The Republican Liberty Caucus is a 527 political action organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of individual rights, limited government and free enterprise within the Republican Party.
Dave Westlake and Mark Neumann volunteers team up to hand out literature at the Tournament of Chips Parade in Sauk Prairie on September 4, 2010. The RLC-WI is proud to see endorsed candiates working together in achieving one goal.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
The Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin has endorsed three more candidates for Assembly in Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, and Appleton.
In the 52nd district primary (Fond du Lac area), the RLC Board of Directors has opted to endorse two candidates: Timothy Lakin and Jeremy Thiesfeldt. The Board felt that both candidates were excellent and would uphold the principles of the Republican Liberty Caucus.
In the 57th district primary (Appleton/Oshkosh), the RLC firmly stands behind Chuck Schmidt, a member of the Outagamie County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Schmidt is a supporter of smaller, less intrusive government and will add a voice of sanity to the legislature if he is elected.
In Assembly District 7 (Milwaukee), the RLC has endorsed Brad Sponholz in his race to defeat longtime incumbent Democrat Peggy Krusik. There is probably no race where the philosophies of the two candidates differ more than this one. Sponholz is a former Libertarian Party activist and Krusik is a crusader for government intervention on almost all issues, almost all of the time.
Please support these candidates.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
In the last two days, RLC-endorsed candidate Terri McCormick has been attacked at the FoxPolitics, Try2Focus, RhymesWithClown, and “Wisconsin Truth Project” blogs for her vote on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Rather than telling the entire truth about why McCormick voted against TABOR, each of these “conservative bloggers” (who are supporting Republican Party establishment-backed candidates for Congress) hope to mislead their readers to believe Terri McCormick voted against TABOR because she doesn’t care about taxpayers.
I asked McCormick the real reason she voted against TABOR. The answer:
“TABOR was to taxpayers protection what the “Patriot Act” is to constitutional protections. I voted against TABOR because it was a sham. It was so watered down by the Republican leadership and the dealmakers that it was meaningless to any real spending cuts.”
”I wrote an amendment — several of them as a matter of fact — on that vote because it was such a sham. The main Amendment I created was to create Zero Based Budgeting so the spending that TABOR did not restrain would actually be restrained. The leadership voted against my Amendment.”
The full truth is this: Terri McCormick took a principled vote to oppose TABOR (in opposition to the Republican Party leadership) because of backroom deals to appease the Democrats and hurt the taxpayers.
It sounds like we have a genuine Tea Party candidate in Terri McCormick.
That’s why Terri McCormick has been endorsed by Change the Congress in 2010, RightMarch, the American Liberty Coalition, and the Republican Liberty Caucus.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
The Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin Executive Board recently approved two new endorsements, bringing the total number of endorsed candidates in 2010 to thirteen (13).
The Board approved the endorsements of Evan Wynn, running for Assembly in District 43–Whitewater and Jeremy Thiesfeldt, running for Assembly in District 52–Fond du Lac.
Evan Wynn is a veteran who served in the Iraq war. He is interested in economic issues and is bringing small government solutions to the table in the race.
Jeremy Thiesfeldt serves on the Fond du Lac City Council and is also a high school civics teacher. He brings his belief in transparency and smaller government to the debate in the 52nd district.
Learn more about the RLC’s endorsed candidates at http://wi.rlc.org/endorsements/.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
For those unaware, the Republican Party of Wisconsin decided — in contrast to its past principles and traditions — to endorse candidates at its state Convention in May. The endorsed candidates were Ron Johnson for U.S. Senate and Scott Walker for Governor. I wrote a commentary shortly after the Convention in which I criticize the entire process and explained how it is a slap in the face of Wisconsin primary voters and the Tea Party.
The state party continues to engage in behavior that is not appropriate for a political party. According to Barry Orton, a Professor of Political Science at UW-Madison, the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s pollsters called him on July 18.
When asked which candidate he was supporting in the Governor race, the choices were Scott Walker (R) or Tom Barrett (D). When asked which candidate he was supporting in the U.S. Senate race, the choices were Ron Johnson (R) or Russ Feingold (D).
Excluded were RLC-endorsed candidates Mark Neumann for Governor and Dave Westlake for U.S. Senate.
Wisconsin voters will not be bullied by Party Bosses to support the candidates they are told to support, so I suggest the Republican Party of Wisconsin end its menacing tactics immediately.
The Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin supports transparency and is opposed to the state Republican Party making pre-primary endorsements.
Please contact the Republican Party of Wisconsin today at at (608) 257-4765 or gop@wisgop.org and ask them why they are excluding Republican ballot-qualified candidates from their polls. Better yet, contact Wisconsin GOP Chairman Reice Priebus at rrpriebus@michaelbest.com or phone him at (414) 225-2746. As the state GOP Chair, I’m sure he will be interested in hearing from Republican voters in Wisconsin.
The level of insider deals and unbalanced powergrabs continue to hurt the Republican Party of Wisconsin, so much so that it’s time to withhold any support from the state Republican Party until their leadership does not permit pre-primary endorsements and treats all candidates the same.
Until that time, please support the Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin as a principled alternative.
Please let the state party know what you think of their desperate efforts to propel Ron Johnson and Scott Walker to victory in September. They realize their candidates are weak and are using all tactics possible to advance their struggling campaigns.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
The Wausau Daily Herald is one of the largest newspapers in the state of Wisconsin.
In an op-ed published there, Governor candidate Mark Neumann discusses his background, his commitment to limited government, and his endorsement by the Republican Liberty Caucus. Says Neumann:
“Sue and I are not setting aside our small businesses to run for governor to serve any special interests. That’s why we’ve been endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Right to Life, and have more than 50,000 Facebook fans — the most of any Republican candidate for governor in the country.”
You can become a Facebook fan of Neumann at http://www.facebook.com/strongwisconsin.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
There have been quite a few inquiries from interested folks about why the Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin has endorsed Mark Neumann for Governor and Dave Westlake for U.S. Senate. Here is a brief explanation.
In order to understand it fully, you have to learn about the Republican Liberty Caucus. We’re interested in downsizing the scope of state government involvement in every aspect of your life. Here is our statement of principles and positions. In short, we think Mark Neumann and Dave Westlake will work to get government off the backs of Wisconsinites and restore economic competition to our state.
Rigged Process
First, in principle we oppose the Republican Party of Wisconsin making pre-emptive endorsements prior to the primary. They did so in both the Gubernatorial race and the U.S. Senate race. The Wisconsin Republican Party’s pre-primary endorsements were inappropriate for several reasons:
Review of Candidates
After considering how rigged the Republican Party of Wisconsin process has been from the beginning, our Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin Board members sent the RLC candidate questionnaire to each of the candidates running. Dave Westlake and Mark Neumann were willing and able to respond to the questions in our questionnaire (see right side of page). Several of their opponents did not reply.
Additionally, we feel that Mark Neumann has the type of experience that a Governor needs. Scott Walker has served in government his entire adult life. His record of service is exceptional and we respect him for his efforts. However, Mr. Neumann has government service and a career of private sector experience. Neumann also kept his term limits pledge and worked diligently for balanced budgets while he was in Congress.
To be candid, we endorsed Dave Westlake prior to sending the questionnaire to Ron Johnson because we did not even know Johnson was a candidate. However, it is now early June and Johnson still does not have an issues page up at his website, which clearly demonstrates that he is either not comfortable putting his true views up for voters to read or that the Wisconsin Republican establishment is working diligently to change his platform to suite their interests.
Dave Westlake would be a very good Senator. He listens to people’s concerns and is interested in hearing ideas from them. His campaign is grassroots, not driven by the media or fueled by large donors. This people-focused approach to politics will allow Westlake to serve the people of Wisconsin rather than the special interests.
In any case, it is possible we can endorse Ron Johnson in the future (we can endorse more than one candidate per race), and that will depend on whether Johnson bothers to respond to our survey (which has been sent to the Johnson campaign) and whether he has clear positions that correspond with our statement of principles.
Candidate Issue Positions
The main criteria for the Republican Liberty Caucus in endorsing candidates is how they will work to change public policy in the direction of individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise.
Mark Neumann’s issues page indicates that he is a strong supporter of the Tenth Amendment, is in favor of ethics changes that will make government work better for Wisconsinites, and will work to slash government spending and bureaucracy. Some (though certainly not all) of our members disagree with Mr. Neumann on hot button social issues such as immigration and equal rights for gays and lesbians. We’re convinced Neumann will cut government in the state and will work to balance the budget. He also scored well in the Republican Liberty Caucus Liberty Index when he was in Congress, scoring inside the Libertarian quadrant in three of the four years he was scored.
Dave Westlake’s issues page discusses the importance of state sovereignty (Tenth Amendment), the limited role of the federal government, term limits, and simplifying the tax code. Some of our members have disagreements with Westlake on his view of foreign policy and his position on immigration.
In our view, neither of these two candidates is perfect. In fact, neither would likely be comfortable calling themselves libertarian Republicans. Perhaps they would consider themselves Constitutionalists. In any case, these are the best candidates Wisconsin has to offer for U.S. Senate and for Governor in 2010. We think our slate of candidates will radically reduce government waste and increase freedom in the state of Wisconsin. If you agree, please consider becoming a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus.
–Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin,
Board of Directors | June 4, 2010
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
© 2009 RLC