Jason Lewis goes national but will be heard locally

100.3 KTLK-FM host Jason Lewis, a.k.a. "Minnesota's Mr. Right" is movin' on up: his afternoon drive time show will be nationally syndicated beginning on Monday.

Reportedly, Lewis's show will continue to be heard in the Twin Cities in KTLK-FM, but from 5-8 pm instead of its current 4-7 pm, to enable a coast-to-coast live broadcast. This will give Lewis a daily national audience beyond his recent guest-host stints for Rush Limbaugh.

Lewis has long provided Twin Cities conservatives with a kindred spirit, liberals with a nemesis, and elected officials like Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Rep. Jim Ramstad (MN-3), and state Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) — affectionately referred to by Lewis as "Tommy the Commie" — with a severe headache. We hope that his new gig will still allow enough time for him to appear at his signature, annual Tax Cut Coalition rally on April 15 at the Minnesota State Capitol.

Lewis, Bachmann voice conservative angst

On Wednesday's Jason Lewis Show (100.3 KTLK-FM), Lewis, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN6), and several callers expressed their frustration at John McCain's lack of walking the conservative walk.

After pledging as president to veto any bill that contains earmarks, McCain voted (with Barack Obama) in favor of the $800 billion lender bail-out bill, which one caller called "the mother of all earmark bills."

In March, the New York Times reported, "McCain Rejects Broad U.S. Aid on Mortgages." At Tuesday's town-hall debate, McCain proposed a $300 billion government mortgage buyout plan. Even Obama called the plan "costly and out of touch."

Bachmann said that she was almost "breaking pencils" during the debate as McCain passed up several golden opportunities to make the conservative case against Obama's liberal positions.

As McCain runs toward the middle, he is running away from the conservative base of the Republican party — you know, the likely voters who man the phone banks, drop literature, pound lawn signs. When he announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, and Palin made her national debut in Saint Paul last month, McCain enjoyed a post-convention bump in poll numbers, fundraising, and volunteer enthusiasm. Post bail-out, McCain's poll numbers are sagging along with grassroots morale. It will be interesting to see how many show up to McCain's (Palin-less) Lakeville town hall meeting on Friday.

Conservatives are afraid that "change is coming," alright: socialism, regardless of who wins in November.

Lewis urged frustrated conservatives to redouble their efforts to support solid conservatives down-ticket, to rebuild the Republican party from the grassroots up. One caller speculated about a Palin-Bachmann ticket in 2012.

Minnesota majority

Thousands of dedicated conservatives braved an icy wind chill to shout their support for lower taxes and smaller, less intrusive government at Saturday's Tax Cut Rally, hosted by Jason Lewis and 100.3 KTLK-FM. The most encouraging thing about this year's annual event was its continuing — you'll pardon the expression — evolution beyond a radio station promotional event to a trade fair of conservative thought and organizations.

I was able to distribute hundreds of True North business cards to spread the word about the online hub of conservative thought in Minnesota. The most prominent fiscal conservative organization in the state, the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, had not one but two booths where signs and information were distributed. Its president Phil Krinkie handed out copies of the Taxpayer League 2007 legislative scorecards. They also had copies of the Derek Brigham-designed "wanted" poster, featuring the mug shots of the six Republican legislators who brought you the largest tax increase in state history.

Minnesota Majority's booth was packed with forty laptop computers for folks to sign their online tax-cut petition, and there were long lines to sign up. (Go to the web site if you missed signing up at the rally.)



Other groups with a presence at the rally:

• Global Climate Scam - Exposing the truth about global warming hysteria
• It's My DNA - a project of the Citizens' Council on Health Care opposed to the state of Minnesota's "DNA warehouse"
• Numbers USA - opposing out-of-control immigration
• Fair Tax - real tax reform that replaces all payroll and income taxes with a more fair, integrated system
• Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) - the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus chapter of the national student organization that promotes free market thinking about the environment, economics and policy
• Twin Cities Republican Association - a dedicated group of Republicans dedicated to preserving (or restoring) conservative values in the Republican Party of Minnesota
• Minnesotans for Global Warming - "Because it's stupid to politicize the weather"

Speaking of what's hot and what's not: business cards with talking points and a web site address are hot, flyers are not. Business cards are easy to hand out, fairly cheap to produce, they are attractive when printed in color, and you can easily hand out several for redistribution. Flyers are clumsy to hand out and keep (you have to fold them up so they'll fit in your pocket), and they seem to have a more negative connotation. NumbersUSA had a fold-over design with a colorful graph inside showing population and immigration trends (a picture is worth a thousand words).

See True North and KTLKFM.com for more photos and coverage. Thanks to Jason Lewis, KTLK-FM, Sue Jeffers, and emcee Chris Baker for a festive, successful, and important event. It was fun to see old friends, meet people and connect with groups for the first time. I'm already looking forward to Tax Cut Rally 2009.

Weather to challenge Jason Lewis Tax Cut Coalition

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." —Thomas Paine

According to Jason Lewis, 100.3 KTLK-FM radio host and driving force of the annual tax cut rallies at the State Capitol, tomorrow conservatives will face a significant test of their resolve and dedication to their core beliefs:

The weather.

It won't be 70 degrees and sunny tomorrow, but it isn't looking like we'll be getting an old-fashioned state high school tournament blizzard either.

Besides the speeches, tomorrow's rally is shaping up into the place to be for independent, movement conservatives. I will be joining my colleagues from True North in distributing business cards with our URL. Conservative organizations will have a presence to network and share information. And a lot of conservative bloggers, politicos, BPOU leaders, and other riff-raff you've only read about will be milling around for some face time with people like you.

Conservatives are generally too busy earning a living, raising kids, taking care of their homes, and volunteering in the community to go to rallies, so allow me to explain: a huge crowd tomorrow in spite of the weather will say a lot about the conservative movement in this state. A small crowd tomorrow will also say a lot, just not the message we might want to send.

Jason Lewis Tax Cut Coalition Rally
Minnesota State Capitol
Saturday, April 12, 2008
12:00 noon
Park-and-ride at Midway Stadium
Further info: http://www.ktlkfm.com/pages/jlewispersonality.html

Lewis works to spark conservative reformation

Jason Lewis is building quite the conservative resource website at KTLKFM.com. It is rapidly becoming a hub for conservative activists, with Jason's blog, a calendar of his public appearances, a gathering site for his official interest groups (the Tax Cut Coalition, and "Jason's Juggernauts" women's self-defense group), and a top-notch list of links to information and conservative activist groups.

Tired and frustrated at waiting for conservative leadership elsewhere, Lewis is beginning to lead a conservative reformation in Minnesota politics, but not from where he would be subject to the slings and arrows of elected office. Instead Lewis is working from his bully pulpit of talk radio, the Internet, and a growing network of conservative activists. Overreaching by the DFL in the Legislature this session, and the crumbling of the Pawlenty veto firewall, may be adding fuel to Lewis's fire. Where will it go from here? Stay tuned.

Taxpayer joke of the day

MUGGER: This is a robbery. Give me your money.

POLITICIAN: You can't rob me! I'm a United States Congressman!

MUGGER: In that case, give me my money.

(Hat tip to Jason Lewis during his show yesterday.)

The next best thing to being there

Due to family obligations I was not able to attend the Tax Cut Coalition rally on Saturday, but by all accounts, it was a glorious day for the conservative revolution. Check out the extensive coverage of this event on the blogs, especially Freedom Dogs and Residual Forces. Many of these posts have audio and video attached.

The mainstream media ignored the event, hoping we will go away. We are not giving up, and we are not going away!

Jason Lewis rouses the rabble again

"As government expands, liberty contracts." —Ronald Reagan

When Gov. Tim Pawlenty inherited a $4+ billion state budget deficit at the beginning of his term, many said that we must raise taxes. Now that the state is faced with a $2 billion state budget surplus, the DFL-controlled Legislature is saying, we must raise taxes!

Not so fast, says talk radio host and conservative icon Jason Lewis, 100.3 KTLK-FM in the Twin Cities. His statewide Tax Cut Coalition is over 3000 members strong and growing after only a few days, and a tax cut rally on the steps of the State Capitol is planned for Saturday, April 14 at 11:00 am. Lewis hinted that remote broadcasts in outstate Minnesota are possible to drum up support for the effort, which he also led during his previous tenure on Twin Cities talk radio in the 1990s during the Jesse Ventura administration.