Free Republic

Gay Group Wins Formal Recognition From State Republican Party By SEEMA MEHTA The Log Cabin Republicans, a 38-year-old organization that had unsuccessfully sought a charter from the state party several times in the past, received the formal imprimatur on a 861-293 vote at the party’s biannual convention in Sacramento. Brandon Gesecki, a delegate from Carmel who supported the effort, said the vote showed how much the party in California has changed in recent years. “It would have been the complete opposite 15 years ago,” said Gesecki, who also turned in a proxy vote from former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado supporting...

The battle for the Republican presidential nomination is beginning to really heat up. The latest log on the fire? Texas has decided to move its 2016 primary to March 1, making it the fifth state to cast votes. Traditionally, small states hold their primaries before the larger ones. This allows candidates to focus on persuading target groups of voters and gain momentum before facing the daunting challenge of wooing the masses. Texas is huge. At 270,000 square miles, a campaign will need a treasure trove of cash to finance television ads across 20 media markets. The presidential candidates are now...

Cruz channels his inner televangelist.If the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting is a sort of “American Idol” for would-be GOP presidential candidates, the contenders aren’t learning from the mistakes of previous losers. After the 2012 elections – when Republicans lost the White House to an incumbent under fire for the still-struggling economy – some sensible people in the party (South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is one of them) uttered an important truth: The Republicans, to be successful, can’t just be against things. They have to be for something, have to present a positive and innovative vision for America. We’re not...

Josh DiNatale (left) and Zachary Burns, St. Joseph's University students and members of their College Republicans chapter, get ready to pose for a photo with a cutout of Sen. Rand Paul at CPAC 2015. The Conservative Political Action Conference, held this week in Washington D.C., is prime time for 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls trying — yes, already — to win over a key part of their base. Former Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Gov. Scott Walker and others paraded on and off the main stage, trying to fire up the crowd with their ideas for America's next,...

The UKIP leader will share a stage with high-profile US conservatives including Sarah Palin and NRA gun lobbyists.UKIP leader Nigel Farage is expected to get a celebrity reception in Washington when he addresses America's most high-profile right-wing conference this week. Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby will be sharing a stage with the British politician after he was invited to address the Conservative Political Action Committee in the US capital. Aides told Sky News his philosophy has much in common with his republican hosts, who also focus on "the battle for smaller...

It’s an industry trade show like Comic-Con, but also a feel-good festival à la Burning Man. It’s got Super Bowlesque hoopla, and for activists on the right, the annual meeting is the get-together in Washington. Thousands of conservatives will gather Wednesday for the weeklong Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where presidential hopefuls Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and others will try to woo their base in the lead-up to 2016. The event, long held at Washington’s Omni Shoreham Hotel, was moved by organizers to the recently built Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland—a Democratic stronghold,...

The party chair calls a new report "tough love" The Democratic Party’s autopsy of its devastating defeat in 2014 calls for a renewed focus on the party’s message and winning back white Southern voters. In preliminary findings unveiled Saturday at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee, a task force studied the party’s defeats in 2010 and 2014—despite its victories in the 2008 and 2012 presidential years. It called for the creation of a “National Narrative Project” to help the party develop a message that can survive in midterm election years. It called for the creation of a “National Narrative...

Dinesh D’Souza is no one’s idea of a thoughtful participant in the nation’s public conversation. Still, his tweet on Wednesday morning may have set a new low for the right-wing rabble-rouser. Commenting on a widely circulated image of President Obama taking a picture of himself with selfie stick, D’Souza tweeted the following message: “YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF THE GHETTO... Watch this vulgar man show his stuff, while America cowers in embarrassment.” The tweet has created quite a stir, especially among people who think it demonstrates D’Souza’s racism. But I think it reveals something that might actually be...

A crop of 2016 Republican White House hopefuls and stars of the conservative media firmament are on the list as organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference put the finishing touches on the speakers list for this year’s gathering. The four-day event, considered one of the prime political dates on the calendar for conservative officeholders and activists, kicks off with a daylong activist “boot camp” Wednesday and concludes the evening of Feb. 28 at the Maryland’s National Harbor just outside of Washington. Republican presidential contenders now scheduled to speak include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas...

For the fourth consecutive year, gay conservatives will have no official presence at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference. On Thursday, Log Cabin Republicans accused the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC, of excluding the group of LGBT Republicans as sponsors of the annual conference. “Make no mistake: LCR is actively being prohibited from sponsoring CPAC,” said Gregory T. Angelo, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, in a statement. According to Angelo, discussions with the ACU and its new leadership began this past July. But the ACU said participation by Log Cabin Republicans would prove difficult due to the group’s...

Yvonne Dean-BaileyA 19-year-old freshman at a Massachusetts college is hoping to become one of the youngest female state representatives in New Hampshire’s history as she enters a special election that will be decided this spring. Yvonne Dean-Bailey of Northwood, a Republican who graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy last year, said she is hoping to bring the voice of young, conservative women to the State House. Dean-Bailey is a veteran of two prominent lawmakers’ offices, having worked as an intern doing legislative research for U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte and as a field organizer in Cheshire County on Marilinda Garcia’s campaign for...

The 2016 Republican presidential field is shaping up into a legendary free-for-all, with polls showing the race wide open and more candidates expressing interest by the day. Will it be Jeb Bush who consolidates establishment support? Can Rand Paul or Ted Cruz break through with a powerful grassroots coalition? Could Scott Walker thread the needle between both sides? What about Marco Rubio? And then there’s the Democratic side. Will it be Hillary Clinton who prevails? Or will – actually, you know what, it will probably just be Hillary Clinton. While the former secretary of state hasn’t even said whether she’ll...

Top GOP fundraisers will reportedly join Grover Norquist and Michael Bloomberg’s Partnership for a New Economy group on a conference call next week to push for comprehensive amnesty legislation. According to a BuzzFeed report, the GOP fundraisers on the Tuesday call will include Mitt Romney’s “former finance director Spencer Zwick; California-based fast food CEO Andrew Puzder; and billionaire health care executive Mike Fernandez.” Fernandez is reportedly leaning toward Jeb Bush, who has said that illegal immigration is an “act of love” and has not backed down for his support of a comprehensive amnesty bill, while Puzder and Zwick are unaffiliated...

The early dinner crowd near the Capitol on Thursday yielded at least one notable pairing, with overtones of the presidential election cycle to come: Sen. Ted Cruz and former Ambassador John Bolton. Sharing a meal at Johnny’s Half Shell before Bolton was set to appear on Fox News, Cruz launched into a discussion of 2016 strategy audible to anyone within earshot, including a reporter for the Washington Examiner. Bolton has himself flirted with the idea of running for president in 2016, but his conversation with Cruz suggested the Texas senator, at least, views Bolton as a source of valuable input,...

Mitt Romney announced on Jan. 30 that he would not run for President in 2016, and immediately the commentariate ordained Jeb Bush the big winner. Bush was Romney’s heir, a thousand wagging tongues proclaimed. The donors would fall to him, and with them would go the Republican establishment, then the voters. The Republicans had a “frontrunner.” If there is a 2016 frontrunner for the GOP, he achieved that status six days before Romney’s announcement. On that day, Sat., Jan. 24, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker delivered a speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines, It vaulted him into the...

The Post reports: Former Texas governor Rick Perry on Thursday will announce that he has recruited more than 80 major donors, including some of the biggest bundlers in Republican politics, to aid his efforts as he prepares for a likely 2016 presidential campaign. Perry’s list of supporters is heavy with wealthy Texans, including many energy executives, investors or other business leaders who have backed his previous campaigns, such as his unsuccessful 2012 presidential run. The Rick PAC Advisory Board also features bigwigs in California, New York, Florida, Illinois and other donor-rich states, as well as more than a dozen donors...

Texas Republicans issued a one-sentence rebuttal to Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) for his comments during a Monday Rules Committee meeting. In debating with Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) over the latest Obamacare repeal bill, Hastings referenced his colleague’s home state, “which I think is a crazy state to begin with, and I mean it just as I said it.” As the two fought over speaking time, Burgess complained that Hastings “made a very defamatory comment about my state, and I will not stand here and listen to it.” Hastings has not apologized. House Texas Republicans issued a joint statement today:...

The most influential figure in the Republican presidential contest just may be a Democrat who died more than 50 years ago, John F. Kennedy. When Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer recently predicted Marco Rubio as the eventual 2016 winner, Krauthammer praised the senator from Florida with a label encapsulating political vigor, pro-growth ideas, and a robust foreign policy of peace through strength: “Kennedyesque.” The former governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, another Republican with eyes on the White House, is, as Kennedy was, a Catholic from a wealthy and politically active family with bases in both New England and Florida. Jeb...

As the field of possible GOP contenders for the White House start to take shape, it is important to assess what Latino voters think about the potential presidential candidates, if they even know who they are, and how they can possibly position themselves to court the Latino vote. There is no question that Republicans will lose the White House again in 2016 if they repeat the mistakes of Mitt "I would veto the Dream Act" Romney and lose three-quarters of the Latino vote. GOP Chairman Reince Preibus has said future Republican candidates "must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform," while...

(AUDIO-AT-LINK)There is not a lot of love between the U.S. labor movement and those on the long list of potential 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls. But there is one name among the GOP prospects that labor truly despises — and fears. He is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who weakened unions in his own state and appears ready to make his battles with labor a centerpiece of a bid for the White House. Walker's approach on a recent Saturday in Iowa was telling. In a downtown Des Moines theater full of conservative activists, he spoke for 22 minutes. But right off the...