State of the Union Events- This week, the President of the United States will present the State of the Union Address to Congress. On Wednesday, Americans for Prosperity will be hosting watch parties across the country with an opportunity to discuss and respond to the President’s remarks. We will look at the real state of the North Carolina economy and the future of the Obama-Perdue agenda. We will have an intimate town hall meeting starting at 8:00 PM and then we will watch the State of the Union Address at 9:00 PM with analysis to follow.

The “Real” State of North Carolina and Viewing of the President’s State of the Union Address at 8:00 pm
with:

The Economy: Joe Coletti, The John Locke Foundation
Public Opinion on the Obama-Perdue Agenda: Francis DeLuca, JWP Civitas Institute
Grassroots and Tea Party Movement in 2010: Dallas Woodhouse, Americans for Prosperity

Wednesday January 27 2010
8:00 pm
200 W. Morgan Street
Raleigh, NC 27601
Second Floor
Limited Seating – REGISTER NOW

For folks not in the Raleigh area, you may join the live webcast with AFP President Tim Phillips at 8:00 p.m. It will be available live online at www.americansforprosperity.org.

Civitas Poll Lunch Wednesday
Also this Wednesday, the Civitas Institute will be holding its monthly poll luncheon where they will release the results of their latest poll. The guest commentator this month will be Americans for Prosperity State Director Dallas Woodhouse.
The poll lunch will be on Wednesday, January 27 at the Clarion Hotel, 320 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, 27603 at 11:45 a.m. The cost is $10.
Click here to prepay

New AFP Team Member- Thanks to the donations and support of our grassroots members, AFP has been able to expand its staff. Joining us as a new grassroots field operator is Jeff Mixon. Jeff recently served as a policy analyst at the NC Civitas Institute. Jeff will help AFP extend its grassroots outreach efforts across North Carolina. Jeff will be working to engage the growing tea party movement as AFP works for limited government and free markets and to secure individual economic opportunity for all citizens. Jeff may be reached at jeff.mixon@afphq.org

What a Week for Conservatives and Libertarians- Last week was a week to celebrate for the free market movement. In Massachusetts, Scott Brown’s victory has brought the march towards government controlled health care to a screeching halt. While this electoral victory took place in the far northeast, the seeds of this victory were planted in the hot months of August as we mobilized against the federal takeover of health care.

By the time Scott Brown won, it was clear to the nation that his election was a vote against Obamacare and all the corruption surrounding the bills that passed the U.S. House and Senate. Of course, the battle is not over. The President’s advisors have been on television suggesting that Congress will continue to push the health care takeover, no matter what the public thinks. The fight is not won but we got a lot closer last week.

Finally we at Americans for Prosperity have reason to celebrate as the United States Supreme Court has affirmed our right to engage voters as we see fit. The Supreme Court ruling striking down provisions of the McCain-Feingold federal campaign-finance law is a tremendous victory for free speech in the United States. The 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission upholds the principle that the government should not regulate political speech.

The case grew out of a 2008 federal ban on the showing of a documentary film, Hillary: The Movie, during the presidential primaries in which Hillary Clinton, the object of the movie’s criticism, was a candidate. McCain-Feingold allowed the Federal Election Commission to stop the showing of the film because a corporation produced it, even though the corporation in question was a nonprofit, like Americans for Prosperity.

The law did not protect the electoral process from the corrupting influence of money. It protected politicians from the effects of political speech that they did not like. The ruling will likely strike down hundreds of pages of campaign finance regulations in North Carolina that criminalize average citizen participation in the electoral process. It will remove unfair laws that protect incumbents. It will allow Americans for Prosperity to work to inform voters of which election officials and candidates believe in free markets and low taxes and which ones do not.

As the State Director of Americans for Prosperity, I believe that unrestricted political speech is important to democracy. I believe the more political speech the better. I also believe this ruling is a victory for free market advocates that believe in the market place of ideas.

Yours in Freedom,

Dallas Woodhouse
State Director
Americans for Prosperity