Tampa, FL - July 18, 2008     The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida sponsored a table at the Hillsborough County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner. The event was held at the Tampa Grand Hyatt on Rocky Point, and a grand time was had by all.

The Lincoln Day Dinner is one of the premier fundraising events for all County Republican Parties in Florida every year. This year it had been rescheduled twice; From the traditional month of February until June, and then again until July.  Both postponements were due to speaker scheduling difficulties. In the end, the event came off perfectly and set attendance records for Hillsborough County Lincoln Day Dinners.  

The guest list at the RLC-FL table included RLCers Tom Gaitens, Jim Riis, Steve Burden and Kit Burden; as well as former RLCer Eddie Adams, Republican Candidate for Florida Congressional District 11--currently held by Democrat Kathy Castor--his Chief of Staff, Tim Horton and Executive Assistant, Cheryl Basso; and Tom Aderhold, Republican Candidate for Hillsborough County Commission, District 2, and his wife, Barbara Aderhold. Jim King, Republican Candidate for Florida Congressional District 5 had also been invited, but had to both drop out of the race and the dinner due to a serious back injury.

The Keynote Speaker was Senator John Thune (R, SD), most well know in Republican circles for defeating then Minority Leader, Tom Daschle in the 2004 election. In addition, Florida Representative Adam Putnam (R, FL-12) drew tumultuous applause after the much-favored Florida Congressional Representative delivered a rousing speech. Both speakers are Enterpriser's on the RLC Liberty Index.

The second Meetup went off without a hitch--thanks in the main to Adam Smith, President of the TBYR. About 40 People attended, only one or two from the Meetup. Dinner was outstanding ( I had chicken, and Kit, my wife had the Salad Buffet, Kristen my daughter had the Chicken, too)

Speakers included Eddie Adams, Congressional Candidate for Castor's Seat in District 11. He spoke of his vision for energy independence, smaller government, and the economy. I particularly liked that he emphasized how government has created most of the economic problems, then promised how they were going to fix it by more government!

Brian Blair, Hillsborough County Commissioner, District 6 (County-wide) is running for reelection. Brian emphasized his spending cuts and efforts to consolidate functions to increase efficiency.

Adam has done a wonderful job getting the YR's back to an active force. They have big plans on how they are going to support Republican Candidates. This is an active bunch, and they will be a real factor in the upcoming elections here in Tampa Bay.

They need our assistance: Due to our wonderful school system, most have not a clue on what the Constitution really is all about. They kind of go with the flow, and whatever sounds good at the time.

We (the RLC) are working on getting Jim King, candidate for Ginny B-W's seat (D5) to present at the June TBYR meeting. The TBYR are all for it, and we are trying to make it happen. Stay tuned.

--Steve