On February 28th, 2010, a group of concerned citizens gathered at Brickell Place II to discuss the reformation of the Miami/.Dade Republican Liberty Caucus.

Largely a group of newbies to the RLC, the evening consisted mostly of an explanation of who the Republican Liberty Caucus is and its history in South Florida. Each of the attendees had a few minutes to introduce themselves and discuss briefly what brought them to the event. The general motivation was definitely frustration with the direction of the country and, even to some degree, the Republican Party.

The meeting, which lasted almost two hours, was led by Hector Roos and supported by Philip Blumel of the Palm Beach County RLC, included a lively discussion of issues and possible initiatives for the South Florida group. Longtime RLC member Jackie Lee Fernandez also attended.

With a directive to each person to bring at least two guests with them to the next meeting, the evening was adjourned.

The Miami RLC’ers are lucky to have several local candidates who are actively promoting the RLC agenda, including Marcus Rivchin running for State Representative in district 117.

To learn more about the Miami RLC, contact Hector.

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!

Yesterday, the Board of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia voiced its support of SB 66, a bill which prohibits different types of discrimination in public employment — including discrimination against same-sex attracted workers. The bill defines “sexual orientation” as a person’s actual or perceived heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, or gender identity or expression.

Several Virginia RLC members have been vocal on the issue, including David Lampo, who penned an op-ed in The Richmond-Times Dispatch, and RLCVA Board member Rick Sincere, who spoke at a press conference organized by Equality Virginia on the bill’s passage.

Said Lampo in his op-ed, “… Republicans could lose it all again if we let our party go back to the culture wars and religious extremism that some in our party seem to relish. Not only must we resist the divisive urges of the more extreme elements of our party; we need to restore the image of our party to one of social tolerance and support for individual liberty, two of the important values it was built on.”

He continued, “One of the ways to do this is to implement a policy of employment nondiscrimination for all government employees, including gays and lesbians. Virginia currently has no statute establishing a statewide policy against discrimination in employment for any public employees.”

Rick Sincere, a longtime RLC member, spoke on the issue:

The RLC received press hits in the Washington Post, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Fredricksburg Free-Lance Star. Governor Bob McDonnell has stated repeatedly that he opposes discrimination in state employment, including discrimination based on sexual orientation — affirming the RLC’s position on the issue.

It is official. The Florida chapter of the RLC and other liberty organizations including the Campaign for Liberty will be converging on Tallahassee on March 22-23 with the message that government is best when it governs least.

Political activist and longtime RLC ally John Hallman of the Florida Taxpayers Union is once again in charge of legislative briefing, securing inexpensive accommodations, setting up meetings with legislators and the governors office and showing RLC members around the capitol.

At the top of the Liberty Day agenda is the Health Care Freedom Act. Based on model legislation crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, the act would permit Florida to opt out from any particular national health care plan and, most importantly, protect individual Floridians from individual mandates to buy health insurance a la RomneyCare/ObamaCare. Other issues Florida RLC’ers will lobby on include taxes, spending, and term limits.

Jason Hellenberg of the North Central Florida RLC has volunteered to coordinate the 2010 Liberty Day at the Capitol and is working with Hallman. The annual grassroots lobbying trip to Tallahassee has become a signature project of the RLC that has yielded some legislative successes over the years and trained many RLC’ers on how to lobby effectively.

The tentative schedule for 2010 includes starting around noon on March 22 and finishing up in early afternoon on March 23. There will be a discounted block of rooms for us at the Baymont Inn near the Capitol (tentative).

For a recap of last year’s trip, go here. For 2008, go here. 2007? Try here.

For more info and to RSVP, contact John Hallman via e-mail.

Former State Representative Ken Lindell, the longtime leader of the Maine chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus, has announced a tentative agenda for Spring 2010.

Maine RLC members will have three upcoming meetings: March 13 in Augusta, March 27 in Bangor, and April 10 in Portland.  RSVP to the events on Facebook or contact Ken Lindell for details.

The California GOP is hosting a statewide meeting on March 13 in Santa Clara, and the California RLC affiliate will again be conducting outreach at the Convention and holding a separate Convention for RLC’ers.

Popular Congressional candidate John Dennis will be among the participants.  Dennis is running against Nancy Pelosi and is the founder of the San Francisco chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus.  He recently was endorsed by Congressman Ron Paul in his race.

Learn more about the Convention at http://www.rlcca.org/dw/doku.php/public:notices and RSVP on Facebook. There is still time (although not much) to apply to join the California RLC Board, so please review the details and contact California RLC Secretary Parke Bostrom if you have any questions. To become a delegate to the California GOP Convention, you must print off, fill in, and postmark the Pre-Registration form by March 4.

This weekend, the Michigan chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus held its annual Convention in the Detroit suburbs.  Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and State Representative Justin Amash were the featured speakers.

Amash is running for U.S. Congress in District 3, a Republican seat recently vacated by Vern Ehlers.  The Michigan RLC will be issuing its endorsements in the coming months.

This particular event was the best attended event in the Michigan RLC’s recent memory, with around 50 supporters.  The chapter also elected new officers, including Mike Hewitt, Chair; Rob Johnson, Vice-Chair; Ty Whitney, Secretary; Alice Benbow, Treasurer; and several At-Large Board members.

Justin Amash is the past Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Kent County. His successor to that post, Dr. Eric Larson, will be running for State Representative in the seat Amash is vacating.

In late January, members of the Arizona RLC gathered in Tucson to re-form the state chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus.  The new officers of the chapter include Ed Martin, Chair; James Nagel, Vice-Chair; Adam LaGuardia, Secretary; and Todd Clodfelter, Treasurer.

The chapter was re-formed after two past Chairs from the Phoenix area began to focus on other interests.  Ken Rineer, former Arizona RLC Coordinator, worked tirelessly to gather enough people to get the Arizona chapter up and running.

The newly chartered chapter has a website at http://azlibertycaucus.com/.  It follows the chartering of the Mississippi and Wisconsin affiliates, which occurred in December 2009.

This week the National Board of the Republican Liberty Caucus finalized its list of endorsees for state and national office in the Texas Republican primary on March 2nd. The endorsements are based on recommendations from regional RLC chapters throughout the state. The RLC has endorsed more Congressional candidates in Texas than in any other state.

After reviewing the list, RLC Chairman Dave Nalle observed that “Ron Paul and Jerry Patterson have shown us that liberty Republicans can win state and federal offices in Texas and this year the selection of candidates is outstanding at every level. Texas will lead the way to restoring the tradition of liberty in the GOP.”

This round of endorsements includes only candidates who are in contested primaries. We look forward to great success when they carry on to victory in the general election in November.

Debra Medina, Governor (www.medinafortexas.com)

Tyler Russell, US House District 8 (www.tylerrussellforcongress.com)

Joe Petronis, US House District 10 (www.petronisforcongress.com)

Ron Paul, US House District 14 (www.ronpaulforcongress.com)

Stephen Schoppe, US House District 21 (www.schoppe.us)

George Morovich, US House District 25 (www.morovich.com)

Jessica Puente-Bradshaw, US House District 27 (www.texansforjessica.com)

Dick Bowen, Texas State Senate District 19 (www.dickbowen.com)

Holly Turner, Texas House District 47 (www.hollyfortexas.com)

Ryan Lambert, Texas House District 50 (www.lambertfortexas.org)

Stephen Casey, Texas House District 52 (www.stephencasey.net)

Melissa Goodwin, Judge, Third Court of Appeals (www.judgegoodwin.com)

Mike Barré, Travis County Justice of the Peace District 3 (www.barrefortexas.com)

Grant Rostig, Caldwell County Commissioner Place 4 (www.grantrostig.com)

These candidates represent the best that the Republican Party has to offer this year. They are visionary reformers, dedicated to the principles of limited government, free enterprise and individual liberty. They join hundreds of other RLC candidates around the country who are part of our effort to elect a cadre of new leaders who will guide the Republican Party and our government back to the principles on which the nation was founded and which are embodied in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Information on current RLC endorsees can be found on our endorsements page.
A listing of all current RLC office holders by state can be found on our RLC office holders page.