We’re trying. We are rebuilding from scratch. So far this year we’ve:

(1)Been at the 10th district convention
(2)Been at the VA Republican convention in Richmond
(3)Built a website: www.manassasparkgop.com
(4)Had a fundraiser at Clearwater Grill with Congressman Wolf

To my knowledge there has never been a website before. Nobody from MP was at the 10th district convention 2 years ago.

After next week I hope to add a (5) to that list:

(5)Put a conservative on City Council

-Brian

“Kudos to Catherine Morretta for working with me to solve the problem.”

I’d hope that doesn’t sound like I’m crying foul.

Did he expect to just show up and be granted a table? It just sounds like Leeper was not prepared - When I need to attend and present at an event, I always make preparations before hand, and inquire as to the requirements of attending.

Sounds like someone is crying foul, when they did not prepare. Sorry Leeper.

If they hadn’t allowed me to get a table on the same terms that everyone else got their table, I suspect that would indeed be a restriction of the right to free speech.

Catherine said she wanted to be fair to those who had paid for a table. That’s reasonable and expected, and, as mentioned, she did offer a table to me on the same terms that the others got their tables.

“I’m voting for you, Brian, but you knew that already.”

I did, and I thank you.

I’m voting for you, Brian, but you knew that already. I’m also voting for every non-incumbent on the MP ballot, and writing in Ham Sandwich for the uncontested races. It’s time to clean house.

Kudos to you. You sound like a reasonable person who understands that some underlings like to flex their muscles. As has been said so many times in so many situations: “mistakes were made”.

I would hope that the employee who asked us to leave is counseled about what happened so that they know how to better handle that situation in the future.

I certainly don’t want anyone to lose their job over this. I also don’t want the city to be the potential recipient of a lawsuit because someone believes their right to free speech was violated.

Restricting political free speech by government officials in any way is tyranny. Saying you have to jump through some sort of hoop — any hoop — is an anathema to our liberties. Yeah, the poll tax wasn’t so bad, it only cost a few dollars to vote is the same argument that is being used here to require that candidates “buy” a table at a public, government-sponsored event before they are allowed to even be on the premises, which happen to be public property. This is an outrage.

Thirty bucks one year, a hundred the next. Who sets the price? The electorate? No. It’s some government bureaucrat who owes their job to the same elected officials who are manning tables here. What is to prevent all candidate activity on public property being unlawfully regulated in such a manner that it favors incumbents? What authority is there to regulate this political speech at all? None. Absolutely none. Our Constitution expressly forbids this, but the officials in Manassas Park throw way your Constitutional liberties anyways.

I would have begged them to arrest me. Yeah, throw me in jail you Stalinist whores and give me a really good reason to bring Judicial Watch or some other responsible public interest law firm down on your heads so fast it’ll make you soil your shorts. You want to prevent political candidates from attending public functions on public property shortly before an election because they didn’t pay you your tribute, you just give that a try. We’ll see how that works out.

All of you who are so willing to be complacent in the face of this latest atrocity hopefully will find some solace in that it will take many more years for your political freedoms to entirely evaporate.

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

Ideally, the person who told us to leave would have first asked us if we’d like a table for $30. I certainly would have taken him up on that offer. Instead we were first told that we couldn’t hand out literature and then told we couldn’t campaign and then we were told to leave.

What happened is the result of a miscommunication. There was an opportunity here for the City to get an additional $30 in revenue simply by asking if we wanted a table, instead of telling us to leave. In the end, they got it, because I went back and found out why we were asked to leave.

Kudos to Catherine Morretta for working with me to solve the problem.

-Brian Leeper

-Brian