On Friday, Rock by the Sea really kicks into full gear. For those who got in Thursday (or earlier) they tend to have plenty of time on Friday to hit up the pool, the beach, or find some other trouble since music doesn’t start up again until Friday evening. This is not only a great day for our attendees but also for the participating musicians who get to spend some time on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. While their job may be grueling traveling from place to place on a regular basis, this is a nice day for them to chill.

One of the bands, however, took a couple hours away from the beach to spend time with some of the beneficiaries of the festival. Just think – you drag a band to come all the way from Washington, D.C. to Panama City Beach, Florida. And then on a day with perfect beach weather, you ask them to get off the beach and go inside. But they were more than willing.

The band I’m referring to is Melodime. The place they went: the Anchorage Children’s Home, which is one of the charities for which Rock by the Sea raises funds. Anchorage provides a continuum of care for at-risk and abused and neglected children, youth and their families, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, through screening, assessment, case management and counseling, basic shelter, and non-residential aftercare services.

Thanks to the support provided by Rock by the Sea, Anchorage created the “Rock & Role Model” program. Through this special project, artists have visited Anchorage Childrens Home to introduce them to guitars, how to string them and how to tune and play them.  Guitars were provided by Music 4 More and new strings are being provided by Curt Mangan Strings.  So, on the Friday of Rock by the Sea, Melodime took time out of their day to be with the kids at Anchorage, performing songs, telling them stories of why they were inspired to choose music as part of their life and career, and showed them how to play a few songs. During this trip to Florida, Melodime was also joined by singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Pfau, who also joined his “temporary” band mates at Anchorage.

On Saturday, about a dozen of the kids from Anchorage also came over to the Rock by the Sea venue, Spinnaker Beach Club, during the day and listened to a few of the other bands, including The Hot Hearts, who also paused to sign some autographs and give away some music. Even though these kids have already gone through so much in their life, it was nice that Melodime and other artists at Rock by the Sea were able to allow them to enjoy some tunes and be inspired by what music and life have to offer. This is what this charity music festival is all about. Shoot, this is what life is about. Thanks again to all the musicians, volunteers, attendees, and sponsors for making this possible.

Stay tuned. I’ll give more updates from Rock by the Sea 2013 soon…

Jackson Rohm (right) invited on stage by Stroke 9 to join them in singing their hit song "Little Black Backpack"

Rock by the Sea’s 2013 festival in Panama City Beach was a great success. I’m honored and humbled to be on the board of directors of this great organization which organizes music festivals to raise money for some very deserving charities.

This year those charities included the Pediatric Brain Tumor Program at Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando as well as the Anchorage Children’s Home in Panama City. The first Rock by the Sea I attended was in 2009. It’s hard to believe this is now the fifth year in a row I’ve attended. In the early days it was on little St. George Island. Last year, we moved it over to Spinnaker Beach Club in Panama City Beach. The location and the venue have been great. We are literally right on some of the best beaches in the world and we have been blessed with beautiful weather every year I’ve gone.

Panama City Beach, FL: Some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Our festival schedule included a Thursday night, Friday night, and then all afternoon Saturday until 3am. On Thursday, we started with a “light” lineup including RBTS alums Brian Fechino, Heather Luttrell, Steve Everett, Chardy McEwan, and Jackson Rohm. We also heard from a U2 cover band called U2 by UV. Even though they sang U2 covers for a very lively 2 hours, the first night — and the whole weekend — belonged to Jackson Rohm.

This was a special year for Jackson. He has played every major Rock by the Sea festival since 2007. I (and others) have personally dubbed him “Mr. Rock by the Sea.” He not only performs, he brings fans, friends, and often times we find him pitching in an extra helping hand.

This past year Jackson got married to a very lovely and beautiful woman and has now decided to hang up the full-time music career and get sucked into the corporate world. While he spends most of his time in the Cleveland and Buffalo area, he and the wife are moving out to San Francisco to start a new life together. So he has told us he can’t promise he’ll play Rock by the Sea next year (or any year). But while at the festival, after being prodded by Rock by the Sea founder and board member Beth Gosnell, he said he would certainly try. On Saturday night, after his “last” performance of the weekend, Jackson was presented with a nice recognition gift on stage. I believe I saw tears. If not from Jackson, certainly from Beth.

Jackson's opening set on Thursday night.

I have always enjoyed getting to know Jackson over the past five years. He is truly one of the nicest people you will meet and he sings about traveling to far off places that have captured his heart, such as in one of my favorite songs of his, “Rio.” He also sings about “the one who got away” and about all sorts of other trials and tribulations of love and life. In his music, there is passion, there is a story. He’s a singer. He’s a songwriter. He might be heading off into the corporate world, but he’s not done with music at all. And I’m certainly not done with throwing on his tunes. Thank you, Mr. Rock by the Sea.

Stay tuned. I’ll give more updates from Rock by the Sea 2013 soon…

In the history of the conservative movement, our philosophy has been better defined by our opposition.

During the Cold War, Soviet tyranny made the best case for limited government both abroad and at home. And Ronald Reagan seized on their bad example. During the 1990s, Bill Clinton’s infidelities made the best case for social conservatism. And George W. Bush, the candidate, seized on the principle of personal responsibility.

And now, the Obama administration’s overt overreach of government is once again showing why the end of the liberal ideology leads to a place of tyranny. Obama’s Justice Department has spied on the Associated Press. Obama’s Internal Revenue Services has targeted those in the political opposition. And Obama’s foreign policy decisions have abandoned our military heroes after putting them in harm’s way.

In an article on Slate.com, John Wilkerson stated that “Obama is making a the case for conservatism better than Mitt Romney ever did.” A few great points from that article:

Showing is always better than telling, and when the government overreaches in so many ways it gives support to the conservative argument about the inherently rapacious nature of government…

…Conservatives argue that the more government you have, the more opportunities you will have for it to grow out of control…

At what point will Americans stop being complacent about government intrusion in our lives and start waking up?  Or have we hit the point where we are simply too complacent and there’s no turning back?  Have we reached a point where, collectively, we believe our “leaders” our wiser than us and so we assume the actions they propose and implement must be for our own good?

After all, we have long been complacent – those in today’s generation have been conditioned by government schools.  And from the time we started earning our first paycheck, we are led to a promise that government is already looking out for us with a great retirement plan known as Social Security.  What a great word – security – to make us feel so comfortable.  And instead of being upset that we have lost control over making our own decisions, instead we are rather comfortable.

We are comfortable with the idea that politicians know best for us when it comes to not only our retirement program, but also our health insurance, and a whole host of other decisions we entrust in their hands.  We are comfortable that the decisions of so many across so many thousands of miles in distinct families, neighborhoods, work places, and communities,  are not put in the hands of the people who know those places best, but rather in the hands of a very powerful small elite who wisely watches over us (mostly from afar) and have become our benevolent caretakers.  With this comfort that we are being taken care of, we keep sliding into further complacency.  Year after year, election cycle after election cycle, no matter whether it is Democrats or Republicans, we allow those powerful elites to make decisions for us, as if they know best.

This is a Republic, and I’d have it no other way than to engage in a system of representative government where there are checks and balances – not only between the various branches of government (legislative, executive, judicial) but also between various levels of government (local, state, and federal).  But the moment where we start allowing those in power to make decisions that go beyond what we should be able to responsibly control ourselves, we start sliding further into complacency, giving up not only personal liberty, but also personal decision-making powers over things that occur in our daily lives.  And then the ultimate checker of power – we the people – no longer has the same level of power (or even will) to “check” the other powers back.

This week, the free press (who was arguably in the tank for President Obama during his elections), learned they aren’t so free under this administration.  In fact, it was revealed this week that the Department of Justice had been obtaining phone records from reporters with the Associated Press.  At what point will their anger subside?  Perhaps this President just has to wait out this latest scandal.  If he survives this one, all the rest are easy.

Also in this past week, we learned that individuals and groups who opposed this Presidents politically were targeted for further scrutiny by the IRS.  This latest infringement is so outrageous that even Jon Stewart of The Daily Show carried a 7-minute segment on the scandal.

And over the past few weeks, we’ve also been learning more about the tragedy that happened on September 11, 2012 at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi (that’s in Libya for those of you who have been living too comfortable to even know about this controversy).  That attack happened on an historic day – the 11th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001.  While it was happening, our military personnel asked for backup and were given none.  Four Americans died, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

After the attack, the State Department (then led by Hillary Clinton) tried to cover up the entire incident and tried to shift attention to a YouTube video (that warned of radical Islam) and claimed that video “instigated” the attack.  This has been proven to be ridiculously false.  The reason for the cover up is becoming clearer each day – the Obama Administration was less than 2 months before a very close election and wanted to shift attention away from the incident.  Through Congressional testimony and investigations over the past week, we are beginning to learn more, but the media (and the American people) are very comfortable and complacent and have not yet shown very much widespread outrage about this.

And then…then, there’s the drones.  A few Americans were awakened to this invasion of our privacy in the wake of a filibuster by U.S. Senator Rand Paul.  But then we want on with our business.

There’s also that $16.8 trillion national debt. But after everything else described above, that seems so trivial now, doesn’t it?

So, what will it take for the American people to wake up?  If there is ever a time, it is now.  The freedom of the press is at risk.  The free association of groups to mobilize politically is at stake. And the very men and women who put on that uniform each day to defend our right to free speech, free press, and yes, even our freedom to defend ourselves with the right to bear arms, cannot even trust those in charge of sending them into harm’s way.

My hope is that after you read this article, you will not just go back to watching the NBA Playoffs, American Idol, or playing Words With Friend.  (Probably just lost a few there).  Instead, I hope you will do something.  Call or write your Congressman.  Get involved with a group that promotes liberty.  Attend a town hall meeting.  Get off the couch, do something, and defend that liberty we each take for granted.  If not, our comfort will drift into something else less comfortable.  There are plenty of examples in history where the comforts of materialism drifted into a society that turned less free.  In the words of Ronald Reagan, “one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

In the past week, the debate over whether to allow same-sex couples to marry has once again heated up.  This is mostly because two cases on this subject have reached the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments this past week, with decisions due sometime this summer.

As these cases played out in our national media, the use of the term “marriage equality” has also intensified.  And this is the subject I want to address here.

While studying how this discussion has played out across the country this week, I came across the commentary of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who is the Archbishop of San Francisco and also serves as the chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  I think the Church, as a religious institution, is highly qualified to discuss the issue of equality – perhaps the most qualified.  We would not be having a discussion of equality and human rights without the Church.

In the discussion of “marriage quality,” Archbishop Cordileone states:

“Notice how there is no controversy in this country now over the eveil of Jim Crow laws. Shortly after the Civil Rights Act the cultural change was complete.  This is because it was the right thing to do.  The truth cannot be suppressed indefinitely.”

I think he raises an important point.  For there are many – on both sides of this issue – who feel that if the Supreme Court grants some kind of legalization of “same sex marriage,” that the issue will somehow go away.  That, in the words of the Archbishop, “the cultural change will be complete.”

This is highly unlikely, and we have the abortion issue as an example.  The Archbishop asks us to:

“Draw a contrast here with the pro-life movement: After the Roe decision, it was commonly thought that our society would soon easily accept the legitimacy of abortion. But what has happened?  The pro-life movement is stronger now, 40 years later, than it ever has been.  That is because of the truth: Abortion is the killing of innocent human life.  That is not a matter of opinion or religious belief; it is a simple fact that cannot be denied.”

If he is right (and I think he is) then I also think the whole argument in favor of ”same-sex marriage” on the grounds of equality is completely bogus (which is also basically what he is saying).

If “same sex-marriage” is legalized into law nationally (as it sort of is in a few states) the opposition to it will not go away (as it has not even in those states).

It’s because there’s no clear evidence that legalizing it is “the right thing to do.” At the very least, it is a matter of opinion.  Draw this in contrast to interracial marriages.  While those were illegal for a period of time, it is clear that legalizing it was and is the right thing to do.  And interracial marriages post-1950s were not the first ever in human history.  Interracial unions between men and women have happened throughout human history – especially given the fact that various racial identities have changed across time and space.  But “marriage” between two people of the same sex has never been granted by any church or any government until this generation.

For someone who believes marriage is primarily a sacrament of the Church, marriage is clearly only reserved for one man and one woman – therefore, opposition to it WILL continue.

Regardless of my personal religious beliefs, I for one respect consenting adults to do whatever it is they want to do with another.  But the manipulation of the word EQUALITY to try to create some kind of right” that does not exist is just detestable and anyone who uses this term (in relation to marriage) which has meant so much to so many oppressed in history should give some more serious thought to what they are doing and who or what encouraged them to participate in this manipulation.

Our (natural) rights do not come from government.  They come from God — or if you’re not religious, from the natural law of the universe (this is no better articulated than perhaps in the Declaration of Independence).  However, the abolitionist and civil rights movements were built from the Christian belief that we are all EQUAL in the eyes of God – that is why you see religious men and women LEADING these movements – from the Quakers to Martin Luther King, Jr., etc.  And this is a reason I think it is wise to listen to the commentary of those from the Church today, including Archbishop Cordileone.

Back to marriage: it didn’t originate with government. Its origins came from the Church.  Whether or not you think the government should be involved in marriage doesn’t change the fact that if you go back in history, the primary reason government got involved in marriage in the first place was because of the children that marriage produced naturally.  Stating the obvious, this cannot possibly happen naturally through the union of two people of the same sex.

No matter what the courts decide or how our legislators vote, this issue isn’t going away.  Clearly, it’s one where the will of the people in each of the states should be respected.  This is where our country got it wrong with the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion.  The federal government should have never gotten involved in the first place.  They created a cultural divide we are still dealing with.

My suggestion: Let this battle play out in each of the individual states.  From a conservative perspective, that is what we should be championing.  It would conform to a Constitutional conservatism we can all rally behind despite our beliefs (on either side of this issue) and help us move on from the cultural battles this issue has created.

The light from the sunset hits the beaches of Seaside, Florida.

2012 was a wild year. It was an election year, in which our not-so-favorite President won re-election, but so did one of our favorite Governors, Scott Walker of Wisconsin. It was a year of championships, in which my Miami Heat won, and it was the first one for NBA superstar LeBron James. It was a year of tragedy for our nation: there were mass shootings at a movie theater in Colorado and at an elementary school in Connecticut, and a hurricane that devastated New Jersey and New York.  While Florida remained spared from any major storms, we didn’t spare the nation with our bizarre news stories. The world came together in London for a spectacular Olympic Games and some thought 2012 might be it as the Mayan calendar expired on December 21, 2012. But here I am 10 days later still blogging away. As is my tradition, I always like to reflect on the past year by writing a “year in review.” While I can’t capture every person and every moment of 2012, here are some highlights.

Travels Across the USA: 42 states and counting

For me, there was plenty of travel in 2012. In addition to getting all around Florida on business for The James Madison Institute, I also had personal travels that took me to Atlanta (twice), the Barnsley Gardens in northern Georgia, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, PA, New York City, Los Angeles, CA, Milwaukee, WI, Frazee, Minnesota, and Cincinnati, Ohio. I also stepped foot in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. And if you count a plane connection in Charlotte, I was briefly in North Carolina as well. Whew!

In 2012, I added two new states (Wisconsin and Minnesota) to my lifetime bucket list. With those, I’ve now traveled to 42 of the 50 U.S. States. (In case you’re wondering which 8 I haven’t been to: Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, and New Mexico remain places I need to see to complete the USA). And if Puerto Rico gets added as a state (and in 2012, they voted that they’d like to), well, I’ve already been there too.

Good friends Laurie, Joleen, and Eric helped me celebrate my birthday at the 30A Songwriters Music Festival in Seaside, Florida.

Other personal trips this year included spending time with my good longtime friends Laurie Sparks and Eric Smith (and his girlfriend, Joleen). The four of us began 2012 right, when we traveled to the 30A Music Festival in Seaside, Florida for my birthday weekend in January. I was able to catch up with them several times this year, including a fun night in October in downtown Orlando where we saw one of our favorite bands, Candlebox. In November, we ventured to St. Augustine for a fun weekend to see one of our all time favorite musicians, Jonny Lang, who was opening for the legendary Buddy Guy! This was at least my 14th Jonny Lang show (that I can remember) going back to the first time I saw him in 1997 at UCF’s Homecoming. St. Augustine remains one of my favorite places not just in Florida, but in the country. Just love the history and the quaint town. I was able to celebrate mass there for the first time in the nation’s oldest parish. And Seaside is now a new favorite (it’s the town the movie the Truman Show was filmed in). In 2013, Florida will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the landing of Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine. Put that city on your bucket list! Viva Florida 500!

Celebrated mass in the nation's oldest Catholic parish, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.

2012 also allowed me to see the famous (or infamous?) Gasparilla Festival in Tampa in January. I had been there for work a few days prior and stayed an extra day to see the festival. I didn’t partake in too much of the craziness though before I hit the road, but at least I got to see the parade and all the pirate madness that comes with it.

Seeing the Gasparilla Pirate Festival with my friend Jason Hood.

Charities Succeeding

I remain on the board of two charities, Rock by the Sea and Project Veritas. Both had great years. And Rock by the Sea brought me to Panama City Beach for an extended weekend in May. This was Rock by the Sea’s sixth year. Normally the charity music festival has been held on St. George Island, FL, but we finally outgrew the venue and SGI and moved the big festival to Spinnaker in Panama City Beach. This past April, we had 25 bands perform over 4 nights, including headliners Needtobreathe, Sister Hazel, and Shawn Mullins. It was amazing and the weather seems to always be wonderful. Plan to join us for the next big one in Panama City on May 16-19 and visit RockbytheSea.org for more details.

Another Rock by the Sea moment: Bo from Needtobreathe jams his guitar on top of the bar in the middle of the crowd at Spinnaker in Panama City Beach.

Rock by the Sea, however, did not totally abandon St. George Island. In September, we held our golf tournament in nearby Carabelle and brought five bands to perform at Harry A’s on SGI. I’m glad we’re continuing to do a fall event on SGI, because it’s also one of my favorite Florida places and a much more intimate setting. Speaking of golf, I got a few rounds in this year. I’m still very much a beginner, but it’s been nice to get out there and (attempt to) play. It also allowed me to play in the RBTS golf tournament.

Rock by the Sea also put out our third Christmas album this year and held our Christmas CD release show in Atlanta for the third year in a row. I was not only fortunate enough to attend, but they made me the emcee for the evening. I was even able to introduce Will Turpin, the bass player for Collective Soul, a band I saw live while still in high school. Pretty neat.

As for Project Veritas, it had its best year yet. I can’t reveal all the fundraising numbers, but they are stellar and honestly, could be quite better. But more than that, PV made a huge impact in 2012. Given the election year, most of the undercover investigations focused on voter fraud. And there was plenty to reveal. One investigation in New Hampshire led to the Granite State passing a Voter ID law, which was in place by the November election. My friend and PV President James O’Keefe is to be commended for the great work he and his staff do each day. I’m proud and honored to continue to serve on the board of this truly revolutionary organization.

Me and James at Universal Studios City Walk Summer 2012.

I was also grateful to get to actually see James a number of times this year – we met for a PV board meeting in Washington, DC in April; we hung out in Orlando when he was there speaking at the Franklin Center’s grassroots training in the summer; and he returned to Florida to speak at the State Policy Network annual meeting at Amelia Island in November. We even tried to bring him to Florida to speak at The James Madison Institute’s luncheon in Tampa during the week of the Republican National Convention, but the government wouldn’t let him come. Well, that’s another story… but at least he was able to be with us and make a presentation via Skype.

The James Madison Institute Growing

JMI had its best year yet in 2012. I feel like I say this every year, but at the end of my fifth year at JMI, each year has seen growth. We moved into The Columns building, the most historic private residence in downtown Tallahassee. We are now just a couple blocks from the Capitol building and are poised to have an even greater impact. When I joined the Institute in January 2008, I was like the eighth or ninth employee on staff. Today, there are 17.

There goes the neighborhood! JMI moves to The Columns building in downtown Tallahassee.

We’ve also added a CapitolVanguard.org news bureau, reporting on the policy-related news out of Tallahassee and around the state. Our Civics Education program, focused on educating young people about our nation’s founding principles and common sense economics, is continuing to grow as well. And we’re offering free-market policy solutions to Florida legislators at a more rapid pace.

This year, we also held a signature event in Naples, Florida in February. We brought Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to the Ritz-Carlton, where he addressed a crowd of over 250 in attendance. Later that night, he also was with us for a private dinner with a select group of JMI donors. It was a splendid day and I am not sure I have met a more humble, genuine elected official. I see a lot of them and I was very impressed by Governor Walker. He not only has great communication skills, sound policy ideas, but he and his wife are truly incredible people. In June, he was forced to face a recall in Wisconsin and he survived, becoming the only Governor in U.S. history to survive a recall. And he actually won by a bigger margin than he did in his previous election.

The JMI brand is growing and I’m proud of that. This year, my boss also gave me a new title: Vice President of Advancement, but I’m still performing much the same role as Director of Development. We have a great group of development staff working with me to raise funds and expand the brand. And, my office in the new building is situated in the “K. Earl Durden Center for the Advancement of Liberty,” in honor of our late board member and devoted patriot. I enjoy working every day with our devoted staff and on a regular basis I am in communication with the amazing members of our board of directors and research advisory council, not to mention the hundreds of donors I get to meet during my travels around the state. If you’re not yet a member, sign up today at www.jamesmadison.org/join. If you live in Florida, you’re especially needed! But even if you’re not in Florida, you know how Florida goes, so goes the nation.

Politics: Election 2012

In 2012, I very much limited my time in electoral politics. I no longer participate regularly in the Republican Party, which has failed our movement and our country. I am still a Republican voter, but every day that I see so many spineless Republicans, it frustrates me. It gives me more reason to be involved with organizations that are investing in a long-term permanent infrastructure for freedom, whether that be JMI or others.

That said, there are still very many good Republicans who I know and trust and get behind. I continue to be grateful for my own Congressman, Steve Southerland. Not only is he a strong conservative, but he’s a devoted family man and just a good guy. He’s doing the right thing every day in Washington and for the people of Florida’s Second Congressional District. I’m also grateful for Governor Rick Scott, Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll, CFO Jeff Atwater, and Attorney General Pam Bondi. They are quite a team! And as a Floridian, I am inspired each day by our U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. Not only is he doing the right thing, he’s a great communicator of the conservative message and has become a national star.

On a more personal level, my good friend Josh Mandel came oh so close to taking a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio. Josh currently serves as State Treasurer and ran a very hard fought, principled campaign right to the finish. While he lost, it was one of the closest U.S. Senate races in Ohio history. I was so inspired I donated quite a bit of money to the guy and helped raise some more from my friends via Facebook. I then expensed my own trip to Cincinnati for a weekend in September to campaign for Josh, attend the FreePac Ohio event, in which he addressed over 6,000 people, and was fortunate to have dinner with him to discuss the next six weeks — and a longer term version. Don’t forget about Josh. While he’s 35 and looks 19, he’s still the State Treasurer and now has the experience of being involved in one of the nation’s most high profile campaigns of the year.

Me with conservative commentator Dana Loesch at the FreePac Ohio event in Cincinnati in September.

In August, I was fortunate to be able to attend every day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa. I was in the Tampa Bay Times Forum when the party’s Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, spoke as well as when VP nominee Paul Ryan spoke. I also was able to see the speeches of Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Susana Martinez, and so many others. What an incredible experience. For more, see all my blog posts: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5.  I also realized how much less I like politics than music, when I was probably more excited to see free private concerts by Kid Rock and Journey during the GOP convention.

The prudent conservative at the Republican National Convention in 2012.

Unfortunately for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, things did not work out so well in November. The biggest disappointment on election night was the re-election of our failed Crony-in-Chief, Barack Obama. But hey, as I told my mom after election night: life goes on. There are worse things than losing an election. I could be one of the 23 million people unemployed or one of the 46 million on food stamps. I’m not. But of course, I also believe the way to prosperity is less government intervention in the economy and more economic freedom. History proves that works, again and again. But history also proves Republics don’t last when half the people can vote themselves the treasury.

Unfortunately at the end of 2012, that’s what’s been happening in America. We are a nation addicted to spending – not only in our personal lives, but in our government. Speaking of which, our federal government has amassed over $16 trillion in debt, and that’s not counting all the future liabilities in the entitlement programs of Social Security and Medicare. The “leaders” of both political parties can’t seem to figure out a balance sheet. While it might be tough to scale back the national debt, we should certainly be able to balance the books for the year. But in 2012, our federal government spent more than $1.1 trillion than it took in, adding to the national debt. But it’s up to us, we the people, to figure out who we need to kick out of office. Until we do that, we only have ourselves to blame.

In order to change the bad politics though, we need to advance good policy and invest in the culture. I wrote a blog on the election recap and all these ideas. I’m convinced hundreds of people read it (thanks to social media) and I was even invited to come on The Morning Show with Preston Scott on November 27 to discuss my ideas. He had me on for the full hour and it was a fun experience. You can listen to the archived show here.

Tragedies

In 2012, our nation faced a number of tragedies, including Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the New York and New Jersey and the surrounding areas.  The biggest tragedy perhaps was the two mass shootings – one at a movie theater in Colorado and another at an elementary school in Connecticut. While some people want to blame the weapons these killers used, it’s mostly that we as a society are breeding a culture of relativism and decadence. We need to win back the hearts and minds and renew our sense of community so that alienation among people does not grow stronger. We have so much social media, but in a way we are less and less social with each other. This is certainly not the case for everyone, but for many people. And all it takes is just one person to go sour.

When I travel across America, I enjoy the vibrancy of big cities. But I seem to have two favorite places in the country now: the South and the Midwest. The reason being is how much more friendly, neighborly, and hospitable people in those places are. This is not to discount people in other places, you just notice it more in the South and Midwest. I prefer the small towns and mid-size cities over the anonymity that is bred in big cities – though they are fun to visit.

Two more tragedies hit closer to home this year. My friend John Morris was involved in a very serious, life-threatening car accident in September. He had been traveling back to Florida from St. Louis, where he began teaching in an inner city through a program with Teach for America. His car caught on fire and one side of his body was burned. Early on, we were told it was going to be tough for him to survive, but he did. He is not even paralyzed. He has spent much time in intensive care in Atlanta, but now is back in his hometown of Gainesville going through rehab and physical therapy. He still has a long road back to full recovery, but he is a person of strong faith and I believe his strong spirit pulled him through. The prayers of hundreds of friends and family across the country also pulled him through. Doctors were amazed by some parts of his recovery, thinking certain parts of his body would never heal and amazed at how fast other parts have. I was lucky enough to get a chance to visit with him the day after Christmas on a stop into Gainesville and it was refreshing to see him looking good, doing well, and in very high spirits. His sense of humor and intellectual prowess were certainly not harmed!

The final tragedy of the year was the death of my aunt Lourdes. She was 47 years old and leaves behind my uncle and her four sons (ages 13 to 27). She has had some health issues for a number of years, but this came as a shock. She had been found by her youngest son, passed out on the floor of the kitchen. She had been taking medication and it did not mix well in her body. It only takes a matter of minutes before the body shuts off the brain. She would die in the hospital a few days later.

I had actually taken a spontaneous trip home that weekend to surprise my brother Tony who was not going to be able to make it home for Christmas (from where he lives in San Francisco), so he came home a week early. While home visiting our parents in Delray, we found out our aunt was in the hospital (she and her family live just 25 minutes away). So on one level, it was nice that we were able to be with our family in the hospital as my aunt Lourdes was being kept alive by machines. In a very solemn moment, about 30 or so people gathered in a space in the intensive care unit around her body, in a space probably smaller than my bedroom. Her pastor was there and we all gathered in prayer to take her to the next place. The next night the doctors would remove her from the machines and allow her to pass on to a better place.

Enjoy Every Moment

In light of these tragedies noted above, I find it is a reminder that it is even more important to enjoy every moment with those you love and with life in general. God has given us all a gift and has called us to share our gifts with the world. He also wants us to experience the good he has placed in the world – whether that be people, places, or nature in general.

Seeing the sunsets in Seaside, Panama City, and along the pier on Venice Beach were moments I felt God had painted a beautiful picture for us those days. Standing outside the Reagan Library overlooking the scenic Simi Valley in California was another.

With my brothers in May at the Reagan Library, which overlooks the beautiful Simi Valley in California.

Health is also so important. I never felt healthier than when I ran the Tallahassee Turkey Trot 10k in just 48:01, beating my 2011 time of 49:51 by nearly two full minutes. But I also had to sideline myself from tennis and weight lifting for nearly the last six weeks of 2012 due to an odd shoulder injury. In the last week, I appear to be recovered. Let’s hope so! Earlier this year, I wrote a blog about my experience playing tennis with some of the best graduating high school seniors Tallahassee had to offer. Not sure I’m going to be able to continue competing at that level, but I’ll cherish every moment I can play.

Speaking of sports: Other than the Miami Heat winning the NBA championship, I was fortunate enough to be at some great sporting events this year. I attended the Opening Day game for the Washington Nationals in our nation’s capital with my friend Dan Lesniak; a Memorial Day game between the New York Yankees and Anaheim Angels in southern California with my brothers and my friend Matt Harrison; on the eve of July 4th, I attended a game between my Miami Marlins and the Milwaukee Brewers in Wisconsin with my friends Tom Keeley and Zac and Kristin Gappa; and I was able to go to my first game in the new Miami Marlins stadium in August, with my parents and my brother Tony. What amazing experiences. I’ve now added two new teams’ ball parks to my list: Milwaukee and Anaheim. I had already seen plenty of Florida Marlins home games and one previous one in Washington, but 2012 was my first year in their new stadiums. That said, when counting baseball stadiums, I only count one per team. I have now been to the ballparks of 14 of the 30 Major League baseball teams.

I was also able to go to my very first FAU football game. I had graduated FAU in the spring of 2001. They added a football team that fall and this year they played their second season in the new FAU football stadium. Thanks to a friend and a JMI donor, I was able to enjoy my first game from the Presidential suite. Life doesn’t get much better.

With my parents and brother Tony at the new Miami Marlins stadium in August.

One of the coolest experiences of 2012 was also being able to attend the world’s largest music festival, the 45th annual SummerFest, held in Milwaukee. It goes on for almost two weeks. I was there for three days and got to see ton of bands and hear some great music. One great experience was seeing the Zac Brown Band and being less than 10 feet from the stage.  I also spent July 4th at SummerFest — and got to see their huge Independence Day fireworks display (at least 45 minutes long), which they actually do on July 3rd. I also got to travel to Frazee, MN (home of the world’s largest turkey) to see two other turkeys get married: my friends Mike and Katie Williams.

Summerfest: The World's Largest Music Festival - in Milwaukee in July.

But getting the opportunity to visit with my family members and have them visit me is also rewarding. My parents and my grandmother visited me in July and my parents came back up to Tallahassee for the Thanksgiving weekend. I was able to make two personal trips to South Florida to see my parents and one of my brothers in December. And I get down to South Florida many times for work which allows me to stay with my parents in Delray Beach. I was able to spend a fun weekend with my brothers in Los Angeles and Anaheim over Memorial Day weekend. And, I got to see so many of my friends across the USA in the many places noted above.

My grandmother visits from Miami at my new office in Tallahassee.

I am thankful for the opportunity to see so many great people and places and experience the good life that God has promised for us. There are of course many trying moments in life, but faith certainly lights the way. May we all persevere through the challenges brought our way and hope for the new year to bring us joy, happiness, and a deepening of our faith in this journey of life.

Thank you, 2012. I’m ready to ring in 2013! 2012 should end well and 2013 should begin well as I plan to spend New Year’s Eve in downtown Tallahassee listening to one of my favorite Florida bands, Sister Hazel, in our state’s capital city. When 2013 rings in, we can all say “Viva Florida 500!”

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been reading about how Barack Obama won a second term. I’ve been reading a lot of sources – from the left, the right, and the “mainstream media.” But mostly I’ve also been reading reflections from many different people – including from various conservative friends across the country who are searching for an answer.

And an answer they deserve.

How Obama Won the Ground Game

How on earth could a President presiding over such a devastating economy get re-elected? On Election Day, there was 8 percent unemployment, 23 million Americans out of work, and 46 million on food stamps. For a President to get re-elected under those circumstances means he had quite an impressive political victory.

Some of that victory includes an impressive ground game. A few snapshots:

• Here in Florida, Obama’s campaign had over 103 field offices and recruited over 200,000 volunteers
• From the Obama campaign’s Chicago headquarters, they spent over $100 million on collecting data on voters and potential voters. Then, they used that data to microtarget advertising in non-traditional ways to get the vote out. They then ran 66,000 computer simulations every day to predict voter turnout. For more on that read this article: http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/07/inside-the-secret-world-of-quants-and-data-crunchers-who-helped-obama-win/
• After Obama’s very successful 2008 campaign, he did something unprecedented in American history. He didn’t stop campaigning – the “perpetual campaign” as I like to call it. Most Presidents (and candidates) are always preparing for the next campaign. That’s not the unprecedented part. Obama developed an organization called “Organizing for America” which left key 2008 campaign staff in all the major swing states. Those folks kept organizing for Obama from the day he was elected in 2008 until the day he was re-elected in 2012. They developed relationships, learned about the political environment on the ground, and developed strategies to win

410,000 Votes – That’s the Difference

All of the above paid off for Obama. Over 120 million Americans voted in the general election in November. Yet, it came down to just four swing states that Mitt Romney needed to win but lost: Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, and Florida. Romney lost those four states by only 410,000 votes combined. That’s it. Considering the number of field offices, the $100 million investment in data mining, the “boots on the ground” the Obama campaign left in place during his first four years in office, Obama squeaked by with a win by having an unbelievable ground game strategy.

A Century Long Project: How the Left Wins Hearts and Minds

The Leftist project we are now seeing come to fruition was started a century ago – with the early “progressive” movement – a movement that publicly held the Constitution and our founding fathers in contempt. This movement saw implications in the role of government under the tutelage of Presidents such as Teddy Roosevelet, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt – all of whom vastly expanded the role of the executive branch and the intervention of government into our daily lives.

This “progressive” movement was ramped up 50 years ago, in post-WWII America, as leftist intellectuals – under direction from thinkers like Italian communist Antonio Gramsci and community organizer extraordinaire Saul Alinsky laid out a vision and strategy for how you take over a society: through the culture. In the past half century, the Left has taken over Hollywood, the media, and academia. These are the places where most opinion is shaped.

Four years ago, their vision was articulated by a smooth-talking celebrity politician named Barack Obama who embraces the progressive agenda and has the communication skills to sell it – and in some cases hide it.

And now with the changing demographics of the nation, we must look at the map and see WHERE we are losing: the urban areas, where there is a high concentration of minorities as well as single, white young professionals. This isn’t about red STATES and blue STATES. It’s about urban vs. rural/suburban/exurban areas.

I’m not sure if we focus on the POPULATIONS or on good free-market policy alternatives for the PLACES that include those populations, but those are my initial thoughts as far as reaching new demographics with the freedom message.

It's not red states and blue states - it's urban and less urban areas.

All Is Not Lost for Republicans in 2012

This wasn’t a sweeping election for Democrats.  While they won back a few more House seats, Republicans still remain solidly in control of the House.  Democrats remain in control in the U.S. Senate, but they will again have to defend a lot more Senate seats in 2014 than do Republicans – and the Republicans seats that are up in the U.S. Senate appear to be much “safer” than most of the ones the Democrats are hoping to win back.  I think about $6 billion was spent on the 2012 campaign – from every race to every interest group.  Voters say they don’t like the direction the country is headed in, but we are largely left with the status quo.  But this isn’t the status quo of 2008; rather it’s the status quo of 2010.

Republicans hold 30 of the Governor’s seats (actually picked up a net gain of one in 2012) and a majority of the state houses in the rest of the country. It is now up to the Republican Governors to showcase how good policy works in their states versus how they work in states under Democrat control – or how they contrast the lack of leadership in the White House.

It appears to me the “big loss” for Republicans was the biggest race – the one for the White House. And my analysis says this: the Presidency has largely become about personality and how well the Presidential candidate connects with most Americans. With all the credentials Mitt Romney has – a good family man, a successful business man, a politician who is far from right-wing and has demonstrated how we can work for solutions in a bipartisan way – he does not connect well with the average American.

A President must represent everyone from a San Francisco liberal to a South Carolina conservative and everyone in between. Think about it: Obama plays basketball, participates in the NCAA Final Four bracketology, holds beer summits, and hangs out with Jay-Z. These were hardly the Presidential qualities needed of statesmen like George Washington and James Madison. Today, however, we have a much larger nation – in terms of geography and population. We also live in the era of 24/7 cable television and the smart phone. The way we envision our President is different – whether for good or ill. We need a way to strike a balance between getting someone with a good resume for the job and the ability to not only communicate a message effectively but connect with the average American outside of what is purely political. In that realm, Obama’s got game. But so did Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and even George W. Bush.

So we shouldn’t think we have “lost the country.” Most of the country is governed by Republicans. It’s just that so much power is concentrated in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, that it feels like we lost so much by losing the biggest race. The founders believed in limited government and separation of powers for a reason. And since we have strayed so far from their vision of good government, those chickens are coming home to roost right now.

Moving Forward: A Self-Reflection

While I am disappointed with the election results, I’m not deflated. As I told my mom when she asked me how I was doing after the election result, I told her I’m fine. I’m not one of the 23 million unemployed or one of the 46 million on food stamps. I also cast my vote against the idea of stealing from the rich or robbing the next generation.

So I can live with myself, unlike others in our society who live on the idea of “revenge” against the successful or who live in ignorance of what is going on in our government. No matter what happens in any election, the government cannot take our soul unless we let them and as a believer in God, I know HE is still in control. So in the broader perspective, I am doing just fine.

I think the conservative movement needs to concentrate less on elections and more on the culture.  We need to encourage more conservatives to do more non-political things – but things that ultimately have an impact in the political. We need more actors, screenwriters, filmmakers, and directors. We need more conservatives going into academia and being more coy about their political inclinations so they can actually get a job in a very competitive, closed environment. The same can be said about journalism – though I think the age of new media is already having an effect. But we need to do better than Fox News.

And as I mentioned above, we need to figure out why we are losing in the urban areas. Is it policy? Should we focus on good policy for those living in urban areas? Or is it the demographics of the people who happen to live in those areas? Should we tailor our message to the audience we want to reach? Or is it the culture? Are people in cities less connected with their neighbors, more anonymous to each other, and have less connection to their community and civil associations? Are they less concerned about faith-based issues? (Are they just heathens?) Are they more dependent on government – such as the concentration of public housing projects, welfare offices, public parks, public transportation and government schools? I don’t have all the answers, but I’m sure that among some of these questions better people than I can find some solutions.

The Right’s Reaction: Ground Game

In the short term we will still need to do better at actually winning elections. Probably about six months ago, I heard the choir of grassroots activists including tea partiers complaining that the Mitt Romney campaign and the Republican Party on both the state and national levels was not running a good ground game. After hearing this over and over again, I asked those I know within the party, why the party wasn’t investing in the “boots on the ground.” I was told that in statewide and Presidential campaigns – those contests aren’t won on the ground, they’re won on the air – meaning television and radio ads.

Well, that strategy needs to be rethought, because the Democrats surely didn’t buy it and they invested heavily in data, social media, and the actual boots on the ground. Republicans need to get their act together here and develop an infrastructure. This might require an infrastructure that is NOT reliant on the Republican Party – much as Obama’s “Organizing for America” didn’t rely on the Democrat Party. The parties are rendering themselves more useless these days and the groups outside the traditional party structure need to step up if we are to win and take back America.

What happened to Florida?

No matter your preference, Florida was certainly a surprise on election night.  As I mentioned above, from a political perspective, the Obama campaign has to be congratulated for a great ground game.  More than four years ago, Obama invested in a permanent infrastructure that did not rely on the political party but continued to manage relationships and invest in a path to victory.

Just like America, Florida is almost exactly equally divided.  In fact we were so divided, our state wasn’t called for Obama for a full five days after the election.  Florida remains a true reflection of the nation.  All the demographics of the country are right here and our vote splits with the President carrying the state by just a half of a percentage point – at this writing, by only 74,309 votes in a state where over 8.4 million people voted.  Just like in the rest of America, President Obama’s victories in Florida were in more urban areas; Governor Romney’s victories were in the suburbs, exurbs, and more rural areas.

For conservatives to win in the future – both in this state and in the rest of the country – they need to invest in messaging and providing solutions for those in urban areas.  Those areas are also high in minority populations which Governor Romney had trouble with winning.  I believe here in Florida, free-market advocates have made some inroads in the urban areas with issues like school choice, for example.  But, more work needs to be done and many more issues need to be presented and tackled as our state and nation continue to experience changes in demographics.

While Florida is divided on who we wanted in the White House, we also reflect the nation in other ways – Republicans hold 30 of the Governor’s seats (actually picked up a net gain of one in 2012) and a majority of the state houses in the rest of the country, much like they do here in Florida.  And Florida’s congressional delegation is overwhelmingly Republican to Democrat with a margin of 17-10.  Our two U.S. Senators split down party lines.  With the GOP in control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate narrowly divided, again Florida is reflective of the nation.

Voters are Ignorant (and that’s putting it nice)

This election may also be a measure of how few Americans – including Floridians – understand about basic economic principles and how prosperity is created.  Four years ago, President Obama told us he would cut the national debt in half.  At that time it stood at $11 trillion.  Today, the debt is at over $16 trillion and is projected to be $20 trillion by the end of Obama’s Presidency.  And this does not include the future promised liabilities of Social Security and Medicare.  When those are counted, our national debt balloons to $100 trillion.  This is a dangerous path we are on.

Given the election results, it is obvious that most Americans, Floridians included, don’t understand – or pay attention to – the biggest threat to the survival of this country.  Hint: it’s not the taxes, it’s the spending.  Though certainly we need a fairer, simpler tax code with less (how about zero) loopholes – to encourage savings, investment and economic growth.  As we look across the pond to the problems nations like Greece, Spain, and others are experiencing, it is troubling we appear headed down the same path.  So, while Florida reflects America, our hope is that we won’t one day reflect Greece.

Get Involved

I’ve laid out some ideas here.  We’re all laying out ideas.  We’re all scrambling for solutions – not just for conservatives to win, but for America to win.  I don’t have all the answers.  I may not even be asking all the right questions.  But I do think some of my suggestions are moving in the right direction (yes, pun intended) for how we can win back the hearts and minds of our country and also win elections.  But if you are a like-minded thinker and you’re not doing you’re part – you’re part of the problem.  If you don’t have the time, surely you have the money – invest in a project.  And really, make some time.  A little volunteering would surely make our founding fathers proud.  They – and so many Americans since them – have sacrificed much more for their country than most of us can ever lay claim to.  If you want a good government, if you want a free society, this is a Republic.  It’s all a matter of who shows up.  Count yourself lucky to be a part of the American experiment.  There’s nothing else like it in the history of the world.  Don’t let our generation be the one who spoils it.

With 72 hours left in the 2012 election cycle, many of us are feeling like this little girl who was caught on camera crying and saying she was “tired of Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney.”  No matter your party affiliation, that video probably captures the sentiment of the nation right now.  This has been probably the longest campaign cycle in history – or at least in my lifetime.  It has also been a very long four years.  The hope and change that was promised to us by candidate Barack Obama has not only not delivered but things have seem to have gotten worse.

As of this writing, 23 million Americans are unemployed and 46 million are on food stamps.  We have a national debt that is over $16 trillion and counting, and the average price of gas in the country is at $3.64.  It’s certainly a time for change.  We need our hope back.

So, with 72 hours to go, I’m keeping an eye on a few things.  First, there’s the Presidential race. It’s going to come down to some key states.  Then, there’s the battle for control of the U.S. Senate – again a few key races will either hold the line for the Democrats or tip the balance of power to the GOP. The U.S. House of Representatives will stay in Republican control – it’s just a matter of by how many seats.  There’s a few Senate and House seats that are of personal concern to me and I’ll get to that below. And then, here in Florida, I’m keeping an eye on a few key state senate and state house races as well as some amendments and other items on my very lengthy ballot – they say the longest ballot in the history of Leon County, Florida.

Here goes:

Presidential swing states

Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and Colorado – if Mitt Romney wins all of these states, he wins. Game over. But at the very least he needs Florida and Virginia. Without those two states, it is hard for me to imagine him winning.  With 72 hours to go, I am very confident he takes these two states. I am also fairly confident he’ll win in Colorado.  Remember, that first debate where Romney handed an ass-whipping to Obama took place in Denver and the demographics there still favor Republicans. I also think he will edge out Ohio. But if he can get Florida and Virginia and some combination of Colorado and one or two of the states below, he can win without Ohio.  While Republicans have never won the Presidency without Ohio, it is different this year.  After redistricting, Florida and Texas each gained two more electoral votes and New York and Ohio each lost two.

Iowa, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire – there are a lot of independent voters in these states (especially New Hampshire).  Iowa and Wisconsin border each other. A lot of Republican ground troops have been in Wisconsin since the battle for Governor Scott Walker’s recall election earlier this summer – which he won, handily. And let’s not forget, Wisconsin is the home of Paul Ryan.  In Iowa, the Des Moines Register endorsed Mitt Romney – that’s the first time they’ve endorsed a Republican for President since 1972.  New Hampshire borders Massachusetts, where Romney was Governor – and he also owns a home in the Granite State.  With all of these factors combined, I think Mitt takes at least two of these three states, but I personally believe he could very well sweep them all.

Michigan and Pennsylvania – these are much longer shots for Mitt Romney, but not improbable.  My belief is that if you see Romney take either Michigan or Pennsylvania, that is VERY good news.  He will likely win the election.

My personal map predicts Mitt with 311 electoral votes and Obama with 227.  Check it out here.

This is a likely headline after the results come in on Election Day

U.S. Senate

Looking at all the polling information and other intangibles, right now it is without a doubt that Republicans have 42 safe Senate seats and Democrats 43 safe seats. By “safe” I mean they are either a shoe-in to win or those seats are not up this year.  Our system is designed in such a way where every two years only one-third of the seats in the U.S. Senate are up.  So there are 33 elections for U.S. Senate taking place this year.  Of those, 12 are completely uncompetitive.  That leaves us with 21 real races – but of those, seven would be a real stretch for the GOP to win. So that leaves us looking at just 14 U.S. Senate races.

Those 14 races to watch are in the following states: Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin.

The one race I’m watching most closely involves my friend Josh Mandel in Ohio.  He is currently the State Treasurer of Ohio and a former U.S. Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq.  At the age of 35, he is taking on the most liberal Senator in the country, Sherrod Brown.  It’s a nail biter.  I went up to Cincinnati for a weekend in September to campaign for Josh.  My gut tells me he wins.  If Romney wins this state, I think Josh gets the victory too.

Hoping Ohio sends my friend & patriot Josh Mandel to the U.S. Senate!

The next race I’m watching is closer to home – here in Florida.  I think it’s an uphill battle for Connie Mack to take the seat currently held by Bill Nelson.  All the polling suggests Nelson will win, but Romney is looking strong in Florida.  I personally think Romney needs to carry Florida by about five points for Mack to ride his coattails.  A Miami-Herald poll released Friday night shows Mitt ahead by 5 points in Florida.  I personally think Romney will win Florida by 4 (as I said before the first debate) and Mack will narrowly lose to Nelson.  We need at least either Florida or Ohio to have the GOP take control of the U.S. Senate or have a 50-50 Senate.  We could get one, both, or neither.  These states matter in a big way.  Either way, when this election is over, the national conservative movement should really invest heavily in Florida and Ohio.  They are the big prizes.

Other GOP hopefuls who can retake a U.S. Senate seat for the Republican Party: George Allen in Virginia, Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, and Todd Akin in Missouri.  Tea party favorite Richard Mourdock in Indiana took out incumbent Republican Dick Lugar and is now fighting to hold Indiana in Republican hands.  The same goes for Massachusetts – Scott Brown who took Ted Kennedy’s old U.S. Senate seat for the GOP in a special election in early 2010 – is trying to hold off a challenge as well.

Republicans have a strong chance to take seats from Dems in Montana and North Dakota.  There’s a little bit longer shot in Connecticut.  But the GOP is also trying to narrowly hold on to seats they currently have in Arizona and Nevada as well.  It’s going to be a nail biter for control of the U.S. Senate!

U.S. House of Representatives

All indications have the Republicans firmly keeping control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The current makeup is 241 Republicans, 191 Democrats, and 3 vacancies due to early resignations. There will likely be some shift over to Democrats, but not by much. I’d assume the makeup of the new House will be something like 235 Republicans and 200 Democrats.

A few key races I’ll be watching:

First, my own Representative Steve Southerland is up for re-election.  He ousted 7-term incumbent, Democrat Allen Boyd, two years ago by double digits.  Redistricting did not favor Steve, but he will still maintain an edge and I expect him to win re-election by about 6 points.

Down in South Florida, there are three key races.  First, Adam Hasner is competing in a swing district that is a mix of Democrats, Republicans, and independents.  Adam is also Jewish and I think with the independent vote favoring Republicans this year, he will likely squeeze out a victory against former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel.  Winning that seat would be a strong pick up for the GOP, but it will be very close.  The other race to watch is in Miami, where Republican incumbent David Rivera is likely going to lose.  He has been hammered by a number of allegations over the past two years and his challenger, Joe Garcia, is poised to take a GOP seat.  I think these two races cancel each other out as far as the larger picture of the Florida delegation and the overall Congressional picture.  The third race is between current incumbent Allen West - who has become a national star for the tea party, the Republican Party, and black Republicans everywhere.  He is very outspoken and is in a very close race.  But I think he squeezes out a victory by just a few points.

Fellow Terp Adam Hasner poised for a big Congressional victory

A few other Florida races I’ll be watching: Dan Webster has a challenge in Florida’s 10th Congressional District, but he should be able to bring home victory.  However, the one sad part of Election Day 2012 is we will likely be sending Allan Grayson back to the U.S. House.  He was defeated two years ago by Dan Webster, but is now running in one of Florida’s two new congressional districts.  Grayson has tons of money he can spend on his own race and that is likely bad news for his Republican challenger Todd Long.  Grayson is not only very far to the Left, he is just not a nice person.  The other new Congressional district is solidly Republican, so this again is a wash as far as pick ups for either party.  Florida’s current Congressional delegation includes 19 Republicans and 6 Democrats. But this year, Florida picked up two new Congressional districts after the 2010 U.S. Census.  I expect after Election Day, the delegation will consist of 20 Republicans and 7 Democrats.

I’ll also be cheering on victory for Trey Radel.  He won a very tough Republican primary back in August to replace Connie Mack (who ran for U.S. Senate).  That is a very safe Republican seat and Trey will cruise to victory on Election Day.  We’ll be sending a very strong conservative and a good friend of mine to Washington.  Another “tea party” Republican, Ted Yoho, is headed to Congress.  He took out incumbent Republican Cliff Stearns in the August primary and is slated to also coast to an easy victory on Election Day.

My friend & patriot Trey Radel is heading to Washington! On Tuesday night it will be official.

Florida will once again have a strong conservative coalition of Congressmen.  With strong conservatives like Allen West, Steve Southerland, Dan Webster, Trey Radel, Dennis Ross, Ted Yoho, Adam Hasner, and others, Florida is poised to be the envy of conservatives across the nation.  These aren’t just great conservatives, they’re great men.

Florida State Senate

Two races I’m watching: Ellyn Bogdanoff was already in a tough district for a Republican  to win and redistricting made things tougher for her.  Six months ago, I thought there was no way she could win.  Today, it’s a 50/50 chance.  If she pulls that off, you can look at other good signs for Florida Republicans on election night.  Down in Miami, there is a young conservative who has never held elected office before: John Couriel.  Again, when I heard the race he was up against against longtime Democrat Gwen Margolis, I thought: no chance.  Margolis was a Senate President in the early 1990s and is now back for another run for the Florida Senate in a district where a Democrat should win handily.  Surprisingly, though, John Couriel is close to victory.  He has the opportunity to be one of the rising leaders of the Republican Party in this state and is a good sign for a rising tide of conservatives in Miami.

John Couriel may just surprise everyone in Miami on election night. A future conservative all-star here in Florida.

Florida House

Two races I’m watching: First, my own district 9 that includes my area of Leon County.  My neighborhood of Southwood has been represented by Marti Coley since I’ve lived here.  But redistricting has now included this very Republican community as part of District 9.  That does not favor incumbent Michele Rehwinkle-Vasilinda.  And my friend Bradley Maxwell, who is also the Chairman of the Leon County Republican Party, is running a very great campaign here, with lots of boots on the ground, knocking on tens of thousands of doors.  It’s going to be close and I’m hoping he’ll pick this seat up for the GOP.  The other race I’m watching is Scott Plakon’s in the greater Orlando area.  He is a good conservative (with the exception of a few questionable votes this past session) and has a real fight on his hands, but I think he will win.

Florida Legislature

Right now, Republicans control the Florida House and the Florida Senate with supermajorities, meaning they hold at least 2/3 of each body.  They may lose a net one or two seats in the House, and should remain about even in the Florida Senate.  But the biggest flaw in these numbers is the fact that while Republicans have a super-majority in the Florida Senate, conservatives do not even have a majority there.  There is a group of seven or so moderate to liberal Republicans who often vote with Democrats on key issues – blocking conservative reforms in education, property insurance, and paycheck protection, among other issues – often siding with unions and other liberal special interest groups.  Our hope is that some of the new Republicans replacing the term-limited Senate Republicans will be more conservative than their predecessors and we can actually make some progress towards more economic freedom in Florida.  As for some “inside baseball” from Tallahassee: the makeup of the Florida Senate will also determine the leadership race for future Senate President.  Will it be led by strong conservative Joe Negron or liberal Republican Jack Latvala?  The primary races in August were good for Negron, but some things that happen this Tuesday and in the next election cycle will continue to play out in this leadership race.

Amendments on the Florida Ballot

There are 11 proposed Constitutional amendments on the Florida ballot this year. I’ll be voting YES on most of them – with the exception of Amendments 9, 11, and 12. I have very strong opinions on Amendments 1, 3, 5 and 6 – voting YES on all of them is key.  For any of these amendments to be added to the state constitution, they must garner 60% or more of the vote.

As for my “YES” votes:

Amendment 1 protects health care freedom – essentially it would prohibit anyone from being forced to buy health insurance (if passed, Florida’s state constitution would prohibit the implementation of ObamaCare, possibly sparking another confrontation at the U.S. Supreme Court).  Amendment 3 puts a cap on state spending.   Amendment 5 proposes a change to the way judges are appointed to the Florida Supreme Cout – putting it more in line with the way they are appointed for the U.S. Supreme Court – appointed by the Executive (in this case, the Governor) and confirmed by the Senate.  Amendment 6 prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for abortions.

Amendment 8 is great for religious liberty – and I can’t vote against it – my only concern is that churches and other faith-based organizations will become dependent on any government funds they may receive.  But this amendment ultimately repeals the antiquated “Blaine Amendment” which many argue would be a road block to allowing educational vouchers (in the future) to be used for students to attend religious schools.

Amendments 2, 4 and 10 I am indifferent on and could live without, but overall I will lean towards extending the homestead property tax discount to disabled veterans who move from another state to Florida (this discount is already there for existing veterans in Florida) in Amendment 2, property tax limitations at the local level in Amendment 4, and tax breaks for small businesses in Amendment 10.  I’m not sure these all need to be Constitutional amendments, so I won’t get too excited one way or the other if they pass or not.

As for my “NO” votes:

While Amendments 9, 11, and 12 might have good intentions behind them, I don’t see them as necessary to be put into the state constitution.  One of them has to do with the student representative on the Board of Governors (what’s wrong with the current system? And do we really need a constitutional amendment to solve this?) and two of them involve carving out tax exemptions for special interests.  Looking at all the “tax exemptions” being offered for various special groups, I think it’s clear Florida (and the nation at large) needs across-the-board tax relief.  Instead of making more pages in the tax code for groups that can afford lobbyists in Tallahassee and Washington, let’s make the tax code at the local, state, and national levels more fair, clean, easy, and transparent.  After all, we supposedly believe in “equal justice under the law” regardless of race, sex, class, or income level.

To make your own decisions on all of these amendments, I urge you to consult a fantastic voter guide put together by The James Madison Institute.

Merit Retention of Florida Supreme Court Justices: Throw Them All Out

Three justices of the Florida Supreme Court are up for what they call “merit retention.”  While these justices are appointed for lifetime – or until they resign – every so often they are subjected to the will of the voters.  Like the amendments, it takes 60% of Florida voters to remove a justice.  The three up for retention this time around – Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente, and Peggy Quince – have made many, many questionable judgments and I will be voting “NO” to retain them.  I am voting them out.  If we can even vote just one of them out, that will send a strong signal to the State Supreme Court that they need to get in line with the rule of law and not the rule of their personal politics. A great guide on these justices and their voting records can be found at the Restore Justice 2012 website.

With 72 hours to go…that’s my take.  Let’s get this done with.

With 40 days left before perhaps the most important election in our lifetime, you want to make sure you, your family, friends, and neighbors are signed up to participate in one of the greatest actions in our free society: voting! Of course, the mere act of voting isn’t sufficient. You should also make sure you are informed on the issues, our Constitution, the rule of law, and which candidates truly intend to uphold it.

Below are important dates ahead in relation to the voting process here in Florida.

October 9, 2012 Last day to sign up to vote in the general election

October 27, 2012 – November 3, 2012 Early Voting at specific locations throughout the county

October 30 Last day for supervisors to approve poll watchers for the General Election

October 31 5:00 p.m., deadline for supervisors to receive requests to mail absentee ballots voters for the General Election

November 3 Early Voting ends for the General Election

November 6 GENERAL ELECTION

APPLICATION TO VOTE: http://election.dos.state.fl.us/pdf/webappform.pdf

In order to register to vote in Florida, you must:
*Be a Citizen of the United States of America (a lawful permanent resident is not a U.S. citizen);
*Be a Florida resident;
*Be 18 years old (you may pre-register to vote if you are 16 years old, but you cannot vote until you are 18 years old).
*Not now be adjudicated mentally incapacitated with respect to voting in Florida or any other state without having the right to vote restored;
*Not have been convicted of a felony without your civil rights having been restored; and
*Provide your current and valid Florida driver’s license number or Florida identification card number. If you do not have a Florida driver’s license number or a Florida identification card number then you must provide the last four digits of your Social Security Number. If you do not have any of these items, you must write “none” in the box or field.

And if you vote in person, don’t forget to bring your Voter ID card and a Photo ID (such as a driver’s license) with you to the polls. Here in Florida, photo ID to vote is required. Now, go get educated on al the candidates and issues.

With just 53 days left until Election Day, I had come to Ohio for 48 hours to help my friend Josh Mandel in his race for the U.S. Senate.  I wouldn’t do this for too many other people, but Josh is just a good dude. I met him a few years ago via a mutual friend who had put us in touch so that I could introduce Josh to the State Policy Network and the free-market state think tank movement.  At the time, Josh was a state legislator and he was prepping to run for Ohio State Treasurer.  It was a race he would win, against an incumbent Democrat in the November 2010 election.

Josh Mandel, Ohio State Treasurer and candidate for U.S. Senate

But Josh’s road to the State Treasurer’s office started much earlier.  A native of the Cleveland, Ohio area, he graduated from Ohio State University, where he had served as President of the Student Government.  Josh missed his college graduation ceremony because he was lacing up his boots in the Marine Corps boot camp.  He had decided to serve his country as a Marine and did so for eight years.  During that time, he did two tours of duty in Iraq – the second one he volunteered for.  And he even went to law school, staying in the state of Ohio to complete his law degree at Case Western University in his hometown of Cleveland.

But his service to his country didn’t end as a Marine. In 2003, Josh served in the City Council in Lyndhurst, Ohio. They didn’t think this 26-year old could get elected, much less lead the way on the first ever property tax reduction in his county.  With success under his belt, he ran for a state legislative seat, which he won in November 2006.  Representing a district that had a majority of Democrats, Josh won people over by knocking on “approximately 19,670 doors” as he likes to say, wearing out three pairs of shoes.

Sometime last year, while he was doing an effective job as Ohio State Treasurer, many voices in the Republican Party of Ohio came to Josh to encourage him to run for the U.S. Senate against another incumbent Democrat, Sherrod Brown.  I can tell you Josh did not want to run.  He thought there must be other qualified people who had been in office longer.  But the people demanded it.  And he answered the call.

His general election opponent, Senator Brown, has become the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, voting lock step with Barack Obama on every issue from the bailouts to the stimulus to card check to ObamaCare. The party deemed Josh, a 34-year old military veteran, as the best hope to win this seat and help the GOP recapture the majority in the U.S. Senate.  The other side laughed and said it couldn’t be done.

Cincinnati!

So here I was in my rental car, with my duties in hand. Just a few weeks ago, I looked at the most recent polls and saw Josh had gone from nearly 20 points down a year ago to a dead heat in two polls with less than two months before Election Day.  I wanted to do my part to help him take this seat.  I know Josh is a committed conservative and he has demonstrated that during his time in office and in the many conversations I’ve had with him in the past few years.  But politics aside, he is just a good guy with a heart for Ohio, America, and his fellow man.

On Friday, I volunteered for the campaign.  My assignment was to go to all four of the “Victory” offices the GOP had established in the Cincinnati area.  The Mandel campaign had delivered approximately 2,000 unassembled yard signs to each office. My job was to check to see if they were there and if the staff at each office had them assembled and had a plan to distribute them. The first office had about 100 assembled and told me another 100 had been distributed. I was also supposed to check to see if the giant 4 foot by 8 foots signs that each office had received had been put up.  I had to inform the campaign only one of four offices had them up.

The other part of my job was to take a combined 750 yard signs from these four offices, somehow fit them in my car (I did) and then distribute them to three places in three other counties east of Cincinnati.  This meant a lot of time in the car on Friday.

Loading up the car

At that first office in Westwood, one volunteer told me she had already made 20,000 phone calls on behalf of the Mitt Romney campaign.  And she plans to take that number to 60,000!  As I thought about it later in the day, I was just floored. How on earth could someone make that many calls on their own? Kudos to her and the many other people doing their part to save our country from fiscal calamity and liberal insanity.

At the second office I visited, the yard signs were in the same quantity.  About 100 made.  I encouraged them to take time to make more and get them out.  Then I stopped for some Skyline Chili (yum!) before heading to the next office.

Skyline Chili: Cincinnati built this!

The third office had no signs made, but the lead staffer there assured me about 100 had already been made and they just disappeared fast.  She said she just had no time to make them all. So I sat there and made about 50 and she was motivated to do about 50 as well.  I spent about an hour at that office talking to her and making signs and we had 100 made and ready to distribute.

The fourth office in East Gate was on their game.  They had all the signs made.  They told me they had 80 volunteers come in and do them over the previous weekend and they were everywhere.  They also had the giant Josh Mandel sign up and said they could use some more.  I took down all this information and reported it back to the campaign manager who assigned it to me.

Seeing the Ohio countryside

Then, I took a drive and distributed approximately 250 signs to each of three locations. Two were people’s home – one in Brown County and one in Clinton County. The one in the middle, Highland County, had a GOP headquarters where the three senior women who were working there gladly accepted the 250 signs and said there had been a lot of positive response for Josh.  It was also neat for me to meet all of these people and see the various areas of Cincinnati and the surrounding countryside.  I even recollected something I almost forgot: I actually have roots here.  Well kind of.  Both of my maternal grandparents were born not far from where I was: my grandmother was born in Marietta, Ohio and my grandfather in Jackson.  While that was almost a century ago, I thought I bet they’d be proud that I was taking my time to help a friend win back the country that gave them so much opportunity.

I finished my duties just before 5:00 pm and drove into downtown Cincinnati. I arrived at the Millenium hotel just before 6:00 pm and now that I was done volunteering for the campaign, I was able to join my friends from FreedomWorks just across the street for their evening reception and meeting at the Hyatt.

They had a bunch of tea party patriots prepping for some get out the vote efforts for the next day as well as a big rally at the FreePac Ohio event which would feature Glenn Beck, Josh Mandel, and many other speakers – not to mention training sessions by the FreedomWorks staff. What an amazing operation they had!

Congressman David Schweikert of Arizona addresses a group of tea party activists

After the meet and greets and attending a meeting of some patriots from Tennessee who are already gearing up for their 2014 Senate race (They want to take out Lamar Alexander and they were plotting to do so), I joined my friend Brendan Steinhauser and some other FreedomWorks staff and guest speakers for dinner and drinks in the hotel bar of the Hyatt.

The next morning I met back up with some of the volunteer activists at 9:00 AM.  My intention was to go do some neighborhood walks with them on behalf of Josh Mandel, but apparently the walkers had already left.  So, they put me on the phones and I made approximately 100 calls on behalf of Josh, using the FreedomWorks connector phone service. This is an easy system (once you get the hang of it) to use and it can be used from home via your cell phone. I will probably end up making a few more calls before Election Day now that I know how to use it.  The response on the phones for Josh was overwhelming.  I didn’t have a single person tell me they were voting for his opponent.  I encouraged them to get to the polls on November 6 or vote in advance by absentee ballot.

Making Calls for Josh!

By noon, our phone banking was over and it was time to shift gears to prepare for the FreePac event which started at 1:30 PM and would last until around 7:00 PM.  All I had to do was cross the street one more time to head over to the Duke Energy Convention Center.  I was amazed at how many people were there.  There were a dozen or so tables set up representing various tea party groups around the state, people selling books and t-shirts and even giving out free stuff (I got a “Who is John Galt?” t-shirt marketing the new Atlas Shrugged Part Two movie being released in October).

Crowds swarm FreePac Ohio!

By the time things got underway, over 6,000 people attended – and this event had an entrance fee of $20.  Luckily, there was a ticket set aside for me (I guess all my hard work paid off).  I had expensed my own trip to get here – flight, hotel, and rental car plus gas and food.  But I did it to be here.  I was rewarded with a few complimentary meals by my friends and the opportunity to be backstage for as much of the event as I wanted to be.  I went out in the crowd a few times to see the event from that perspective, but it was neat to be backstage and talk to the various guest speakers, including Dana Loesch, who is a radio host in St. Louis and a frequent conservative guest commentator on CNN.

Me with Dana Loesch

But I was most happy to see my friends Brendan Steinhauser and Josh Mandel take the stage to address the 6,000 people in the crowd who were cheering loudly for them and other speakers, including the keynote, Glenn Beck.

Josh brought the crowd to their feet and hundreds of people in that crowd were waving giant “Mandel” signs.  He had a great narrative and a number of examples of how his commitment to fiscal responsibility in office has helped the people of Ohio.  He also gave example after example of how he has frequently been pressured to tow the party line or not bring certain issues to the floor and how he has instead done what he believed is the right thing.  He said the $16 trillion debt in Washington is not just the fault of Democrats, but also Republicans.  He got a standing ovation.  “The only way to change Washington is to change the people we send there!” he said.  Another standing ovation.  He absolutely killed it and I have to say I was proud and excited.

And the crowd goes wild!

I was able to join Josh and three of his campaign staff for dinner later that evening and it was great to hear their perspective of how things were going.  Josh also asked my advice and constructive criticism on his speech and anything else I witnessed in his campaign.  My advice was simple: you’re being yourself and that’s what has gotten you this far. Don’t stop doing just that.

The only “negative” on Josh is that he is young. He will be turning 35 years old by the end of this month, but he looks like he is 19.  That doesn’t help.  But he has shown incredible leadership, poise, honesty, and sincerity during his time in office and in his relationships with his friends and constituents.  And in my opinion, it’s about time we send some fresh blood to Washington.  The tea party activists I met during my weekend were incredibly supportive of Josh.  I have said for a long time that the tea party isn’t just about limited government and Constitutional principles.  Yes, it is about that.  But it’s also about electing representatives who listen to you, who care about what you have to say, who are honest and transparent and care about being a representative, not a member of the ruling elite.  Josh represents all of these qualities.  And that’s why they love him.

The week before I came to Ohio I challenged all my friends via some postings on Facebook that I would match any of their donations to Josh dollar-for-dollar up to $500. We met that match.  Then another friend challenged me to go higher and he would contribute an additional $250.  So I challenged all my other friends again to go higher and split the difference with me.  Let’s just say at the end of the day between me and 18 of my friends we raised $1550 for Josh.  I was able to cover a bit more than a third of that.  I brought my check to Josh while in Cincinnati and also made him aware of all the donations my friends had contributed to force me to meet this match. He was very surprised, but then of course he told me he had been following some of my posts and thanked me for all I was doing for him.

As I told him, he’s a different kind of politician than I’m used to seeing.  Nine months ago I wrote a blog post on how I would be separating myself from electoral politics for good.  I want to note here that in that same post I made one disclaimer: “I do have a few friends that are running for political office right now. I’m sure I’ll have other friends running for office in the future. And on that level – as a friend – I will continue to support and promote them. Shoot, you may even catch me hosting a fundraiser or two. But I will involve myself in the electoral process on a very limited scale (think: necessary evil).”

Well Josh is a friend.  And he’s a committed conservative.  And he’s just a good guy.  I told him that he has made a believer in me that a good guy might still have a shot.  He’s got good people surrounding him and I hope it stays that way.

There are 50 days left until Election Day and Josh is tied in the polls with Sherrod Brown.  We have a chance for a good guy to make it into the “elite” body that is the U.S. Senate.  We have a chance not only to change the balance of power in Washington, but to champion a true conservative who has a genuine heart for public service.  You can certainly be a part of this campaign to change Washington and help Josh make a difference.

If you want to be inspired more, watch this video of Josh from an event he spoke at in Ohio this summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBu8Ggsdnfc – trust me, it’s worth your time and attention.  Let’s bring home Ohio for Josh!