Mark Cross Stuns Ron Paul Supporters With Sudden Support For Republican Party Chairman‏

Below is my news story on what transpired. I was trained in college as a journalist and to the best of my ability I'm going to write it as it might have appeared if the media had covered it.

Nick Egoroff
Orange County, Fl. Campaign For Liberty Organizer

Yesterday Mark Cross, Florida State Coordinator for Campaign For Liberty, surprised many supporters of Ron Paul with a sudden endorsement of Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Chairman Jim Greer. Greer had been locked in a contentious three way contest for another two year term of the Party.

Greer won the contest with a lopsided majority.

Cross said that he was not going to win the race so he decided to throw in with the current incumbent, "to better help the chances" of Ron Pauler's to be included in intra-party organizations. Cross later said that "he felt comfortable with his decision."

Cross pointed to "shaking Florida Governor Charlie Crist's hand" afterwords. "Lots of Republican Executive Committee members told me I had done the right thing, and invited me to come speak at their club meetings on how to get more Ron Paul people involved."

Nick Egoroff, Orange County Campaign For Liberty Organizer, had reservations. "Mark is taking a very dangerous course in suggesting that Ron Paul supporters would support Greer." Egoroff has had many run-ins with RPOF brass.

"I've talked with a half-dozen Campaign for Liberty leaders around the state of Florida and all were shocked and repulsed at the idea of supporting Greer. One said Greer stands for everything that is wrong with the Party. There is no way I can support that--it's a matter of principle."

Cross's announcement came at the end of a speech made on the floor of the Quarterly meeting of the RPOF. They were in the middle of nomination speeches when Cross's turn came to speak.

His speech centered on the positive aspects of Ron Paul's presidential campaign. The people involved in it "were kind of like a family," he said. "Each of us was free to help the campaign any way they could or wanted."

It was towards the end of the speech when Cross peeled off a lapel sticker that said 'Mark Cross--UNITY Candidate for Chairman.' "I think everyone got one of these on their chair today. And in the spirit of unity I wish to withdraw my name from nomination and instead give my support to Chairman Greer."

Egoroff said that the Ron Paul supporter he was sitting next to said, "What the f--- is that. Ron Paul would have never done that."

Also hurt by Cross's sudden change of mind was Eric Miller, another candidate seeking the chairman's position. According to Egoroff who knew both candidates, Miller was a traditional Ronald Reagan conservative.

The two candidates had worked together sharing advice and information on the race for months. Each had promised the other that should either be eliminated in early balloting they would endorse each other.

One person that saw the interaction between the two as both left the ballroom where balloting had taken place described it thus: "Eric (Miller) yelled out to Mark (Cross), 'they told me not to trust you, and now I know why."

Egoroff talked with Cross afterwords and asked why the sudden change of mind. "I knew I wasn't going to win and neither was Eric, so I tried to make the best of it."

Cross went on to explain that now he will have much more access to Greer and hopes to help end the factious fighting that has broken out across the state between Ron Paul supporters and the Party leadership.

Egoroff also reminded Cross of other 'gentleman's agreements' that had been made between RPOF officials and Ron Pauler's. All were broken to the detriment of the Ron Paul people who made them, said Egoroff. Cross answered, "We'll just have to wait and see."

Egoroff said that once Cross decided to give up, "We had the chance to stand with someone (Miller) that wanted to reform the RPOF. Eric had flatly stated that what the current state party leadership was doing was hurtful to Ron Paul Republicans."

"If Mark didn't want to run that's fine. Nobody pushed him into it. But it is questionable that he asked for donations and volunteers from Ron Paul people and got it, only to end up supporting the candidate that they were opposing."


Post Script. I'm very good friends with Mark Cross and know that this post will no doubt strain our friendship. I've worked with Mark for a year and a half on the Ron Paul campaign. We've had our differences over strategy and tactics. Never have I doubted Mark's support of liberty.

I wrote this in such a forthright way because the issues involved are so central to ones that we will have to face in the years ahead. They revolve around 'to what extent do we compromise and make alliances to grow the liberty movement.'

I'll leave it to the readers to decide.

--
Nick Egoroff
Orlando Campaign For Liberty Organizer
Check Out My New Blog at
http://nickegorofforlandopoliticalactivist.blogspot.com/

Media And Republican Party of Florida Decide To Crash Our Cause!

I was alerted by friends in different parts of Florida that we 'made the front page.' They were referring to the front page of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) web page. http://www.rpof.org/ Wow, not to often your efforts merit this kind of attention.

Then I checked further and found that The Orlando Sentinel also was interested. They had called me earlier for comment on the press release from RPOF State Chairman Jim Greer's office. You can read the press release on the second page of the link above. You can read the story the Sentinel did here, and don't forget to leave comments!
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2009/01/judge-shoots-do.html

Guys, we are having maximum impact. Lew Oliver probably had to change his drawers when he found out we had 94 OCREC members showed up to a meeting he forbid us to have. Don't give up now, victory is closer than ever before.

Proud Night For Republican Grassroots Activists

We again suffered a setback in our efforts to seat 17 duly elected Republican Precinct Committee Men And Women. The high powered and HIGHLY paid lawyers were looking for every technicality to thwart justice. In the end the judge gave Deon Long another 10 days to rectify our complaint.

Of course Republican Party of Florida State Chairman Jim Greer could hardly contain his glee. The words had barely left Judge Rodriguez's mouth, before Greer announced his joy. Why he is so proud of Republicans NOT being admitted into the Party, I'll never know.

But Deon Long promises to continue to fight the corporate interests that seek to keep grassroots activists out of the Party.

We then moved from the courtroom to the ballroom. Ninety-four supporters of fairness gathered in the Winter Park Civic Center to attempt to discuss Lew Oliver's illegal election in December.

Unfortunately, we were just shy of a quorum (40 percent of OCREC membership). The combination of Lew Oliver's hysterical rantings that we were holding an ILLEGAL meeting and ORDERING people not to attend, combined with the Gator / Oklahoma BCS Championship on TV hurt our efforts.

But this momentary setback did nothing to dampen the spirits of Republicans for fairness. Indeed, we decided to go ahead and sign ANOTHER petition right there on the spot to call another Special Meeting of OCREC. When this news gets to Oliver, expect more threats and disinformation.

Even more exciting was enthusiasm of so many people there. I tried to thank everyone who came, many of whom were not 'Ron Paul' types. Their comments over and over were a dismay at the pettiness of Lew Oliver. Many of these folks had known Oliver for years and said he continues to get worse the longer he stays in office.

Everyone was committed to staying with this effort to stop the tyrannical behavior of our chairman.

I myself was inspired to leave the suit and tie on that I had worn to court. I then proceeded to give a great speech about our success in staying focused. I reminded those gathered that continuing our fight to make our voices heard in OCREC was indeed progressing.

Our turnout tonight was more than OCREC ever gets at their normal meetings. Sticking together will force Oliver to loosen his grip.

Further proof of our strength is that OCREC and even RPOF fears what we are doing here. They're spending TENS of thousands of dollars on sharpie lawyers and then publishing press releases to the world that they supposedly SQUASHED us.

But our fight will continue no matter the odds.

And my special note to Lew Oliver: Keep looking over your shoulder. Republican Patriots are everywhere. We will oppose you whenever you seek to dictate to us what the Party stands for and what we can do as its members.

Now for a sports update... It's Great To Be A Florida Gator...Said It's Great To Be A Florida Gator!!!! BCS Bowl Champions!

Nick Egoroff
Orlando Campaign For Liberty Organizer

News Bulletin: Orlando Judge Schedules Hearing On Excluded Ron Paul Republicans

Our true chairman of the Orange County Republican Executive Committee, Deon Long, continues his courageous battle against cheater Lew Oliver who clings to power by a thread;-)

Today I tramped down to the belly of the beast; namely the Orange County Courthouse in downtown Orlando, Fl. It's an impressive structure around 30 story's high, with beautiful beige exterior.

Inside it's got the expected high security check in, and yours truly, your faithful Meetup leader and part-time reporter decided to go to the first day of hearings.

After riding the elevator up to the 19th floor and not seeing any activity (amazing that they can build such a colossus, yet have whole floors where not a soul can be found), I called Deon's secretary and was told that the meeting was in room 1101.011 (I'm not making this up, that's the actual room number).

Another ride on the supersonic elevator finally brought me to a suit-wearing individual of the legal profession. I meekly asked, "Sir, do you know where room 1101.011 would be?" He eyed me wearily, surmising from my casual attire that I was a nobody, and sniffed, "That will be on the 11th floor."

I walked down the hall and saw Chairman Lew Oliver, Vice-Chair Gary Phister, Office Manager Jonathan Swift, RPOF Field Director Heidi, PLUS three or four other lawyers hogging up all the chairs outside the meeting room.

Wow, incredible that our county Party has money to pay salaries for all these people to sit around in courthouses. Remember that Lew calls all the shots, so why they were needed is a mystery.

Once inside with the judge seated, he asked, "Who would like to go first?" Then he answered his own question with, "Let's have the plaintiff go first." No one argued.

Now I've watched enough TV legal dramas to know that 'plaintiff' meant us, so Deon takes a deep breath and before he can get five words out of his mouth... OCREC's lawyer interrupts with the usual 'Objection your Honor, Plaintiff doesn't have a case since he hasn't filed a complaint."

Readers, please understand that court cases are won and lost on technicalities. And OCREC has some of the best lawyers money can buy.

The lead lawyer was Dan Gerber, of the high powered firm Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell. These guys are the best at what they do. They give no quarter and expect none. I saw two large boxes of documents wheeled in and unceremoniously dumped on the floor. It hinted, "We'll keep you so tied up with paperwork, you'll wish you never took this case."

But Deon was undaunted. And so was the judge. Lew Oliver continued twitching his foot as if he had epilepsy.

This was because Deon had filed an injunction against OCREC for not letting some Precinct Committee Men and Women vote. His reasoning was that since a Miami/Dade judge had just heard the exact same case and sided with the plaintiff's (that's our side), this case need only show that we were suffering the same treatment.

Solution? Deon had to file a 'complaint' in other words he had to show that these voters were hurt in some way and therefore a suit was merited. This is really no big deal and Deon said he could have this done by the end of the day.

So to make a short story only somewhat longer the judge then went about trying to find a suitable time for us to all meet again to hear the case.

Gerber said he was kind of busy so we'd all have to wait for his schedule to clear. Deon countered that he was seeking 'Emergency Injunctive Relief.' I fumbled in my pocket for some Tums antacid tablets but found none.

"Your Honor, we have an important meeting tomorrow (Thursday), that I want these 17 people to be able to vote at," exclaimed Deon.

So the judge looks at the defense attorney Gerber and says, "He's right you know. Why can't you come back tomorrow for this case?" This is right because THEY were the ones trying to prolong the case.

The judge then asked what time this important meeting was. Gerber sheepishly said, "Well actually I have to be in the parking lot for a football game." The room erupted in laughter as everyone knew that the BCS Bowl Game top ranked Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners was what he was talking about.

After discussion it was finally agreed that Deon would submit his 'complaint' and Gerber would compromise his celebratory activities.

I'll be posting tomorrow's proceedings so stay tuned.

Key to that will be our Special Emergency meeting Thursday Jan. 8 at 7pm at the Winter Park Civic Center 1050 W Morse Blvd, Winter Park, FL 32789 This is primarily a meeting for VOTING members of OCREC. In other words if you were eligible to go the December 8th meeting you should attend this one. Additionally once the judge rules tomorrow on illegally barred Precinct Committee members they should attend as well.

Nick Egoroff
Orlando Campaign For Liberty Organizer

Today History Was Made In The Republican Party!

Pretty audacious words, but I've never been one to mince words. I'll leave that to lesser men and women that do not share a RADICAL vision for this country and the Republican Party.

What I'm talking about is the debate that took place today. It consisted of the candidates for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. I'll post the link below for CSPAN where you can watch the video archive. And I'll expect that by the time you read this, our YouTube videographers will have already sliced and diced the juiciest bits.

But I'll go ahead and give you the spoiler right now. All the candidates were falling all over themselves begging the Ron Paul supporters to stay in the Party. Not only that, but they were ALL trying to outdo themselves in showing they were the one candidate that was most friendly to us. I'm not making this up.

I nearly yelled hallelujah loud enough that my neighbors might have thought I was leading a church service in my living room. Finally RNC leadership is getting it through their thick skulls that the Ron Paul Army is a force to be reckoned with. We have been vindicated in the holy of hollies, the curtain that separates us from the inner sanctum of power has been torn in two. Can I get a witness? Can I have an AMEN!!

Now what is to be done? First off we will have the that usurper to the throne, that great pretender Lew Oliver's head on a platter (figuratively speaking, although for the damage he's done a good whipping is in order;-). Lew Oliver, the man that has lied and cheated his way through more OCREC races than you can count...Lew Oliver the man who has viciously smeared innocent Republicans whose only sin was to support the candidacy of fellow 10 term congressman Dr. Ron Paul (forget the Alamo...Remember the Green Smear sheet!)...Lew Oliver the man who disqualified over a dozen Precinct Committee Men and Women for such trivial things as 'not having the right precinct number written on the Loyalty Oath... Lew Oliver the man that was called a "lazy and unethical lawyer by the Seminole County Republican Executive Committee Chairman (quoted EXACTLY as it appeared in The Orlando Sentinel)...and last but not least Lew Oliver, the man that publicly slandered and libeled my good name. For which he only admitted it after I hired well-known Attorney Fred O'Neal who threatened him with a lawsuit and possible censure by the Florida Bar.

Yeah, I got a bone to pick with Oliver. This man has single-handedly destroyed the Orange County Republican Party. And for what? My answer is: So He Can Play Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny. And if you don't know what this means look it up on Wikipedia!

The numbers speak for themselves. During Oliver's tenure the number of registered Republican Party voters has dropped by TEN's of Thousands over a multi-year period.

Then when Oliver realized he had a revolt on his hands, he took another Hollywood part. That of the captain of the Titanic as she went down to a watery grave. Oliver's answer to these sinking numbers of Republican voters? Why he has the band strike up a tune as he orders the rearranging of deck chairs!

This man is a menace to the Party and he will only go if he is forcibly evicted. I expect to pry the OCREC meeting microphone out of his stone-clinched hand.

But I digress.

Tonight we heard from these Chairman wannabees that they are committed to building a grassroots machine that doesn't answer to Party bigwigs. They proclaim a bottom-up approach again and again saying that the Party begins at the COUNTY level.

They proclaimed that they will hold Republican candidates and elected officials' feet to the fire. We are the Party of Limited Government, Lower Taxes, and Personal Responsibility.

Now let me see...which presidential candidate said that? Was it the Right Honorable Senator from Arizona, our LOSING presidential candidate John McCain? NOPE! It was another candidate.

One who was laughed at, taunted, and yes vilified by so called leaders in our Party. The only man that knows HOW TO CURE APATHY. None other than 10 TERM Congressman RON PAUL. Someone who knows how to win DESPITE sometimes having to fight his own Party and their henchman that said he was TO RADICAL for their country club attitudes.

Oh sure, the RNC chairman candidates talk a good game. Now we're going to see how tender THEIR feet are.

Right now we are confronting Lying Lew Oliver on all fronts. Our noble candidate for chairman Deon Long was bushwhacked by Party cronies of Oliver. They smeared him and said he doesn't have the experience.

They were right. He doesn't have enough experience in the underhanded tactics that characterize Lew Oliver's administration.

But he does have experience as a lawyer. In fact he served legal papers on Oliver and Company that our Ron Paul supporters were illegally barred from voting in the December election. A circuit judge in Miami-Dade agreed. And I'll bet dollars to donuts that the Orange County Circuit judge is going to agree as well. We should have injunctive relief in a few days.

The second front that we've opened up in the war against Oliver is in a Special Meeting that will be held January 8. This is so we can challenge Lew Oliver to a fair election. If ALL Republicans had been allowed to vote, Loser Lew Oliver wouldn't have been able to cling to a 122-121 vote.

Instead it would have been a solid repudiation of Oliver's miserable failure as chairman. Then Deon Long would have stepped in, been a great conciliatory leader and brought our Party back together ready to defeat the collectivist/socialist forces of the Democrat Party.

I'll close by saying this. The future lies not with the failed policies of losing leaders, but with the bright hope of new leadership that is not afraid to embrace the core principles of the US Constitution. Win or lose we fight for the only thing worth sacrificing for. Our Forefathers 'promised us a Republic IF we can keep it.'

The Republican Party may at last be waking up. Let us not be found sleeping and slumbering as this new light dawns.

CSPAN LINK http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?ProgramId=HP-A-39941

Nick Egoroff
Orlando Campaign For Liberty Organizer

I've Been Thinking A Lot About Third Party's...

I've Been Thinking A Lot About Third Party's...

Oh, how tempting they are! I've been trying to be an activist in the Republican Party since catching Ron Paul Fever in the summer of 2007. Unfortunately my efforts have not always been viewed with favor by the Party elite.

So along comes this temptress called Third Party. Oh yeah, she's hot. Open to new ideas. Available and ready to do what ever I want her to do. She promises me she'll work hard to make the relationship last. And just as I lean forward to embrace her, POOF!

It was all in my imagination. I realized that that sweet young thing was just toying with my emotions. Time to go home to that not quite so attractive, but quite dependable woman that has been around for so many years.

This analogy is really what I think we are facing as supporters of Lady Liberty.

Sure we could go for a quick and fast hookup or we can determine that for better or for worse America is a two party affair. Mr. Republican and Mrs. Democrat are married and will be together till 'Death Do Us Part.'

Now for some plain talk. We must face reality and get to work on 2010 planning.

First we must find candidates to run for smaller, winnable races. I'm thinking that State House, State Senate, and other LOCAL offices are our best bet. Federal offices are bid up too high by corporate interests for us to realistically have any hope.

Here in Florida, I and a bunch of other HARDCORE activists are going to launch an organization to help
potential candidates make their decision easier. We're going to supply them with their yard signs, literature, provide them with a platform, and even help with the technical paperwork.

Even with lots of help the odds are, ahem, less than 50/50. But that's okay. Because we will be measuring success not by whether we win or lose but how we play the game (oh brother, another analogy).

We want to win of course. But each candidate that we help and support will be given a new paradigm. Instead of seeing how many doors you can knock or how many pieces of literature you can stuff into someone's hand, we will be emphasizing how many people did you meet that were at least open to a Liberty message? Did you get their name, address, and email contact info?

This way, come election day, win or lose, we will come away with a movement that is much bigger in numbers and with a longer term mission of waking up voters.

To make the numbers even more manageable, we are going to target the Republican Primary in 2010. Primaries remember have typically a 10-15 percent eligible Republican turnout. Therefore in Districts where we have a candidate, we may only need to get less than 5000 votes to win.

Compare that to US Congressional seats where you'd need at least 10,000 signatures to JUST TO GET ON THE BALLOT!

I'm going to be sharing with the Science of Freedom membership the things we learn along the way. I invite you to join the discussion in the forums section.

Hang in their guys (and girls too), with your help we may just have a hot date with destiny!

Nick Egoroff

All It Takes Is YOU!

Happy New Year! Florida Campaign For Liberty, is going to accomplish great things in 2009. You know why: Because YOU are part of it!

I’ve now been organizing and agitating in Orlando and around the state for nearly two years. The most important thing I’ve learned in all of this is: Just Show Up.

That’s where you come in. If you’ll just commit to giving just a couple of hours a month to political action, you and I will completely topple the bureaucratic structure.

Often I’ve made the assumption that we need hundreds, maybe even thousands of people come to an event to have an impact.

Take for instance our attempt to remove Lew Oliver from chairmanship of the Orange County Republican Executive Committee. I thought we needed a lot of people to do this. In reality we only needed about 100.

Now we have OCREC in a stalemate position. Oliver won his chairmanship but by the slimmest of margins 122-121. And he only won that by disqualifying many of our supporters. That fight continues with a lawsuit, parliamentary maneuvers, and calling of special meeting to annul the election.

Did we need people parading down Orange Avenue with media in tow? Nope. All we needed was a few people to make a spreadsheet of supporters. Then we needed a few more to make phone calls. Finally we had a tightly knit group of activists determined to make real change.

If we keep on at this pace, replicating and multiplying it, we will certainly win even bigger battles.

Don’t give up, guys. And don’t think that 2009 is just a kick back and relax year. Activists (we can even call ourselves rEVOLutionaries!) know that this is the time for strategy and building.

2010 elections are right around the corner. I am putting the finishing touches on a project that will take us to new heights.

I’ve also been having some very useful conversations with Adam Kokesh (the fiery patriot who has won the hearts of so many of us). We will be meeting together in Washington, D.C. in a week or so.

In the meantime here’s a couple of web links that you should checkout and join.
First and foremost: www.campaignforliberty.com This is where our organization is built.

Second, I really see the power of Facebook. My contact info there is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=676589249

I’ve also started a blog at http://nickegorofforlandopoliticalactivist.blogspot.com/

Like Ron Paul said, “This revolution is PERMANENT”

Nick Egoroff
Campaign For Liberty Organizer
Director of Science of Freedom
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/181631?recruiter_id=17938882