three opponents, none of our other Congressional challengers were successful.

Rick Green, who was not endorsed by the RLC but has constitutionalist leanings, won a six-way statewide GOP primary to become the Supreme Court Justice in Place 3.

RLC-endorsed candidates for Board of Education won their primaries, with Ken Mercer defeating one opponent and Brian Russell defeating two opponents.

None of the RLC’s endorsed candidates for State Representative were victorious, but Holly Turner is in a runoff for her State Representative seat in District 47.

Also, RLC Chair Melissa Goodwin won her primary to be Court of Appeals Judge in District 3. Goodwin was previously a Judge, but had lost her seat in the 2008 election.

Travis County RLC Chairman Mike Barré won his race for Travis County Justice of the Peace. And Texas RLC Webmaster Grant Rostig won the Republican primary to become the Commissioner of Caldwell County.

All said, fairly good results! Congrats, Texans!

In the 19th century there were ongoing debates about the degree to which government should be involved with money. It was not until the 1930s, more than 150 years after the nation was founded, that government asserted a full monopoly on money by illegalizing the ownership of gold.

By February 1912, about 98 years ago, Senator Bob La Follette, a small business-oriented Progressive and presidential candidate that year, made a speech in which he noted that Wall Street had come to so dominate the media that even recently founded magazines were no longer independent. The next day the New York Times ran an article stating that La Follette had suffered a nervous breakdown, effectively ending his candidacy for president. He continued on as a Senator until the 1920s.

Since then the media has avoided discussion of Wall Street and the Fed. Some, like Glenn Beck, claim ignorance. Others simply kowtow to special interests across the board. Still other media outlets, the majority, do not know what news is, so cannot be expected to discuss a subject like the Fed. Still others are consciously linked to the interests of Wall Street. In any case, Beck is to be commended for being the first to speak on this issue. But is that really a good thing?

Glenda McGee just wrote me this e-mail:

“Glenn Beck and Sarah Palan had me and a few million others THRILLED for many months. The minute the TEA PARTY showed promise in Arizona and Texas they led the movement over the cliff.”

Beck needs to do a better job if he is to remain convincing as a voice for advocates of small government. To do so, he could try a few things:

1. Read a few books on money and banking, including Murray Rothbard’s What Has Government Done to Our Money and Hans Sennholz’s Money and Freedom. He might also read some Hayek and learn about the concept of free market money, an institution that existed here in the US for most of its history.

2. He could be playing an educational role. In the videos I’ve seen of him he claims ignorance. If he wants to be a leader, he should take the time to learn the issues. It’s fine to complain about the Fed’s ownership structure, but that doesn’t lead to any policy prescription.

3. He needs to learn basic history. Money has been a traditionally central argument in American politics until the past 80 years. The bad guys won and have been controlling the debate ever since.

4. Thus Beck could teach his viewers about: (a) the basic policy options, including competing, free market monetary systems and metallic-backed currencies and (b) the historical process by which centralized monetary control was rejected, re-adopted because it facilitates war (specifically the War of 1812), rejected again by Andrew Jackson, reinstated again in small part by the Republicans in order to finance the Civil War, rejected again during the Gilded Age , rejected by the public in the election of 1896, and then adopted by subterfuge in 1913 and re-enforced through fear tactics in 1932.

Shedding crocodile tears about the Fed’s ownership structure is a good way to seem like you oppose something that your boss at Fox really favors.

Let’s hope for a better performance from the undoubtedly theatrical but so far unconvincing Mr. Beck.

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.

Students for Liberty has taken on the amazing task of organizing seven regional conferences this fall. The conferences bring different types of liberty-loving students together to hear from prominent speakers — many of whom are affiliated with the Republican Liberty Caucus.

This year’s regional conferences have occurred, thus far, in New York, Chicago, Phoenix/Tempe, and Austin. The RLC conducted outreach at three of the four seminars and had official speakers at two out of the four seminars.

I previously reported on the outreach at the first conference, which occurred on October 10. Two RLC supporters helped us table at that event, and two RLC representatives spoke. The most notable of the speakers was former National Board member Dr. Murray Sabrin, who was a contender for U.S. Senate in 2008. Additionally, RLC Northeast Regional Director Dan Halloran addressed the crowd. Dan is running an impressive campaign for New York City Council in a district that trends more conservative than most in the city.

Above: Students at the Chicago Conference weigh the issues.

On October 17 in Chicago, students heard from two RLC representatives: former Michigan State Representative Leon Drolet and former Wisconsin State Representative Terri McCormick (photos below).

Leon participated in a debate with Isaac Moorehouse about how liberty-oriented people can achieve our goals.  Leon argued for the RLC strategy.  Terri McCormick gave a presentation about the political elite versus the grassroots, arguing that now is the time we take our country back for liberty.

On October 24, RLC members conducted outreach at two Students for Liberty Conferences: the Texas SFL conference in Austin and the Southern SFL conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Rising young star and RLC supporter Jared Fuller organized the Winston-Salem conference, and North Carolina RLC members Gloria Lloyd and Dana Mazer tabled for the Republican Liberty Caucus at the conference.  Former Congressional candidate and North Carolina RLC Board member B.J. Lawson was among the featured speakers.  Dr. Lawson gave a speech called “The Economy, Monty Python, and You”:

Meanwhile, RLC National Chair Dave Nalle and Bexar County (Texas) RLC Membership Chair Nadia Gaona reached out at the Texas SFL conference.

Dave observed a general trend that we continue to see to in our small-but-growing movement, noting that “the long-time libertarian activists [in the] audience were eager to stand up and talk proudly about their token political campaigns where they spent no money but got their name mentioned in the local newspaper when they won 3% of the vote.”

Says Dave, “It’s heartening to see the growth of interest in liberty and bringing our government under control, but it’s enormously frustrating to see so much of this enthusiasm misdirected into the political dead end and do-nothingism which still characterizes the Libertarian Party. The truth is that the pissed-off non-intellectuals of the Tea Party movement who come to libertarianism out of expediency rather than intellect have already accomplished more real political change in a year than the Libertarian Party has accomplished in more than 30 years.”

All complaints aside, these events have proven tremendously beneficial to the movement and the RLC has been able to capitalize on the opportunity to reach new young people with our strategy for victory.

The next RLC outreach booths at Students for Liberty Conferences will occur on November 7, when members will conduct outreach at the Philadelphia and Boston Students for Liberty Conferences.  Prospective RLC endorsee, 2010 U.S. Senate candidate from Connecticut Peter Schiff will be speaking at the Boston conference.  Schiff has previously explained the RLC strategy in a poignant way.

We look forward to reaching additional students at these conferences and thank the Students for Liberty for continuing to host these tremendous regional events. Thanks, too, to all of the RLC representatives and volunteers who have helped us at the conferences.

Above: Former Michigan State Representative Leon Drolet makes his points in a debate on strategies to attain liberty in our lifetime.

With a stroke of his pen, Texas Governor Rick Perry may soon give Child Protective Services a new power: the ability to pick up your kids without your consent.

So the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas, along with the Texas Home School Foundation and the Free Market Foundation, are waging war against SB 1440. The bill features a last-minute amendment tacked on by Democratic Rep. Patrick Rose that gives Child Protect Services the power to transport a child for purposes of an investigation without a hearing or parental consent. Instead, the agency needs only an affidavit that says there’s a “fair probability” of abuse.

If the bill became law, a judge would be able to grant Child Protect Services a court order similar to a criminal search warrant, allowing a CPS worker to immediately enter the home and, if necessary, remove the child and secure medical and mental-health records as part of an investigation. It could be done without notifying the parent in advance.

In the below video, Texas RLC member Pierre DeRochemont speaks at a June 10 Houston rally in opposition to the bill.

A feisty 72-year-old great- grandmother was tasered after a police officer pulled her over for speeding.

Video released by a Travis County Constable’s Office shows Deputy Chris Bieze confronting 72-year-old Kathryn Winkfein after stopping her for speeding on May 11 just outside Austin.

At first, the great-grandmother did refuse to sign her speeding ticket, but she then agreed to do it. The deputy did not allow her to do so, instead pushing her and warning her that he would use the taser if she did not move in the direction he wanted her to move in.

Mrs. Winkfein was going 60 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone. Why couldn’t the deputy simply have given her to the paper to sign when she agreed to sign it? Alternatively, why couldn’t he have sent the ticket to her house like a standard bill?

At this blog, I have previously called for a taser ban. Tasers have become weapons of choice for law enforcement officers in essentially any situation they feel the need to use the taser. The arbitrary use of the taser would stop if tasers were banned entirely.

Below is the video of Kathryn Winkfein being tasered, in my view, unnecessarily:

Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas Urges Governor Perry to Veto SB 1440

Statewide caucus expresses alarm that a “last minute” amendment attempts to overturn legal precedents and constitutional rights

AUSTIN, TX – The Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas (RLC-TX) calls on Governor Rick Perry to veto SB-1440 as an abuse of administrative authority that dangerously erodes due process and constitutional rights accorded to our citizens and the family.

The last minute amendment to SB-1440 strips away due process and Fourth Amendment protections by granting Child Protective Services (CPS) the power to access the medical and mental health records of a child and to access and transport that child for interrogation and even strip searches without parental notification or a court hearing. CPS may obtain this order without establishing probable cause or even “for good cause shown” which is the present standard applied AFTER notice to the parents and the holding of a hearing before a Judge which includes the participation of parents. Current law already provides Child Protective Services (CPS) with powers for the emergency removal of a child in cases of obvious and provable abuse, which the RLC-TX supports.

“Due process is a key tenant of our nation’s constitutional governance. It is alarming to me that Texas legislators would even consider a law that grants powers of unreasonable search and seizure to state administrative authorities that include custodial intervention, physical examination and the interrogation of a child without probably cause simply to “build a case” when their investigative findings are not sufficient to follow the normal deliberative process,” L. Pierre de Rochemont said. “This lays the foundation for bringing “witch hunts” into the legal mainstream.”

The RLC-TX asks the Governor to consider recent rulings by the Texas Supreme Court and the 5th Court of Appeals that struck down a similar overreach of CPS authority in Gary W. Gates et al. v. Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services et. al.

“While no one wants to promulgate or permit child abuse, it is important that our society clearly recognize that unwarranted state intimidation is also traumatic to the family and a child’s wellbeing,” Mr. de Rochemont went on to say. “Backroom political wheelings and dealings in the dead of night never lead to sound or just law.”

The objectionable language contained in SB 1440 was originally filed by Senator Kirk Watson (Democrat-Austin, Travis County-part) as SB 1064, which did not make passage, and was later re-introduced as an amendment to SB 1440 by Representative Patrick Rose (Democrat-Dripping Springs for Blanco, Caldwell, and Hays Counties) at the very end of the legislative session. The dubious manner in which the amendment was introduced into an innocuous bill misrepresents legislative support that clearly did not advance its extreme provisions.

More information regarding the history of SB 1440 can be found at http://www.rightintexas.com/2009/06/giving-cps-blank-check.

Lisa Mallory and Anthony Reed each won their respective elections last week.

Lisa Mallory, Treasurer of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas, could not fool voters: they knew her to be the passionate leader that she is. Running for Leander Independent School District Board member, Lisa was able to trample her opponents. Leander ISD serves more than 25,000 students in the Austin area.

With 25 years of business experience and political training from the Leadership Institute, Lisa focused her campaign on improving the district’s test scores, lowering bond rates, and more oversight. Lisa proves what a highly capable, motivated citizen can accomplish at the local level — but the best is yet to come when Leander ISD has her on their school board.

RLC’er Anthony Reed, a 16-year resident of the Fort Worth suburb of Haltom (pop. 40,000), won election to the Haltom City Council. According to Reed, “Nothing is more important to me than the rights of all Haltom City citizens and businesses; and it is the respect, protection, and service of these rights from our government that has and will make Haltom City rise to the top — to become a beacon of liberty and community involvement for all of Texas to see.”

Look for good things to come from these liberty-loving Texas leaders.

Lisa Mallory, Treasurer of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas, was interviewed on the Liberty Cafe Show hosted by Nancy and Katie.

Lisa is running for Leander Independent School District Trustee, Place 1, which is a large school district in the Austin area.

At Lisa’s website, she explains that America “is suffering from a leadership deficit and a general decay in the moral standards necessary to maintain America’s status as leader amongst nations.”

Lisa already serves as Travis County Republican Party Pct. 379 Chair and Election Judge.

Listen to Lisa to learn about the value of running for School Board!  She’s also a very qualified, well-spoken candidate who is prepared to run for this office.

RLC member Phil Pepin of San Antonio, Texas was a guest speaker at the San Antonio Tea Party rally last Wednesday. Mr. Pepin added graphics and pictures of the incredible crowd at the San Antonio Tea Party to his speech, “The War On Economic Freedom.” His speech covers the damage caused by government regulation, corporatism, and the Federal Reserve.