History

The roots of the Republican Liberty Caucus can be traced to three precursor organizations from which it derived most of its early memberships: the Libertarian Republican Alliance [LRA], the "Radical Caucus" of the Libertarian Party [LP], and the Libertarian Republican Organizing Committee [LROC]. Joe Gentili, Larry Penner and Gerry O'Brien founded the LRA in Brooklyn in 1972. The organization disbanded in 1981 in light of the growing successes of the LP during the same period. The "Radical Caucus" split from the LP, but failed to develop into a viable organization. The LROC, founded in 1988 by Justin Raimondo, Eric Garris and Colin Hunter, developed a large mailing list and supported several Republican federal campaigns in California, but its efforts to expand into a national organization were not successful. Although the LROC was active for seven years, publishing "The Libertarian Republican" newsletter, participation in the organization dwindled and they eventually lost their financial support.

The organization "Republican Liberty Caucus" was first founded by Vernon Robinson and used in the 1976 gubernatorial campaign of Art Pope of North Carolina by a group of libertarians supporting his campaign. Later in the 1980s, the North Carolina RLC was listed for a time as a state chapter of the Libertarian Republican Organizing Committee (LROC). Initially, the organization was listed as a state chapter of the North Carolina LROC. The NC Chapter first disaffiliated from LROC in 1988, but then became inactive after the elections in 1988.

The organization as it exists today however was expanded in 1990. During a Young Republicans Convention, in 1990 Eric Dondero Rittberg called a meeting with a group of Florida Libertarian Republicans, including Phil Blumel, Tom Walls and Rex Curry, to break with LROC and form the Florida Republican Liberty Caucus. The organization was expanded by Eric Dondero Rittberg on a national level in Tallahassee, Florida in May of 1990. Other existing LROC affiliates, most notably New Jersey and Virginia, quickly disaffiliated with LROC and joined with the FL RLC to form a coalition. In 1991 LROC went defunct. Dondero Rittberg was elected First National Chairman. A year later former Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Roger MacBride joined the group.

On April 6, 1991, at the Naples, Florida estate of Roger MacBride, a meeting was held to formally organize the national RLC and plan for a July 1991 "coming out party" at the National Young Republicans Convention. Amongst other things it was decided at this meeting to start the RLC newsletter "Republican Liberty" publication funded by MacBride, as well create the RLC "Council of Trustees". Today the RLC is a national organization with 16 chartered state organizations and members in every state.

In 2004, the Republican Liberty Caucus endorsed the Free State Project, saying: "The Republican Liberty Caucus endorses and supports the objective of the Free State Project (FSP), to gather together liberty-lovers in a single political subdivision of the United States, specifically New Hampshire, in order to 'exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of life, liberty, and property'."

Members

Officers of the RLC include Bill Westmiller, Chairman; Phil Blumel, Vice-Chairman; Thomas Sewell, Secretary and Jeff Palmer, Treasurer. Advisory Board members include some members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Included are: Ron Paul, John Shadegg, and Jeff Flake. Mark Foley was a member prior to his resignation. Other Advisory Board members include Robert Poole, Jennifer Roback-Morse, and Mark Skousen. The RLC has state contacts or state affiliates in most states.

Endorsements and monitoring

The RLC PAC endorses candidates based on [http://www.rlc.org/?p=FAQ#4263 these criteria]. Past endorsed candidates include Governors Butch Otter, Mark Sanford, Gary E. Johnson, and William Weld, U.S. Senators George Allen, John Ensign, and Jim DeMint, and U.S. Congressmen Roscoe Bartlett, Helen Chenoweth, Jeff Flake, Ron Paul, Dana Rohrabacher, and Paul Ryan. Prominent RLC-endorsed state legislators include Tom Brinkman of Ohio, Frank Lasee of Wisconsin, Mike Haridopolos of Florida, and David Shafer of Georgia.

They also rank members of Congress under their Liberty Index [http://www.republicanliberty.org/libdex/index.htm], rating members of Congress on their official roll call votes during each session of the House and Senate. For each chamber twenty votes on economic issues and twenty votes on personal liberty are selected to rank members on their support of individual liberties. These forty votes are chosen and tallied by Professor Clifford F. Thies to create an index from 0% to 100% measuring how much the member has voted in favor of economic and personal liberty.

External links

*Republican Liberty Caucus official site *Republican Liberty Caucus PAC official site *Official listing of state chapters