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

Political consultant John Hallman of the Florida Taxpayers Union is once again in charge of our legislative briefing, securing inexpensive accommodations, setting up meetings with legislators and the governors office and to show us 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 include taxes, spending, 10th amendment, property insurance reform 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 RLCers on how to lobby effectively.

The tentative schedule for 2010 would be 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. See 'Schedule and Agenda' attachment below.

After lobbying on Monday, March 22, there will be a social get-together for us on Adams Street, just north of the Capitol. We'll start at Clydes and Costellos for cocktails at six pm, and move one door south to Andrew's (see menu at http://www.andrewsdowntown.com/) for dinner at seven thirty.
capitalgrill.html

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 at (352) 200-1915 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

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AGENDA032210.doc	TENTATIVE SCHEDULE AND AGENDA	109 Kb	03/06/10 07:32

Before the statewide revival of the RLC in 2004, the Miami RLC was the flagship RLC affiliate in the state. In fact, at that time, it was essentially the only vibrant affiliate in the state. Sadly, just as the RLC statewide was reborn, Miami RLCer leader Ed Rahn passed away and the Miami RLC largely died with him. Not long before, fellow Miami RLC leader Jeff Palmer had moved to North Carolina where he took the reins of the NCRLC.

Since then there has been successful RLC-related events and projects in Dade County, most notably the 2004 Southern Republican Leadership Conference, the 2007 Young Republicans National Convention, the Ron Paul and Dean Santoro campaigns and several educational and outreach events. But the Miami affiliate itself never fully covered the loss of Rahn and Palmer.

Miami RLCer Hector Roos wants to change that. Under the new regional RLC structure, Roos is hosting a regional RLC meeting in Miami on Feb. 28 with the aim of reorganizing the Miami RLC as the active center of the South Florida region. With this would come additional representaton of the region on the RLC state board.

Jackie Lee Fernandez, a veteran of the Rahn/Palmer period, is back on board along with many new RLCers. They will be meeting at 6 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 28, in Party Room C of the Brickell Place II condo, 1915 Brickell Ave, Miami, FL 33129.

In conjunction with Roos, the Palm Beach County RLC will be holding a short caucus meeting at the tail end of the March 3 meeting of the Republican Party of Central Palm Beach County. There, Philip Blumel will recap the Miami meeting for Palm Beach RLCers.

At this month's meeting of the Republican Club of Central Palm Beach County, RLCer and U.S. Term Limits President Philip Blumel will give an update on the term limits movement across the country.

In his talk, Blumel will discuss current polling on term limits, term limits and the tea parties, Sen. Jim DeMint's Congressional term limits bill, some history of the term limits movement as well as current term limits battles in Wyoming, California, North Dakota, Arizona and Florida.

Consistent with traditional RLC political strategy, the Palm Beach County Meetup of the Republican Liberty Caucus is not a stand-alone meeting. Instead, RLCers meet in conjunction with the Republican Club of Central Palm Beach County.

The Central Palm Beach County Republican Club is distinguished among most local GOP clubs by its goal to provide high-quality speakers and to focus more on issues and activism than personalities and blind partisanship. Because of the participation of numerous RLCers in the club, the membership is particularly friendly to the libertarian ideas of limited government and individual liberty. However, many different viewpoints are presented at these meetings in a thoughful and civil environment.

Past speakers at this club have included Robert Poole, founder of the Reason Foundation and Reason Magazine; Cato Institute fellow Carlos Ball; Ed Hudgins and RLCer Frank Bubb of The Atlas Society (formerly The Objectivist Center); James Madison Institute Policy Director Bob Sanchez; business speaker, term limits activist and RLCer Bob Burg, local libertarian physician Robert Sussman; Americans for Prosperity state coordinator and RLCer Adam Guillette and Mackinac Center for Public Policy founder and FEE President Larry Reed.

The cover charge is $15 for non-members; a complimentary drink and heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served. The meeting will be held at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3, at the Atlantis Country Club, Atlantis, FL 33462.

After the meeting, RLCers will caucus and follow up on the Feb. 28 RLC regional meeting in Miami in reorganizing the South Florida RLC and adding a local RLCer to the state RLC board. For more information about the Palm Beach event, go here; for the Miami event, go here.