Yesterday we all met State Senator Al Melvin of Arizona. He’s an impressive Tea Party candidate for Governor in a crowded Republican primary. We hooked him up with Typhoon Lou Marin of Iamamerican, and they’ll be working together on putting on a Tea Party event in Phoenix, similar to the recent one in Ohio that was so successful. Al will be “on the podium” with Lou, and after Lou converts the crowd he will get a chance to make a pitch. I think Al sees the value of our movement to his candidacy. It could help propel him to the nomination. We hope it does, since that would be an actual demonstration of the political potential available to candidates who associate themselves with us.
State Rep. Ken Ivory is our man in Utah, and because of the very strong Birch/Eagle Forum presence there we think sending in the Iamamerican team would be of great help to him. Ken is totally on board, and is willing to take considerable personal political risk for the cause. One of his colleagues was taken out for doing so, and our hats are off to Ken for his willingness to take the heat. In any event, the state of Utah is in his capable hands. \
State Rep. Gary Banz has Oklahoma. Assemblyman Chris Kapenga has Wisconsin. Together they are organizing Saturday’s Mt. Vernon Conference. It’s similar in in some ways to the Virginia/Maryland conference which preceded the Annapolis Convention of 1786. They will meet with legislators from around 20 other states to identify the procedural issues which a Convention of States would face. Later, in the spring, the presiding officers of every state legislature will be invited to delegate a member from their body to attend a meeting in Indianapolis in order to hash out the proposed rules for such a Convention. A subsequent meeting, about a year from now, would “adopt” them, in the sense of proposing them to such a Convention, if it ever takes place. This is important work, and they’ve given a great deal of thought to it.
Gary has invented an Article V board game, (it will sell for $17.87) which he hopes will be available for purchase soon. I’ll be getting one for my granddaughter. He promised to get me more info on it, which I will share. Chris is young, and fairly new to politics. He’s very bright, attractive, and soft spoken. I asked him if this was a “Wisconsin” thing, since Gov. Scott Walker is similarly mild mannered. He said Walker is working on livening up his delivery. If he does so successfully, I think he’s the front runner for the 2016 nomination for President. Anyway, Chris impressed in a Paul Ryan kind of way. What is it with these guys from Wisconsin? (BTW, his Congressman is Jim Sensenbrenner, an old friend of mine from the YR’s in college). We all feel better about Wisconsin with Chris as our sponsoring legislator.
This morning we had a two and a half hour breakfast at the Grand Hyatt coffee shop. Dave Biddulph, BBA Task Force co-founder, was the organizer. Scott Rogers (our executive director), D.C. lawyer Michael Stern, and ALEC senior director Michael Bowman were there. We were joined at various times by Article V Caucus co-chairs Rep. Yvette Herrell (NM) and Sen. Kevin Lundberg (CO). (Their caucus currently has 82 members from 29 states, and is growing). Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig dropped by, complaining of pink eye he got from his four year old.
When the discussion turned to Congress, and the role House Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte might play, we joined the table of Mike Farris, head of the Convention of States Project, and a personal friend of Chairman Goodlatte and Mark Meckler, President of Citizens for Self-Governance. These are the fellows who are pursuing their own separate Article V strategy. They are both very well informed, and we had a frank and productive discussion on issues which concern us all.
At lunch I sat in the back of the room with Lew Uhler and my old Alaska buddy, retired State Senator Robin Taylor. Ted Cruz put on an impressive performance, but the highlight for me was when the following speaker, ALEC private sector head Steve Seale, asked Lew to stand up while he gave a glowing account of Lew’s 40 years of contributions to the cause. Afterward a reporter came up to interview Lew. Here’s hoping he gets some recognition in the press.
reaganproject.blog 