This is an except from Part 8 of my NR cruise summary. I suspect that after 8 installments, people are not looking inside them for the real gems that should be publicized. This point about the Goldwater Institute is very critical, and important for us here at RedState to utilize as we try to build a state electoral strategy. I believe it is worth its own diary, to make sure people know about it.

One of the true bright spots of the panel was Darcy Olsen of the Goldwater Institute which is a state level conservative policy institute. She made the point that many of the brightest spots for conservatism occurred at the state level in 2008, such as Prop 8 in California and Amendment 2 in Florida. She believes that one of the best things we can do going forward is to strengthen the state level organizations, and to push policy and reforms through state level ballot initiatives. This activity will allow for blunting of the inevitable federal overreach of the Obama administration. She offered an excellent example of using a state constitutional amendment to thwart the federal attempts to implement “card check”.

We have a 21 word amendment that can be used in all state constitutions. It requires the use of secret ballots in all Arizona elections, whether they are public or private.

While looking at their website, I found other gems of ideas in a document they have published, called “100 ideas for 100 days”. It includes the following:

27 – Amend the Arizona Constitution to prohibit preferential treatment on the basis of race, color, national origin, or ethnicity in government contracts, employment, and education.

28 – Amend the Arizona Constitution to prohibit any law limiting or penalizing the right of individuals to choose private health care systems or insurance.

The work that Darcy is doing in Arizona was the biggest eye opener for me on the cruise. I strongly believe that as RedState works to strengthen state and local organizations, working to tie those efforts to state conservative policy organizations will be critical.