What Does 2009 Hold In Store For Supporters of Liberty?

Science of Freedom Strategy

Below is a short article about our new organization. I'm wanting to get this widely disseminated, so if you could, please post this around the net.

Thanks,
Nick Egoroff


What a year 2008 has been! I’ve learned much about politics and becoming involved to make a difference. With this article, I hope to inspire you to explore how to do more than just complain about politicians.

First, examine the system. I believe that like it or not (and I don’t) America is now a two party system. While I admire the stances of the Constitutional and Libertarian Party’s, I’ve knocked on enough doors to know that people only elect Republicans or Democrats.

Some may ask, ‘Why are you saying just go to the Republican Party?’ Because at various times and on various issues, the Republicans have espoused views most closely aligned with a Liberty movement. Democrats have rarely if ever accepted these views.

If you accept the above premise, I’ve got an easy way for you to start making an impact. Join your county Republican Executive Committee (REC). This little known entity is open to any registered Republican. It is the core building block of the state and national Republican Party.

I like REC’s for a number of reasons. First it gets you educated very quickly on local and state level elected offices. These offices rarely make it to the ‘radar screen’ of most people’s consciousness. That makes them ideal offices for us to either run for or gain influence on.

The next reason I like REC’s is because membership is so small. Here in Orange County, Fl. where I live, monthly meetings only garner about 50 or so attendees (I’ve spoken to people all over the US and their county REC’s have similar or SMALLER numbers). The rules for joining are something along the line of ‘come to three monthly meetings in a row and you’re in.’

Once you’ve got a few dozen people on the inside, then you are now the influencers on the direction and philosophy of the Republican ‘brand’. I’ll leave it to your imagination what you can do from here;-)

Now connect the dots. The county REC’s elect representatives to the State Republican Party. The State Republican Party elects two representatives to the Republican National Committee. All three of these create the Party Platform and select delegates to the Republican National Convention.

I’ve got a lot more to say about this strategy. But this is enough to get us started. To read more, please go to my Facebook site: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/...

Next go to www.campaignforliberty.com and sign up for their Precinct Member program.

Nick Egoroff
Director of Science of Freedom

Orange Republican Leadership Fight Goes to AG McCollum

The article below comes from The Orlando Sentinel.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/12/orange-republic.html Be sure and add a comment at the Sentinel site.

Deon Long ramped up his fight to win control of the Orange County Republican Party this week, sending a legal request to state Attorney General Bill McCollum to intervene in a local GOP vote dispute and install him as party chairman.

In a five-page appeal, Long essentially said he was denied the chairmanship in a 122-121 inner-party vote against incumbent chairman Lew Oliver because more than a dozen of his supporters were refused a ballot by Oliver due to the sitting chairman's insistence that they didn't file proper loyalty oaths.

Oliver says he followed state rules on loyalty oaths. And a traffic accident on the East-West Expressway and other scheduling hiccups that election night kept plenty of his backers from attending the vote, too. Without those glitches, Oliver said he would have handily won the party leadership vote.

Long is asking McCollum to intervene quickly because a recent South Florida judge ruled the loyalty oaths were out of order. And if this internal-vote squabble isn't settled soon, Long wrote, he could be denied a chance to vote in the Florida party's state chairman elections on Jan. 9.

McCollum's office was closed Friday and he could not be reached for immediate comment. Oliver said he welcomes any inter-party appeals surrounding the recent chairman's vote, but he's confident McCollum would not intervene.

"There's courts for that purpose," Oliver said Friday.

Florida Manifesto!

As many of you know we here in Orange County have been trying to find a way to be effective in the political process. Right now we are engaged in battle to oust liberal Chairman Lew Oliver and his cronies from controlling the Orange County Republican Executive Committee (OCREC). We lost the first round 122-121. We will continue the battle with round two.

We are sending a separate petition to those of you that were elected to OCREC for the new 2008-2010 term. It outlines the procedure to have a SPECIAL OCREC meeting to redo the election. But what about the rest of you? What can you do?

First let me give you the bad news. American politics is built on a two party system. Continually I watch the actual voter statistics. The Libertarian, Constitutional, Greens, and everyone else put together in 2008 garnered less than one and a half percent of the vote totals. For many reasons, Americans will not vote in any third party candidates. Not in 2008 and any other election of recent memory.

If we want to have an impact on returning the country, state, and local elections to any sort of constitutional form of government, we're going to have to work within the two party conscript. Third parties are not a viable option for the foreseeable future.

Now for the good news that you can really use. The Republican Party used to be the party of smaller government and personal liberty. Now after losing a landslide election on the national level the party is undergoing a reevaluation. Several factions a vying for the right to speak for the Party. We can be one of those factions.

Here in Orange County we can have real influence on the outcome. While our members seek to invalidate the recent election of Oliver, we need ALL of you to make a point of attending the January 8th OCREC meeting at 7pm at the Mark Street Senior Center. We'll need you to attend 3 consecutive monthly meetings, but in return you will have the opportunity to become voting members of OCREC.

Many people ask me why go through all the hassle to just join a group that has been so hostile to us? Answer: Because there is nothing else that we can do that will yield such a big return.

Emails to friends, sign waves, letters to the editors are great. But they pale compared to the effect of having a local Party that can build a true grassroots machine, that can send out press releases, and help Constitutional candidates get elected. All it takes is committing to attending meetings on the first Thursday of each month. Ninety minutes a month gains you access to the levers of power.

Please see the calendar at http://www.meetup.com/orlandocampaignforliberty-com/calendar/9337544/ to RSVP.

December OCREC Election Coverage!

As some of you know, Orlando Campaign For Liberty was involved in a project to integrate into the Orange County Republican Executive Committee (OCREC). The culmination of this effort was last night (Dec. 8) where we attempted to forge an alliance with other disgruntled Republicans to elect a new Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer, and Secretary. Due to Lew Oliver sending spies into our group we had to keep this effort quiet. Now that the vote is over I want to share a bit about it.

Unfortunately our efforts fell short. Final vote was 122-121, meaning that just ONE vote stopped us from booting Lew Oliver out of office. Worst of all was that Chairman Lew Oliver (who was seeking reelection) disqualified about 20 of our members from voting due to 'technicalities'. Even things like not having the correct precinct number written on the new loyalty oath, was enough for Oliver to strike people from the list of eligible voters.

Bottom line? Lew was more than happy to disenfranchise duly elected Republican committeemen and women if it meant that he could stay in power. This is a terrible precedent to set and it angered a great many RP types as well as many traditional Republican OCREC members.

I talked with many traditional OCREC members that were now receiving the same kind of rough treatment usually reserved for RP supporters. In all cases it became clear that if you had not previously indicated you would be supporting Lew Oliver, your paperwork and credentials were questioned and scrutinized with special zeal. Like I said earlier 20 or so of our supporters suddenly found out that their 'paperwork' was not in order and they could not vote.

If just two of these mysterious cases were allowed to vote, Lew Oliver would have had to beat a hasty retreat out the backdoor.

There is also the parliamentary question of whether Oliver was elected even with these abnormalities. Two votes that were cast that night were marked 'none' and 'abstain'. According to Roberts Rules of Order, Oliver's one vote margin was not a '50 percent plus one' win but rather as a 'less then 50 percent vote total' which would have necessitated a runoff election. Oliver would have none of that, even though Doug Guetzloe (who knows Roberts Rules forwards and backwards) challenged him on the violation. Oliver interpreted those 2 votes as non-votes, meaning they didn't count. Again this keeps with Oliver's pattern of very skewed interpretations.

None the less there is much to be proud of. Many, many people worked hard to make this project a qualified success. Starting back in May of 2008 going through December 2008 the following are due special recognition. Well on second thought, since we know that Lew Oliver seeks to expel RP supporters they will have to remain anonymous. Trust me though, over 20 people deserve special thanks.

Most certainly the many, many people that came out to support our efforts also should be proud. You guys did what no other state of Florida RP meetup group did--over 100 people put up with the sign up hassle before Lew got a hold of your paperwork. No other Florida meetup group had these kind of numbers.

Here's another little tidbit that I'm going to throw out. During the summer I was able to secretly listen in to a Republican Party of Florida conference call for county chairman. When business about the 'Ron Paul people coming into the Republican Party' came up, it was decided that statewide they had to stop it. Singled out for special mention was none other than yours truly and the Orlando Ron Paul Meetup group. Take a bow guys, your efforts have reached the ears of King Jim Greer (Chairman of the State Party).

Now comes the decision. Do we fold our tents and go home? Or do we stand up for the principles of the Constitution and fight? I think you can guess what my answer is;-) OCREC meetings are the first Thursday of every month. I'm for calling a meeting of our own to plan strategy. What say you?