The Kansas Campaign for Liberty is dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility, ethical constitutional government, sound money, free markets, a non-interventionist foreign policy and the rule of law. We are committed to creative grassroots political activity to foster a return to the guiding constitutional principles that made this country great. We are patriots devoting ourselves to the higher cause of life, liberty and Country. If you share this mission, join us. Join the Campaign for Liberty.
To get started - Register and explore the grassroots organizing tools available to you. Learn more about governmental principles. Network with campaign members in your area. Become a Local Coordinator for Campaign for Liberty and learn about educating and organizing your neighbors. Become a Precinct Leader for your preferred political party and train to become politically active in your neighborhood. Attend local political meetings and events. Visit the County Clerk and County Party Chairmen.
Note: The correct answer to all questions is "Yes" (Y).An answer of (Y+) means that the candidate indicated that they are interested in sponsoring legislation on the issue. A "no" (N) answer is a deficiency toward Liberty. (U) means undecided. (--) means the candidate did not answer the question. (**) indicates an unclear or contradictory answer.
The survey answers below are provided only for keeping candidates true to their word should they get elected. Nothing on this page should be construed as an endorsement of any candidate. You are encouraged to view the websites and statements of each candidate to make an informed decision on their positions.
You can view the questions listed below, or use this crib sheet as an easy key:
Q1-Q3: Privacy/Individual Liberty | Q4: Law Enforcement | Q5-Q7: Taxing/Spending | Q8: Health Care
You can also find incumbents votes on key issues on the Wichita Liberty website. The Economic Freedom Index for the House and Senate lists votes on key issues such as the Health Care Freedom Amendment, statewide smoking ban, budget bill that increased spending, and statewide sales tax increase.
Twenty three states have resisted the Federal Government's persistent demand for a uniform ID card for every American. Why? Because creation of a National ID/Biometric database would allow for a despotic system to arise quickly, and will be able to track the movement of every citizen.
1) Will you oppose efforts to force Kansas to cooperate with a national ID card system and vote to block all state funding for and cooperation with any national ID scheme including the Real ID and Pass ID programs?
2) Do you oppose current Kansas policies and procedures that are in compliance with the Real ID Act of 2005?
3) Do you oppose having data that government requires from its non-criminal citizens being given or sold to other agencies (including the federal government) or private companies?
AZ and many municipalities have been using camera systems to monitor intersections and speed. These systems now are empowered to issue traffic fines. This has become a revenue source for government and highly profitable for the companies, which have an interest in maximizing revenue. As a result, citizens find that this digital data is being manipulated to give them tickets unjustly. This injustice is compounded because there is no human to verify events or testify in court.
4) Do you oppose the use of unmanned devices being used for law enforcement and given the power to fine citizens?
Some state and local governments are creating mandatory, broad-based fees that are really tax increases. For instance, a "tire recycling fee" that goes into the General Fund is really a tax on tires.
5) Do you oppose classifying monies taken from citizens as fees as a means of avoiding limitations on raising taxes?
Thomas Jefferson said; "to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical," yet citizens are being compelled to pay for the lobbying activities of private groups, associations and even government itself. Any lobbying activity, even those designed to support the agenda of a government agency should be paid for by voluntary contributions and not by the taxpayers.
6) Do you oppose the use of state funds, including state employees, for lobbying legislators to increase the size, funding or power of government?
7) Do you oppose state funds being used to support private organizations which are lobbying government?
The cornerstone of health care reform must be the protection and preservation of the rights of people to make their own health care choices. Without that protection, lobbyists and bureaucrats will create rules and regulations that make it harder and more difficult to get any health care without the approval and authorization of the government and special interests.
8) Will you support legislation that would allow the citizens of Kansas to opt out of federally mandated health insurance programs?
I am going to cut to the chase. I need you to sign a petition because we are facing an Orwellian attack on our Liberty today. The DISCLOSE Act (more accurately, the Establishment Protection Act) aims to intimidate supporters of the Campaign For Liberty and other Tea Party groups by requiring us to hand over the names of all of our major donors to the government.
Before I tell you more about this tyrannical bill, I would like to talk to you about the importance of contacting your representatives on this issue.
I get a lot of petitions to sign from political groups. Sometimes it's easy to ignore them, even when you agree with them completely. Sometimes, it seems like your representative doesn't care what you think.
But now, let's remember what our pressure did with the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. We took a bill that had gone nowhere in 20 years, and got it passed in the House. Believe me--they didn't want to. Nothing scares the establishment more than people challenging the bankers' ability to print money from nothing.
The truth is that to a politician, a flood of phone calls indicates a horde of angry voters. Bulk form letters mean an organization has a big list of people that they may contact again in election season--and the politician will be on shaky ground when the election rolls around.
2010 has already been a very shaky year for politicians in special elections and primaries. Many politicians are simply retiring. They know November is going to be rough.
As we hold politicians accountable and put them on record with our issue discussion program, HR 5175, the Establishment Protection Act, will force organizations like C4L to turn over the names of their major donors for exercising our First Amendment rights.
The true purpose of this bill is clear: to intimidate people from supporting organizations like Campaign For Liberty, who are putting the pressure on politicians--and making the voters angry as they learn how their representatives have been voting.
Campaign for Liberty has experienced tremendous growth this past year, and the establishment knows we are out there every day fighting back against its statist power grabs.
After watching some of their favorites go down in flames in race after race these past few months and seeing their statist schemes like Cap and Tax grind to a halt as a result of a massive uprising by liberty-loving Americans, they plan to strike back.
They watch as we inform you which candidates support the Constitution and which candidates refuse to take a stand on liberty issues.
And they know we won't play their Washington game of trading principle for power. They want to silence us once and for all by going after our donors.
Campaign for Liberty will not be silenced, and we will lead the fight against the Establishment Protection Act so you have the right to speak freely without your name and personal information being turned over to Big Brother.
Thank you to everyone who has emailed your state representatives and committee members about HB 2727. Your hard work is very important, especially now that the federal government is currently working to pass NEW legislation requiring a National ID card.
HB 2727 was transferred to the House Transportation Committee. Please contact the committee members below and request that they support and encourage the rapid passage of HB 2727.
(Click on the name of each Representative to get their phone number)
As you know, the federal government has been trying to force states to create a national ID card. This National ID is dangerous because it would give the federal government your finger prints and digital photos that can be run through facial recognition software. Privacy advocates have noted "Real ID is a 'real nightmare' for America that will only lead to a national identity card system that violates personal privacy, bigger bureaucratic messes, longer lines, increased identity theft and higher fees."
In order to stop this federal power grab, we need to pass legislation to keep Kansas bureaucrats from trying to implement it.
Legislation barring any state agency from implementing provisions of the Federal REAL ID Act was introduced in the Kansas State House Federal & State Affairs Committee on Monday, March 8th.
A list of members of the State House Federal & State Affairs Committee is available here.
This CRITICAL legislation asserts our 10th Amendment State Sovereignty.It prevents the federal government from forcing Kansans to provide biometric data and other personal information to be shared with the federal government in order to obtain a drivers' license. It also bars the imbedding of so-called RFID devices in drivers' licenses as part of any federal mandate. This legislation is necessary to protect our personal privacy rights, individual liberty, and the sovereignty of Kansas.
WE MUST FIGHT BACK against the idea that Kansas should bow to the will of the Federal Government.Over 25 states have already passed REAL ID Nullification Legislation. This has delayed the implementation of Real ID. Let's add Kansas to the list of states actively asserting 10th Amendment State Sovereignty Rights by REJECTING a National ID Card!
Contact your State Representative NOW and ask him/her to support and work to expedite the process of getting this bill through the House. In order to get this passed this session, we need our representatives to not only support HB 2727, but to encourage its rapid passage.
Find your State Representative here: http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-legisportal/redistricting.do
The hearing for HB 2727 in the Federal & State Affairs Committee should take place within the next seven days. We will update the Kansas Campaign for Liberty page with the hearing date and time. Please contact committee members (listed here) and request that they support and encourage the rapid passage of HB 2727.
We will be coordinating flier drops in some of the committee members' districts. Please contact Steve Shute at scshute@embarqmail.com if you live in one of the committee member's districts (listed here) and would like to participate. Include your district number in the email.
Please contact Steve Shute at scshute@embarqmail.com ASAP if you would like to testify on HB 2727.
Please forward this to your email lists and ask your friends to participate! We will update you on HB 2727 as we get more information.
Q. Will an Obamacare health Czar decide how you spend your income, or will you?
A. Obamacare requires individuals to purchase private health insurance fashioned and approved by the Obama Administration or be fined $1900, face a year in jail and pay penalties up to $25,000 (half the median income of American families). Penalties start if a single, monthly payment is missed.
Yet, the primary responsibility for the economic welfare of families and adult individuals rests with families and adult individuals, not Washington politicians. Our Declaration states that governments receive their "just power from the consent of the governed," and further, that it is "the Right of the People," not elected or appointed officials, to structure government, "in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Obamacare proponents in Congress are proposing health care "solutions" which abolish our natural right of self-determination to make primary decisions for our own economic welfare. America's Founders held that it was both the right and duty of citizens to resist Government which usurps rights given to us by our Creator.
Obamacare is not a battle over health insurance. It is a struggle over whether America will remain a nation of self-directing citizens or docile, powerless serfs.
Q. Do citizens and states have the constitutional authority to challenge Obamacare?
A. Yes. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution affirm a supremacy of rights reserved to the people and to the states: Amendment 9: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Amendment 10: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Moreover, the natural right of contract existed long before our Constitution, and is a fundamental right of citizens and a free people. American courts do not enforce involuntary contract promises.
Q. How can citizens and state legislatures challenge Obamacare mandates?
A. The "Health Care Freedom Act," HB 10 has been introduced in the Virginia General Assembly to challenge Obamacare, can by introduced in other state legislatures in 2010. Passage of HB 10 ensures that Virginia and other states will take up this challenge of defending Liberty on behalf of citizens who refuse to submit to the illicit demands of Obamacare.
HB 10 states:
"No law shall restrict a person's natural right and power of contract to secure the blessings of liberty to choose private health care systems or private plans. No law shall interfere with the right of a person or entity to pay for lawful medical services to preserve life or health, nor shall any law impose a penalty, tax, fee, or fine, of any type, to decline or to contract for health care coverage or to participate in any particular health care system or plan, except as required by a court where an individual or entity is a named party in a judicial dispute. Nothing herein shall be construed to expand, limit or otherwise modify any determination of law regarding what constitutes lawful medical services within the Commonwealth."
Q. Since citizens vote for their US Representatives, if Congress passes Obamacare, must citizens abide by the law?
A. Congress' ONLY duty is to serve citizens under the express powers of the US Constitution. Congress' own staff concluded (see below) that the proposed insurance mandates are novel and unprecedented in the 220 years since Congress was established in 1789! Forcing citizens to purchase private health insurance violates the compact between elected representatives and citizens reducing government "of, by and for the people," to demands of lords over subjects. The Declaration of Independence affirmed "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." It is the usurpers in Washington who propose to alter self government under the guise of health care reform.
Q. But Congress already mandates tax payments for Social Security and Medicare. What's so different about Obamacare?
A. Congress has never attempted to force individuals to purchase anything in the private sector. An August, 1994, Congressional Budget Office report by Robin Seller, written re: Hillary-care, states: "A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States. An individual mandate would have two features that, in combination, would make it unique. First, it would impose a duty on individuals as members of society. Second, it would require people to purchase a specific service that would be heavily regulated by the federal government."
Q. Congress compels registration for the military draft, and state governments require the purchase of auto insurance, so can't Obamacare require insurance purchases?
A. The power to raise an army to provide for the common defense in an enumerated power given to the national government. The mandating of health insurance is not a power granted to Congress. Forty-seven states impose liability insurance to drive on public, tax-paid roads. No insurance is needed to drive at any speed on one's own property. Liability insurance is required to protect others from injuries. Driving is not a right, it is a privilege subject to conditions imposed by state legislatures which are empowered to enforce general police and welfare powers.
Q. What else could Congress mandate of citizens if health mandates go unchallenged?
A. Congressmen and Senators could disingenuously tell citizens they will not raise taxes before an election, but then impose spending "mandates "on all Americans to achieve the same goal after they are elected. If Congress can force all Americans to buy health insurance, then Congress can mandate, under heavy penalty of jail or fines, that citizens purchase new windows or insulation to save the environment. Congress could compel states to not register automobiles older than 2005 to minimize air pollution.
Further, the Congressional Budge Office in 1994, stated Congress would be exercising a dangerous power: "a decision to exclude the costs of an individual mandate to purchase health insurance from the budget could lead policymakers to impose other mandates on individuals ... to use mandates to control the allocation of a large portion of the nation's resources without the cost of those actions being controlled through the federal budget process."
Q. Does HB 10, the "Health Care Freedom Act" protect businesses?
A. Yes, HB 10 protects both individuals and "entities" from mandatory health care purchases. Obamacare requires every company with an annual payroll of $500,000 or more to insure its workers with private plans, approved by the Obama Administration, or pay an 8% payroll tax. Obamacare also requires companies that do provide health insurance to pay 72.5% of an individual's premium, and 65% of a family plan. While Congress has passed laws pertaining to minimum wage, overtime, workplace safety, family leave, and workman's compensation, it never required companies to offer non-wage related or "fringe benefits" such as health insurance. Companies are not required to offer retirement plans, but if they do, they must conform to ERISA laws. Companies may, but are not required to, offer health insurance.
Q. Are there reputable legal scholars who think the Congress may NOT have the constitutional authority to compel health insurance purchase mandates?
A. Yes, "the health care mandate does not purport to regulate or prohibit activity of any kind, whether economic or noneconomic. ... To the contrary, it purports to "regulate" inactivity by converting the inactivity of not buying insurance into commercial activity. ...
In recent years, the Court invalidated two congressional statutes that attempted to regulate noneconomic activities. In United States v. Lopez (1995), it struck down the Gun-Free School Zones Act, which attempted to reach the activity of possessing a gun within a thousand feet of a school. In United States v. Morrison (2000), it invalidated part of the Violence Against Women Act, which regulated gender-motivated violence. Because the Court found the regulated activity in each case to be noneconomic, it was outside the reach of Congress's Commerce power, regardless of its effect on interstate commerce. To uphold the insurance purchase mandate, the Supreme Court would have to concede that the Commerce Clause has no limits, a proposition that it has never affirmed, that it rejected in Lopez and Morrison, and from which it did not retreat in Raich. ...Congress may ... not regulate the individual's decision not to purchase a service or enter into a contract."
(Heritage Foundation by Georgetown University law professor Randy Barnett can be found here; also see American Law and Justice)
HB 10 is introduced by Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall (13th House of Delegates district) for the 2010 General Assembly session. If you live in Virginia, ask your own state representative to cosponsor HB 10. If you do not live in Virginia, ask your state representative to introduce HB 10 or a similar bill to challenge Obamacare. Questions? Email Bob at delegatebobmarsall[at]hotmail.com.
354 RSOB Washington, DC 20510-2 DC Phone: 202-224-6521 DC Fax: 202-228-6917 [Website] [Contact]
306 N. Broadway, Suite 125 PO Box 1372 Pittsburg, KS 66762 620-232-2286
3450 North Rock Road, Building 200 Suite 209 Wichita, KS 67226 316-631-1410 316-631-1297
23600 College Boulevard Suite 201 Olathe, KS 66061 913-393-0711 913-768-1366
800 SW Jackson Suite 1108 Topeka, KS 66612 785-232-2605 785-357-0759
1200 Main Street Suite 402 Hays, KS 67601-0249 785-628-6401 785-628-3791
House of Representatives
Mr. Tim Huelskamp KS-1st (R) (freshman)
126 CHOB Washington, DC 20515-1601 DC Phone: 202-225-2715 DC Fax: 202-225-5124 [Website] [Contact]
1 North Main Suite 525 Hutchinson, KS, 67504 620-665-6138 620-665-6360
100 Mililtary Avenue Suite 204 Dodge City, KS, 67801 620-225-0172 620-225-0297
119 West Iron Avenue, 4th Floor Suite A PO Box 766 Salina, KS, 67402 785-309-0572 785-827-6957
Ms. Lynn Jenkins KS-2nd (R)
1122 LHOB Washington, DC 20515-1602 DC Phone: 202-225-6601 DC Fax: 202-225-7986 [Website] [Contact]
3550 SW 5th Street Topeka, KS, 66606 785-234-5966 785-234-5967
1001 North Broadway Street Suite C Pittsburgh, KS, 66762 620-231-5966 620-231-5972
Voted against HR 1: ["The Scamulus Package"] American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Voted against HR 1388: ["Obama's Camps"] Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act [More info]
Voted for co-sponsoring HR 1207: The Federal Reserve Transparency Act [More info]
Voted against HR 1256: Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act [More info]
Voted against HR 2346: 2009 $106B War Supplemental [More info]
Voted against HR 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 [More info]
Voted against H.R. 3435: Another $2 billion for clunkers [More info]
Voted against HR 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009
Voted for HR 2647: Imperialism Authorization Act of 2010 / Hate Crimes Creation Act [More info]
Voted for co-sponsoring HR 2194: Expanding Economic War with Iran [More info]
Voted for restoring the gutted HR1207: The Federal Reserve Transparency Act [More info]
Voted against HR 2847: Making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes [More info]
Voted for HR 4061: Cybersecurity Act of 2009 [More info]
Mr. Kevin Yoder KS-3rd (R) (freshman)
214 CHOB Washington, DC 20515-1603 DC Phone: 202-225-2865 DC Fax: 202-225-2807 [Website] [Contact]
500 State Avenue #176 Kansas City, KS, 66101 913-621-0832 913-621-1533
Mr. Mike Pompeo KS-4th (R) (freshman)
107 CHOB Washington, DC 20515-1604 DC Phone: 202-225-6216 DC Fax: 202-225-3489 [Website] [Contact]
7701 East Kellogg Suite 510 Wichita, KS, 67207 316-262-8992 316-262-5309
Campaign for Liberty is a 501(c)4 lobbying organization which neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office and claims no responsibility for the actions of individuals or groups of individuals who use the Campaign for Liberty logo or name or who may claim to act as representatives of the Campaign for Liberty without prior written consent of the Campaign for Liberty. [?]
