Emailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com. Adam Kokesh is an antiwar veteran and “Ron Paul Republican” with significant alternative party and independent support. Michael Lebowitz is the chair of the Modern Whig Party.
Contact:
Tina Richards
(505) 470-1917
Tina@KokeshforCongress.com
Nationally Renowned Attorney Joins Kokesh for Congress Team
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 – The Kokesh for Congress Campaign announced today that Michael Lebowitz, a highly regarded Washington, D.C. attorney who is nationally renowned for his work in Military Expression and as a distinguished political veteran, has joined the Kokesh for Congress team. “As a fellow Iraq Veteran, I am honored to assist the Kokesh campaign as its legal counsel.” Mr. Lebowitz stated, “Adam is running a truly unique, viable and honorable campaign. I am looking forward to being a part of something that has the potential to really invoke change in Washington.”
As the Kokesh Campaign prepares for the political battle in New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district, they have also recently contracted with a well-known political C.P.A. firm and electoral strategists, Revolution Consultants. In addition, they have also brought on four new campaign staffers which include a communications director, volunteer coordinator, events director & fundraising coordinator.
Although New Mexico’s 3rd district is usually considered a safe democratic seat, the unique aspects of Adam Kokesh’s background combined with one of the earliest starts & best-funded Republican congressional campaigns in this district, makes this race one to watch.
38 responses so far ↓
1 Jeremy Young // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Is Kokesh running as a Republican? If not, I don’t understand the last paragraph of the press release. No serious Republican (other than Kokesh) is going to run against Lujan.
2 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Is Kokesh running as a Republican?
Yes, as I noted:
Adam Kokesh is an antiwar veteran and “Ron Paul Republican”
3 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:14 pm
And as the original press release noted as well:
“the unique aspects of Adam Kokesh’s background combined with one of the earliest starts & best-funded Republican congressional campaigns in this district”
4 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:16 pm
As for the appropriateness of covering this here
1) We had at least one other post about Kokesh
2) We occasionally cover dissident major party candidates who attract a lot of alternative party/independent support
3) Lebowitz’s involvement is a legitimate alternative party angle, if nothing else
IMO
5 Trent Hill // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Paulie,
Very legitimate. Kokesh has a unique ability to outscore the previous Republican nominees in the district. He’ll get the average 30% that every Republican gets–plus a significant anti-war vote, Ron Paul vote, etc.
6 Jeremy Young // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I didn’t mean to question the appropriateness of your coverage. I was just confused because 1) I remember Kokesh speaking just after Jesse Ventura at the Ron Paul convention last year, and 2) Politics1 has him listed as a Libertarian. Apparently they are in error. (The 2010 Race Tracker has him listed correctly.)
7 Jeremy Young // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:31 pm
In the same vein, I would welcome coverage here about the incredible boomlet that is going on for Rand Paul. I have never seen anything like that. He is vastly outperforming his father in the polls.
8 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I do believe he has LP sympathies/ties.
I do not know whether he is a party member, or how he is registered (or whether NM law requires him to be registered Republican to run Republican).
I do know he is running as a Republican, but as an antiwar Republican he is unlikely to have the support of that party’s establishment. At least I wouldn’t expect so.
9 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Good idea. I think I have made more than enough posts today, but someone else may want to, or I may get to it tomorrow.
10 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:47 pm
…Except for one post I pre-scheduled earlier that should be up any minute.
11 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I didn’t mean to question the appropriateness of your coverage.
At least one other person did when I mentioned that I was planning to write about this on another thread.
12 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:52 pm
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/09/nothing-short-of-peace-on-earth-and-other-news-from-cindy-sheehan/comment-page-1/#comment-103416
13 Ross Levin // Sep 15, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I wonder if he’ll get the support of mainstream Republicans because they think he has a chance to win against the Democrat, unlike more mainstream Reps. That’s just speculation, though.
14 Jeremy Young // Sep 15, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Paul is polling worse against the Democratic candidates than Trey Grayson is, so I don’t see why that would be a factor. I think the biggest issue is that nobody knows who Trey Grayson is, and that he seems like just one more slick pre-packaged Republican backbencher. Plus Paul has somehow managed to duplicate the moneybombs in a way that other Ron Paul-affiliated candidates such as Murray Sabrin, Peter Schiff, and Bob Barr never did. That makes people think he can actually win.
15 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Ross may have also been referring to Kokesh.
16 Jeremy Young // Sep 15, 2009 at 9:19 pm
You’re right. Sorry!
17 paulie // Sep 15, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Not very clear due to how the comments went.
18 Peter Orvetti // Sep 15, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I think candidates like Kokesh, Schiff, both Pauls, and possibly Gary Johnson are of interest to the IPR readership — as are folks like Cindy Sheehan, Christy Mihos, and some others who occasionally dabble in the duopoly.
19 Gene Berkman // Sep 15, 2009 at 9:33 pm
As a follow-up to Jeremy @ #14 – in Connecticut polls show that former Congressman Rob Simmons would beat Sen. Dodd, while Dodd leads Peter Schiff at this point.
Electability is not the strong point for principled candidates.
20 HumbleTravis // Sep 15, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Adam Kokesh might have an advantage over Debra Medina, Peter Schiff, Rand Paul etc. in that he may be the only declared Republican in the race so he can use whatever moneybomb bucks he gets in the general election. Although there is a rumor that the 2008 Republican candidate Dan East might try again.
RJ Harris in OK-4 has to “primary” the incumbent (Tom Cole) out of the race!
21 Danny S // Sep 15, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Many libertarian Paulites also see Rand Paul’s race as viable because of the two polls that have come out that all put the race about 37-38% Grayson vs 25-26% Paul for the primary and Paul around the margin of error or slightly behind against either big Dem.
One interesting thing about Kokesh’s race is the fact that there was an anti-war candidate who ran in 2008 who picked up ~13% of the vote. I looked her up, and apparently she had before run with the Greens.
This presents a major swing vote for Kokesh to attempt to grab. Will the Green-leaners go for Lujan on healthcare, environmental policy and generally a more empowered federal government or kokesh for the antiwar pro civil liberties angle? If Kokesh could theoretically grab up this whole vote, he would make the race fairly close. However, if he cannot he has barely any more ability to compete than past Republican candidates.
22 Jeremy Young // Sep 16, 2009 at 12:09 am
Essentially, Kokesh is trying out a new strategy. Generally speaking, RLC/Campaign for Liberty-affiliated folks have had a great deal of difficulty getting out of primaries for Senate and Congressional seats. Only Ron Paul and the very loosely-affiliated Paul Broun (who won his seat in a special election runoff against another Republican) have managed to do so, while countless others (most notably Murray Sabrin) have failed.
So Kokesh’s new strategy is as follows: run in heavily-Democratic districts that the NRCC isn’t even going to try to contest. That way there’s no serious opposition in the primary, and a libertarian Republican can at least get through to the general and make his case to the voters.
At first glance, this seems like an excellent strategy to me. Running in a general is always better than running in a primary. Libertarian Republicans could target other safe Democratic seats, such as Mike Quigley’s in IL and some of the CBC seats. Will libertarians have better luck in a general than in a primary? I don’t know. Kokesh is going to try it against Lujan, and we will see what happens.
23 Citizens For A Better Veterans Home // Sep 16, 2009 at 12:10 am
Modern Whigs, are these the same folk whom can not even enroll volunteer registrants ??????
[Yes ........]
—- personal, first hand knowledge, Don Lake
24 Trent Hill // Sep 16, 2009 at 12:12 am
“In the same vein, I would welcome coverage here about the incredible boomlet that is going on for Rand Paul. I have never seen anything like that. He is vastly outperforming his father in the polls.”
He is, and im shocked to see it. Rand Paul may be the first “Ron Paul Republican” to actually win. Peter Schiff is currently polling 1% in Connecticut, though he hasn’t yet declared or spent any of his 1 million dollar warchest. The other “liberty candidates”, like RJ Harris, Adam Kokesh, Randy Brogdon, Debra Medina–most of them are VERY longshots.
25 Trent Hill // Sep 16, 2009 at 12:13 am
“I do know he is running as a Republican, but as an antiwar Republican he is unlikely to have the support of that party’s establishment. At least I wouldn’t expect so.”
He does have the support of the party establishment, actually. I think they are excited to see a better-funded candidate come their way who is exciting and who is exciting young voters in the district. This is a heavily democratic district.
And although Kokesh does have ties to the LP, he has been a registered Republican since he was 18.
26 Trent Hill // Sep 16, 2009 at 12:16 am
“Only Ron Paul and the very loosely-affiliated Paul Broun (who won his seat in a special election runoff against another Republican)”
I’d throw in John Duncan Jr. and Walter Jones Jr, too. There is also about 2 dozen state legislators who are CFL afilliated.
27 Trent Hill // Sep 16, 2009 at 12:19 am
“At first glance, this seems like an excellent strategy to me. Running in a general is always better than running in a primary. ”
It is a genius strategy–for now. 2010 is almost gauranteed to be a Republican year, so these challengers may unexpectedly challenge the Democratic seats that are generally considered to be safe. Think Joseph Cao vs. Jefferson in New Orleans–except instead of corruption, it is timing/healthcare/etc that forces the voters towards the Republican.
28 Jeremy Young // Sep 16, 2009 at 12:51 am
I don’t know anything about Duncan, but I disagree about Walter Jones. Jones ran and got entrenched as a bedrock conservative nationalist. His transformation into a Ron Paul Republican happened after he’d already served many terms. For that reason, he can’t be considered when talking about strategy for getting Ron Paul Republicans elected.
Broun, on the other hand, ran as a “second Dr. No.” He actually ran as a more libertarian candidate than he’s ended up being while in office.
29 Aroundtheblockafewtimes // Sep 16, 2009 at 7:55 am
If the first task of a libertarian candidate is to make the electorate aware of his views, then running for nominations where one party or another fails to nominate a candidate is a very viable strategy. General elections get far more media attention (debates, etc.) than do primaries. Primary races are good for helping to identify libertarians within the major party and causing traditional candidates to have to spend some of their warchest fighting you. At some point, the traditional guys begin to adopt enough libertarian views to keep the challenge from happening.
30 HumbleTravis // Sep 16, 2009 at 11:07 am
The strategy that Jeremy Young correctly outlines (running libertarian-leaning Republicans in normally uncontested races) is not unlike the Democrats 2006 & 2008 comeback strategy of running Blue Dogs in the Republican strongholds. If the GOP was smart it would encourage these principled candidates over the same old same old.
31 paulie // Sep 16, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Exactly. Assuming Trent is correct in #25, at least some state Republican establishments have grasped this; and Trent is pretty knowledgeable in this area, so I’d rely on what he says.
See also
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-obaman-and-radical-left-are.html
32 Jack Jenkins // Sep 17, 2009 at 6:57 pm
the Whigs and Lebowitz are fake.
33 Joel Dolphin // Sep 23, 2009 at 4:19 pm
The Whigs and Lebowitz are fake? Says the guy who is representing the Green Party. Feeling threatened?
34 Third Party Revolution // Sep 23, 2009 at 7:46 pm
The Modern Whig Party and Michael Leobwitz may not be fakes, but Adam Kokesh is, since he thinks he can get the party back to its roots, which is no longer possible.
35 Ross Levin // Sep 23, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I wouldn’t say that’s fake. Maybe just misguided in your opinion.
36 paulie // Sep 26, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Kokesh is not fake at all. He has stood up for his beliefs.
37 Linda Marks // Dec 6, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Iraq Veterans Against the War scored a victory for free speech Monday in Kansas City, MO. A panel of three Marine Corps officers recommended that Adam Kokesh receive a general discharge under honorable conditions. Adam and his attorney, Michael Lebowitz have danced around the issue on the campaign website.
38 Linda Marks // Dec 6, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Michael Lebowitz, a highly regarded Washington, D.C. attorney who is nationally renowned for his work in Military Expression and as a distinguished political veteran, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
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