FIrst RINO Hunt in TN is a successful one for Tea Party

On a very warm evening in January 2012, after a full day of fighting Obamacare in Atlanta, sitting in a quiet Irish pub eating fish and chips with Van Irion and fellow TPBC steering committee member Will Sturtevant has a thought.

How can we be more effective? How can we send a resounding message to all levels of elected officials? How can we target those that are giving away our country? Socialist dressed as Republicans or even Democrats!

He looked across the table at Van and myself and said what about having a RINO Hunt, being a RINO Hunter? The statement grew a chuckle at first, complete with a patriot standing with a T on his shirt, with a figurative bow and arrow targeted toward ballot box levers with RINO names on them, symbolically removing them from office with a strong block of votes. The effect that could have on the state and the country appeared to be the answer to getting our country restored to a republic. What a concept!

Target every RINO or DINO with a specific plan, put a concentrated effort together in that district or race and you have made and created the much needed change that has eluded us for years.

As with the Maggart race we can see the power of the RINO hunt.

Van eludes to this technique in the article below and we are thankful to have Will on our team.

Let’s use Wills RINO hunting techniques and I suggest let’s go DINOsaur hunting too! A few old fossils need to be extinct, with a well though out plan to get people to the ballot box!

Perhaps Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander need to be the new species hunted this November at the ballot box? Hmmmm? Again my opinion and we all know what opinions are like? Right?

Tennessee RINO Hunt

Last week’sTennessee elections brought about a minor miracle. As usual the main-stream media’s reaction is to willfully ignore or actively cover up the story. You need to know about this minor miracle because it is something that can be repeated nationwide. Also, it’s great to hear good news once in a while.

Like Tea Party groups in many states the Tennessee Tea Parties have focused most of their energy on state and local elections. Two years ago Tennessee Tea Parties helped the Republican Party take back control of both houses of the Tennessee Legislature, and the Governor’s Office, for the first time in over 150 years. After the election there was much hand-clapping, back-slapping, and hope for the future. Unfortunately the Republicans who were put into office refused to acknowledge the Tea Party as the reason for their unprecedented victory. Over the past two years the Tennessee Tea Parties presented their top ten priorities to the Republicans they put into power. All of these priorities focused on re-asserting state sovereignty over unconstitutional Federal abuses. Tea Party activists drafted legislation to implement these priorities and lobbied tirelessly to get these priorities acted upon. After two years not one single substantive bill supported by the Tea Party was passed. Rather than help the Tea Party, the Tennessee Republican Party treated the Tea Party with contempt.

After the 2012 legislative session closed the Tennessee Tea Party held its quarterly leadership conference. At that meeting the Tea Party leaders decided that the Republican leadership needed to be taught a lesson. If the Tea Party was ever going to get any respect from the Republican leadership, the Tea Party would have to PROVE to the Republicans that the Tea Party had power at the ballot box. So, they decided to go on a RINO Hunt. The Tea Party was going to prove its ability to eliminate a Republican-In-Name-Only. The higher up in Republican leadership, the better. So, they targeted the Republican Caucus Chairwoman, Representative Debbie Maggart, a four-time incumbent. She was number four in the Tennessee Republican leadership. She actively fought against Tennessee Tea Party legislation. Now she is no longer a member of the Tennessee legislature.  

Representative Maggart lost the Republican primary to a Tea Party backed challenger, despite Maggart’s huge war-chest and active support from the Republican leadership. In fact, the election wasn’t even close. Maggart lost by more than 12% of the vote. Tea Party activists drove in from all over the state to knock on doors, hand out fliers, and hold signs for Maggart’s challenger. Tea Party members from all over the state donated campaign contributions to Maggart’s challenger, even though they didn’t live in Maggart’s district. Tea Party leaders used their connections to get national Political Action Committees to donate to Maggart’s challenger.

But none of this would have been possible without a conscious decision by the Tennessee Tea Party leadership to focus their frustration on ONE Republican leader. Believe me, many many Republicans had justifiably earned the wrath of the Tennessee Tea Party. But before any names were discussed, the Tea Party leadership recognized that a focused effort was an absolute requirement. In order to ensure victory over at least one highly-placed Republican, efforts must be focused. Only after this strategy had been agreed upon were names discussed. Maggart had been one of the worst offenders within the Republican leadership, so she was chosen.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression, however. Tea Party activists still worked for other incumbent-challenging candidates. They still donated and volunteered in other districts. But state-wide efforts were focused on Maggart’s primary.

And the news is even better. Four other Republican incumbents in Tennessee were also defeated by Tea Party-backed challengers. All four had thwarted Tea Party priorities and failed to assert state sovereignty over Federal abuses.

Also, two other RINOs beat their Tea Party-backed challengers by less than a dozen votes. Recounts will be held. But even if these two RINOs keep their offices, they were definitely made aware of the power of the Tea Party.

Which leads to the most important point: Every Republican in the Tennessee Legislature knows what just happened. They were aware that the Tea Party had targeted Maggart. They were aware that the other RINOs were being targeted. Now they’ve seen the result. So, next year when the Tea Party drafts a bill and tells Republicans it is a top priority, they will pay attention. Or they will be the target of the next RINO Hunt.

It’s bad enough when Socialists run for office as socialists. It’s much worse when they tell you they’re constitutionalists, but then they thwart every attempt to re-assert constitutional government. Every state should be having RINO Hunts, until all anti-constitutionalists are purged from the Republican Party.

For Liberty,

Van Irion, Founder
 

P.S. We are proud to be able to say that the idea for a RINO hunt came from a Liberty Legal Foundation member. Thank you to Will, here in the state of Tennessee.

Democrat Party disavows its nominee, the voters love this guy

In what could be called one of the strangest races in a while has yet the opportunity to be a huge upset with perhaps the greatest opportunity for the Democratic Party and they disavow their strongest candidate.

Mark Clayton has won the democratic nomination by obtaining 30 percent of the vote and nearly 50,000 votes and the Democratic Party tosses him because he happens to be rooted in his faith that states that marriage is between one man and one woman. This is getting extremely hard to believe.

One party, any party, but this time happens to be the Democratic Party throwing away 50,000 legitimate citizens votes, calling for a new election to get “the right man” in office is probably the saddest statement I have heard in a long time.

I will dare say that not everyone in the Democratic Party is gay or believes in same sex marriage. Then I will further that statement and say I can dare say that not everyone in the Democratic Party agrees with Forrester and Bilbo that if you happen to believe that when anyone marries they would marry the same sex. I can also say with great certainty the majority or at least a great percentage of Democrats are married to the opposite sex and perhaps all or most within leadership positions married the opposite. Its about personal choice as long as you dont say it?

Does this make them complicit with the hate groups of which they associate Mr Clayton of being involved in? Just because they “discriminated” against gay people and married the opposite sex, doesn’t that qualify them as a “hater” too?

Mr Clayton made a very strong and interesting statement at a recent press conference where he was rebutting his disemboweling, I mean disavowing where he made the following statement and it’s from memory but it went something like this, referring to the TN constitution, “doesn’t this make the state of Tennessee a hate group because the state of Tennessee has it in their state constitution that they believe marriage is between a man and a woman? What a profound statement. Let’s take that to another level! Does going to church make you a part of a hate group? Does getting married to the opposite sex in a church make you part of a hate group ? Is the Church of God a hate group? The Baptist convention? Mormons? Latter Day Saints? Being a Christian in most churches? Is Jesus Christ himself the hate group leader? You can tell how distorted and listless our society has become when you contemplate the preceding questions and scenarios. We label everything hate that doesn’t meet someone else’s views of how we see things, doesn’t that make us all haters? If I personally believe that you can marry anyone they want yet my church and state says I should marry the opposite sex does that mean I hate myself?

Who died and left any party with enough power that they can feel they can negate tens of thousands of votes by clearly likeminded voters? Who became the self appointed ethics guru that says unless you vote for gay rights or non gay rights for that matter that you can all of a sudden tell me my vote doesnt count. If I like a man or a woman, my vote should count and if a large percentage as in Mr Mark Claytons case vote for and happen to stand behind a candidate that doesn’t believe the way you believe or the way that you think they should vote should have no bearing on whether my vote is legitimate or not. My vote that wa cast is mine and you can’t take that simple fact away.

Have you heard of the recent “Chick fil A” phenomenon? All parties can learn something from this. The message was loud and strong, ” I can and will cast my vote for any issue or candidate that I darn well please and you or a paid lobbyist or activist within a devisive group are not going to tell me what to do because you happen to have a strong viewpoint of how you want your world to look. I have a choice and I can still make it as long as America remains free. So take your own narrow minded ethical sliding scale of what you feel America should look like and stuff it where the sun don’t shine.”

I personally think you should have a choice in who you choose to be your mate, just as Mark Clayton has done and stated and as well as Mr Forrester and Bilbo. The conflict comes when you wanna say I am wrong when I do make up my own mind and choose! See the double standard here? I like it as long as it’s my viewpoint or your wish?

All that said to say this! The Democratic Party is bypassing the greatest opportunity to win the US Senate seat in a long time. Personally, and according to his voting record, Bob Corker is just as much, if not more of a Democrat as he is a Republican and that goes for Lamar Alexander too. But they are all Americans which gives us a choice to vote for who we want despite the parties perceived notion that they know how you should vote.

The Democratic Party had an excellent opportunity to capitalize on a large block of grassroots voters on both sides of the aisles that are attempting to let their parties know we still have a choice regardless of what lobbyist is blowing in your ear to make your leg tingle. We vote for who we want in office and we don’t want you to interfere with that process.

The Democratic party would be so much stronger and influential in this area if it listened to it’s constituency and at least acknowledged. Not everyone is anti gay or gay for that matter. There are still a great deal of people who just believe the way they believe and they don’t want you forcing your agenda and creating an environment of choosing your ethical standard over my own beliefs. We need to restore the party of old! The party my grandpa was proud to wear! One that was respectful of people and if we differed, we agreed to differ yet realize we were going to the same place!

http://www.claytonforus.com/#!home/mainPage

The Democratic Party released this statement in response to Clayton’s press conference. 
“We are committed to reforms that makes candidate vetting more proactive and more transparent so that we can prevent candidates who are not Democrats from ever getting on the Democratic ballot in the future,” said TNDP Executive Committee member Jim Bilbo
“We have already begun our review of the process that failed us this year and nearly failed us in the past, and we pledge to fix it,” Bilbo said. “We owe it to Democratic supporters, candidates and volunteers to enact reforms so that extreme candidates who don’t represent our core Democratic, middle class values may never take advantage of our open elections again.” 
http://mobile.newschannel5.com/wap/news/text.jsp?targetUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.newschannel5.com%2fstory%2f19219910%2fdisavowed-candidate-clayton-challenges-democratic-party

Clayton gets grilled again by local press and within gis own party!

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/aug/08/tn-democrats-may-be-stuck-with-clayton/

Truth be known, polish this guy a little, give him his voice back and he could win you a US Senate seat. Stripping him of legitimate votes and replacing it with your own ethical bias and narrow-mindedness just lost you the seat. The grassroots within the Democratic party stopped growing when a few elitist are left calling the shots for a vast majority of constituents. Sounds to me new leadership is needed to listen to the people that are loudly saying “I like this guy!”

Again, just my opinion and we all know what opinions are like? Right?