Rhode Island State House member Daniel P. Gordon, Jr., elected as a Republican to his first term in November 2010, was expelled by the Republican House caucus earlier this month after he was arrested for not having appeared some time earlier in a Massachusetts court. See this story about his legal troubles. On September 21, he became a dues-paying member of the Libertarian Party. It is not clear if he has changed his voter registration from “Republican” to “Libertarian.” If he does so, the state will consider him a registered independent, because the Libertarian Party has never been a qualified party in Rhode Island. However, the voter registration form includes a blank line for “political party” so he is free to write in “Libertarian” on the card.
Gordon supported Ron Paul for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, and says he has long been a libertarian by philosophy. His election to the Rhode House in November 2010 was extremely close; the vote was 2,707 for Gordon and 2,660 for his Democratic opponent. He represents the 71st district, centered on Portsmouth. Thanks to Eric Dondero and Austin Cassidy for this news.
Better him than the Republican War Criminals who killed a half-million innocent civilians in Iraq.
16 p: I knew there must have been a link in there somewhere.
me: Yes, everything always boils down to love or fear.
17 mrs, it’s actually not a double standard from the LP’s perspective. If Patrick Kennedy were to be ousted from the Ds and he was considering becoming a L, it would be prudent to consider PK’s rocky history, too.
When US rep Patrick Kennedy had assault charges and drunk driving accidents he still went on until he decided to step down many, many years later. the double standard is sickening.
I knew there must have been a link in there somewhere.
P’s link and these reports on Gordon point to the severe pitfalls of angrytarianism. Stoked in part by an impish hater, fanning the flames of hate and rage can be quite destructive.
Bachmann is sinking herself with gaffes [and may be the next GOP to ‘Libertarian Conversition’ ????????]
The Minnesota congresswoman was the “darling of the Republican primary,” says the Red Dog Report, but her “gaffes and mistakes” have made it hard for voters to see her as presidential material.
Her claim that the HPV vaccine Gardasil causes “retardation” — despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary — was just the tip of the iceberg.
This week in Iowa, she railed against government grants to businesses — while touring a manufacturer that gets 80 percent of its revenue from Washington.
“It may be time for her to lick her wounds and exit the GOP presidential primary.”
Paulie @ 12 – yes, the article you link to is excellent!
Somewhat off topic, the link @ 3 led to me catch up on my reading at Classically Liberal blog.
This was really good IMO:
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2011/07/consuming-hate-imperialist-passion.html
Wes Benedict just sent out a message to help recruit people, well, here is the new class of republican rejects.
I would probably put him with social services. He could be a mentor.
Just another example of why the national level should shut down.
Scott K.’s involvement can be seen if you go to Mr. ED’s site, which I’d rather not link to.
Cassidy, I think, got the news from Mr. ED, and from there it went to Winger to here.
Scott K probably got this from ED, and then tried to get LPHQ and LNC to promote it.
Actually, from what I have now heard it is not yet clear whether he has yet joined the LP.
Apparently he has offered to do so.
The original sources on this are Dondero and Kohlhaas, so the bullshit flag should go up immediately.
If the claims are true, then this guy is obviously bad news for the LP. Imagine some media outlet mentioning the LP and then noting that the party’s highest-elected official is a state legislator in Rhode Island with this background. Very bad.
I notice there is nothing about this at LP.org yet.
Maybe they haven’t gotten around to it yet, but just maybe they have more sense than Classically Liberal blog credits them for.
It might be interesting to understand how someone with this history gets elected…
Thanks, Glenn.
I’ll give somebody a paon drunk driving (.05% !! ??) once. Small amount of pot? Same. Rolling papers? We are Libertarians, afterall.
Even driving on a suspended license can be overlooked. Localities in Ohio don’t bother to inform folks that their license is suspended, so they have no way of knowing.
But THREE drunk driving convictions. TWO domestic violence charges (on different women no less).
We can overlook a lot. But sometimes it’s best to walk away from drama.
Kevin is right…more issues than a magazine stand!
PEACE
Yikes….sounds pretty bad…
Based on the blog post link below I hope the LNC does some due diligence, and if what this blog reports is true, keep this fellow at greater than arms length away.
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2011/09/if-you-thought-libertarian-party.html
More issues than a magazine stand
It will be interesting to see if the LNC will welcome our new state legislator with the same kind of $$ that were given to the office holder in Indianapolis.
PEACE