The road to the White House runs through the Southern Republican Leadership 
Conference, January 18th-21st, 2012!

What makes SRLC 2012 so action-packed is that it is being held in Charleston, South Carolina in the lead up to the “First in the South” Presidential Primary Election.

And if that’s not enough, just two days before South Carolina voters head to the polls, CNN will be hosting a presidential debate on Thursday, January 19.

Media from around the world, federal-and state-elected officials, and the Republican presidential contenders are all in one place and will make SRLC 2012 one adrenaline-charged event you don’t want to miss.

For an exclusive Republican Party of Louisiana discount, please register using this exclusive link. For general information, visit www.SRLCCharleston2012.com. If you would like to become a sponsor for SRLC 2012, please contact Julie Emerson at Julie@SRLCCharleston2012.com.

We look forward to hosting you in Charleston!

Exciting News! New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is coming to Baton Rouge and you’re invited to help us welcome him to the Bayou State. This Thursday, Governor Jindal, Congressmen Cassidy & Scalise, and Chairman Villere will be in attendance and I hope you can make it too! This event is open to the public and is free to attend.

Governor Chris Christie Welcome Rally
Thursday, September 29th 4:30pm (doors open at 3:30)

Louisiana Aircraft Terminal (At the Baton Rouge Airport)
4225 Chuck Yeager Ave. Baton Rouge

See you Thursday!

Jason P. Doré, Executive Director
Republican Party of Louisiana

In Case You Missed It…

Louisiana’s business ranking and

record mean state is on the move

Alexandria Town-Talk
Editorial
July 16, 2011

“The news about Louisiana’s economic-development performance is triply good today: For the third consecutive year, Louisiana has been named State of the Year in the South by Southern Business & Development magazine.

The ranking is impressive — sole possession of the top spot after tying with Tennessee in 2009 and ’10 — and the sustained strong performance is telling. It marks a welcome trend…

Louisiana turned eight deals of $300 million or more in 2010 in investment and two of those were $1 billion or more, the magazine reports. No other state did that. It also landed 71 big projects of $30 million or more in investment and/or 200 or more jobs.

Reflecting on the performance, Louisiana Economic Development, headed by Secretary Stephen Moret, noted that ‘since early 2008, Louisiana has moved up to its highest-ever position in every national, broad-based ranking of state business climates, including those published by Chief Executive magazine, Forbes, Site Selection magazine, CNBC, Business Facilities magazine, Pollina Corporate Real Estate and the Beacon Hill Institute.’…

Louisiana is clearly on the move.”

Read More in the Alexandria Town-Talk

Popular Presidential Vote Subverts Constitution

Washington Times
By John Ryder
June 2, 2011

“…The Electoral College is part of an elaborate mechanism designed by the Founders to create interdependent centers of power, each balancing the excesses of the others. The Constitution balances the competing elements of our Republic: The membership of the House of Representatives is based on population. The Senate is based on equal representation by state.

This design balances the interests of large and small states.

The Electoral College mirrors this arrangement by giving each state electoral votes equal to its membership in the House plus its two Senators… It reflects the Founders’ compromise between large states and small states and between electing the president by Congress and electing the president directly by the people.

Bypassing the Electoral College through the proposed compact undermines that balance by effectually erasing states’ boundaries along with those states’ sovereignty.

On a practical level, the Constitution requires a successful candidate to assemble a winning coalition across a broad geographic spectrum, embracing both large and small states, rather than a narrow concentration of votes.

A popular vote, in contrast, does not require the candidate to have broad appeal. It would make it possible for a candidate to win without any majority but merely a plurality of the popular vote. The compact would require the states to determine the candidate with the ‘largest national popular vote’ – not a majority…

Under such an arrangement, presidential candidates would have no incentive to campaign anywhere except the major media markets in a few states…

NPV would maximize the rewards of vote fraud in those large metropolitan areas. Under the Electoral College, an illegal vote only affects the outcome in one state; under the popular vote compact, an illegal vote would affect the national outcome.

What is illegal voting? Laws and procedures vary. In some states, convicted felons can vote while still in prison; in others, they must complete their sentence and apply for reinstatement…

…Our constitutional method of electing presidents, balancing the state and federal governments, has served our nation well. It would be foolish and disingenuous to bypass the written Constitution, nominally keeping the Electoral College but nullifying its function.

John Ryder is a Republican National Committee member from Tennessee.”

Read More in the Washington Times

In Case You Missed It…
It’s Madness for Republicans to support liberal attack on the Electoral College

Washington Examiner
By: Shawn Steel, former chairman of the California Republican Party
May 12th, 2011

“Circumventing the U.S. Constitution to further political agenda is normally the Left’s schtick, which makes it surprising to see Republicans rallying to the National Popular Vote (NPV), the latest liberal attempt to end-run the Constitution…

This maneuver cunningly side-steps the Constitution’s cumbersome amendment process and allows NPV proponents to do away with our centuries-old electoral system on the say-so of fewer than half the states in the Union (doubtless causing Madison to spin in his grave).

NPV was birthed from the womb of the Left and is being financed by Tom Golisano, a billionaire who supported John Kerry for president and previously spent $93 million on three campaigns for New York Governor as the nominee of the Independence Party (which he created).

Golisano is using his vast wealth to employ GOP lobbyists and politicians to sell this liberal brainchild to Republicans (he doesn’t need to convince liberals)…

Unfortunately, a dismaying number of Republicans are buying into it…

What would possess any Republican leader to propound a scheme so clearly contrary to the Founding Fathers’ constitutional design?…

NPV proponents cite the four times in our 235-year history in which the presidential winner lost the popular vote – but their solution will create the quadrennial spectacle of watching a number of states vote for the Republican nominee only to have their electoral votes go to the Democrat, and vice versa.

Take, for example, the states that have enacted NPV: Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington, Vermont (and DC). All went for John Kerry in 2004, but under NPV their electoral votes would have gone to George W. Bush…

Republicans should be incensed at the National Popular Vote campaign’s cavalier attitude toward the Constitution … The Founders thought it the best possible system for electing the chief executive of the Union. It manifests that we are a republic, rather than a democracy. It reflects that we are a federal union of sovereign states, rather than a unitary central government with 50 administrative units.

Presidential electors represent the voters of their states, but NPV would frequently force electors to act in opposition to the expressed will of the citizens they represent. That is the fundamental contradiction at the heart of this dishonest initiative.

Republicans flirting with this constitutional end-run should also remember a major priority of the Tea Party movement – which re-energized the GOP as the party of limited government and fueled its 2010 election triumph — is returning the Constitution to the center of our national political life…”

Read More in the Washington Examiner

In Case You Missed It…

Jindal Hammers Obama on Drilling Ban

Politico
Jennifer Epstein

“Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal used a TV appearance Wednesday morning marking the first anniversary of the BP oil spill not only to tout the progress his state has made, but to attack President Barack Obama’s response to the spill and his policies more broadly.

‘Three hundred miles of coast continue to be oiled, but at the same time, you’re seeing a great recovery story here,’ the Republican governor said on NBC’s ‘Today’ show. ‘So yes, there’s work to be done, but the reality is we’re rebuilding our state, coming back better than before.’

The people of Louisiana have been ‘resilient’ in responding to the spill, which came on the heels of five tough years following Hurricane Katrina and other storms that hit the Gulf Coast, he said. He encouraged Americans to support the region by buying Gulf Coast seafood and taking trips to the area. ‘It’s the safest, most delicious seafood you’ll ever find. … If you’re a tourist, visit the coastal areas. They would love your business.’

But Jindal’s message wasn’t all boosterism. As he touted his state’s progress, he called on the Obama administration to end its policy halting all offshore drilling, which was imposed after last year’s spill. ‘One of the side effects, one of the things we need to recover from is the administration imposed a one-size-fits-all moratorium after the spill,’ he said. ‘We want drilling to be done safely but we don’t want to lose thousands of jobs down here.’…”

Click Here For More From The Politico

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature must make large cuts in public services to plug a $1.6 billion shortfall next fiscal year. That will be difficult and painful.

Officials are in this bind because they keep postponing the necessary discussion about what services government should provide in the long term and how it can provide them well. Instead, governors and legislators have usually gone on a spending binge when the economy is rolling, only to be forced to starve public services once the good times end…

Gov. Jindal and lawmakers need to be sensible about these cuts, and the Board of Regents must devise a plan to maximize resources and eliminate redundancies across the state. Louisiana needs to lessen the impact of this and future economic ups and downs on students and their families…”

Read The Full Article In The New Orleans Times-Picayune

In Case You Missed It…
“GOP Gaining Ground In State”

Baton Rouge Advocate
By Will Sentell
January 11, 2011 – Page: 1A

“Louisiana Democrats are reeling from party defections, a dwindling number of statewide officeholders and trouble finding credible candidates for governor and other key posts…

Last month, Democrats surrendered control of the state House of Representatives for the first time since Reconstruction without an election even being held.

Instead, an extraordinary series of defections to the Republican Party made it happen amid complaints that Democrats nationally have made the party politically radioactive in Louisiana…

In addition, GOP contenders often benefit from organizational advantages, better financing and a hunger for state offices after decades of Democratic dominance in Louisiana, political watchers said.

‘Every election cycle it seems to trend more and more Republican,’ said Jas Sullivan, an assistant professor of political science at LSU…

In 1976, Democrats enjoyed a 101-4 margin over Republicans in the Louisiana House, according to House statistics.

Just a decade ago, Democrats held a 75-30 edge.

Now, the breakdown is 53 Republicans, 47 Democrats, four members with no party affiliation and one vacancy.

In 1976, Democrats held a 38-1 advantage in the state Senate.

In 2000, Democrats filled 26 — or two-thirds — of the Senate’s 39 seats.

Now, the Senate breakdown is 19 Democrats, 18 Republicans and two vacancies…

Democrat setbacks extend beyond the state Legislature.

In 2007, the party held four of seven statewide offices.

Now, Republicans hold six of the seven after Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne was elected last year to fill the unexpired term of Democrat Mitch Landrieu…

No credible Democrat challenger has stepped up to run this year against Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who carried 60 of 64 parishes in 2007.

Political experts said predictions that Jindal will have $10 million in the bank means Democrats face a daunting task.

Bob Mann, a professor of mass communication at LSU, noted that Louisiana had never sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate through popular election until U.S. Sen. David Vitter won in 2004…

Last year, Democrats predicted that former U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, a Democrat, could defeat Vitter.

Instead, Vitter won by 19 percentage points…

State Rep. Noble Ellington, of Winnsboro, another recent defector to the GOP, said he grew tired of being grilled about national Democratic policies seen by many of his constituents as wildly out of touch…

Others said Republicans have often successfully branded themselves as anti-tax and for cuts in what they call wasteful government spending…

State Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere said his party has benefited in part because the other party has deserted the conservative movement nationally.

‘It has turned off a lot of people involved in the Democratic Party in our state and throughout the South,’ Villere said.”

Read The Full Article In The Baton Rouge Advocate

“Resolved: Keep Our State Growing”

Monroe News-Star
By Bobby Jindal
January 5, 2011

“The New Year is upon us, and folks everywhere are setting out to make their resolutions… This year, our top resolution for the state is we continue to foster an economic environment that keeps businesses growing and creating jobs and opportunity for our people right here at home.

…But, even though we continue to outperform the nation and produce many jobs wins in the still-sluggish national economy, it will be even more important for us to keep our economy growing in 2011 and the years ahead.

Part of that mission this year means we must tackle our budget challenges head on. We will balance the state’s budget through a combination of spending cuts and the use of available funding to support the critical areas of higher education and health care…

One thing we absolutely will not do to balance the budget in 2011 is raise taxes on our people. We know many families are hurting and struggling through tough economic times. Adding to their financial burdens would be one of the worst things we could do.

Just recently, an employment survey conducted by Manpower Inc. found Louisiana employers expect to hire at an ‘active pace’ and the state’s employment outlook is the best in the nation for the first quarter of 2011…

Louisiana also was just named the 2010 ‘State of the Year’ by Business Facilities magazine. The magazine noted Louisiana won because of our ‘diversity and growth’ in high-tech and traditional manufacturing as well as our overall job creation…

Over the past three years, we’ve announced economic wins creating more than 38,000 direct and indirect jobs total, and investing more than $7 billion in capital in Louisiana.

We resolve 2011 and the years ahead will bring even greater economic growth and opportunity to our state and that Louisiana continues to earn the honors of being called: ‘State of the Year’ and ‘No. 1 in the Country.’”

Read Governor Jindal’s full op-ed in the Monroe News-Star

Baton Rouge – A new Public Policy Polling survey released this week confirms that Governor Bobby Jindal is the most popular governor in America scheduled to be on the ballot in the next two years.

According to PPP, a Democrat Party-affiliated firm, the average Gubernatorial approval rating is just 42% positive and 45% negative. Politico’s analysis of the PPP poll reveals that Governor Jindal’s 58% approval among Louisiana voters, along with Delaware Governor Jack Markell’s rating of 50% within his state; make them the “two most popular governors set to stand for reelection over the next two years.”

“Governor Jindal’s successful efforts to reform Louisiana’s ethics laws, cut taxes, and promote economic opportunity for our people are paying dividends,” said Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger Villere.  “As Louisiana heads toward our elections next fall Governor Jindal is in a strong position to secure another term where he can continue to build a better Louisiana for our children.”