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Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks at the 2014 National Urban League Conference July 25, 2014 in Cincinnati. Jay LaPrete/Getty Images

In his latest appeal to voters who don't traditionally fall into his party's mold, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, on Thursday scorned Republican-led attempts to restrict voting rights for minorities.

"So many times, Republicans are seen as this party of, 'We don't want black people to vote because they're voting Democrat; we don't want Hispanic people to vote because they're voting Democrat,'" he said during remarks at the Liberty Political Action Conference in Alexandria, Virginia. "We wonder why the Republican Party is so small. Why don't we be the party that's for people voting, for voting rights?"

Paul supports various state laws that have surfaced across the country requiring voters to voters to show a photo ID at polling places. Civil rights groups have censured that requirement, arguing such requirements disenfranchise some black voters who don't have and ID and can't get one.

Still, the libertarian-leaning crowd tendered fertile turf for Paul to marry his support for hands-off-government-fueled privacy policies and civil rights-inspired criminal justice reforms. He has long made the case that millions of people across the country are prevented from voting because they have criminal records.

To rectify that, Paul has introduced legislation in Congress that would restore voting rights to some convicted felons and make it easier to expunge criminal records, among other things. His latest bill would impose the same sentences for powder and crack cocaine offenses. The majority of people arrested for crack cocaine is African-American.

Also coming out strong against police militarization - a campaign he launched in the wake of violent protests that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri last month after an unarmed teenager was shot dead by an officer - Paul argued that while "you want your police to be aggressive," in many drug-related incidents that aggression is taken unreasonably far.

"If someone's got some pot, you want to break down the door at two in the morning with masks and gas and concussion grenades?" he asked. "I think it's a little crazy to have this war on drugs gone so far."

The tactic aimed at minority voters comes as Paul readies a likely bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He implored his party Thursday to make overtures to return to the GOP's essentially defunct big-tent philosophy.

"The bottom line is, we're not winning," Paul said. "...We're not winning because, it's pretty simple, we don't have enough people in the group yet. The liberty movement has been more open to receiving people of all walks of life... I think we have been much more open, sometimes, than the Republican Party in general."

Originally posted here:
Sen. Rand Paul woos minorities in critique against voting, drug laws

By Ashley Killough, CNN

updated 8:39 AM EDT, Fri September 19, 2014

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, is openly weighing a presidential bid.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Alexandria, Virginia (CNN) -- Fresh off his Senate floor speech against arming Syrian rebels, Sen. Rand Paul shifted gears Thursday night to lambast the current state of police militarization in the United States, especially when it comes to the war on drugs.

The Kentucky Republican told a libertarian-leaning audience in Alexandria, Virginia that police sometimes direct their focus on the wrong crimes.

"You want your police to be aggressive," he said. "But if someone's got some pot, you want to break down the door at two in the morning with masks and gas and concussion grenades?"

Paul was speaking to the Liberty Political Action Conference, where moments before his speech he was on stage with his father, former Rep. Ron Paul, to deliver a scholarship award.

It was a rare dual appearance by the two, as Rand Paul, who's laying the groundwork for a potential presidential bid, has attempted to differentiate himself from his father's legacy as a vocal libertarian. (Rand Paul, however, dutifully quoted his father at the end of his speech: "Freedom is popular. Bring it on.")

On militarization, Rand Paul said the public may never really know what happened to Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old shot dead by police in Ferguson, Missouri last month, and he didn't weigh in on the still unfolding controversy.

See the rest here:
Rand Paul: Police militarization, war on drugs is 'out of control'

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Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Democratic challenger Paul Davis sparred over education, taxes, economic development and more during their second debate, before 250 business leaders Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, in Overland Park.

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Overland Park All three candidates for governor faced each other Friday during a debate in Johnson County, answering questions about tax policy, economic development, education funding and a variety of issues.

For the most part, though, the major candidates stuck to their key talking points, with Republican Gov. Sam Brownback boasting that his tax cuts are producing economic growth, while Rep. Paul Davis, the Democratic candidate from Lawrence, promised to restore cuts in base aid to public schools that have occurred under the Brownback administration.

Meanwhile, Libertarian candidate Keen Umbehr used the debate to promote his "fair tax" that would eliminate income taxes for everyone and replace them with a statewide consumption tax.

The candidates also tailored their remarks to the Johnson County audience, especially when criticizing each other.

"Rep. Davis talks about more money for schools, but he's not talking about your schools. He is talking about your money," Brownback said, suggesting that Johnson County as a whole accounts for a large percentage of all the taxes paid into the state and therefore helps subsidize the school budgets of less populous, less wealthy areas.

Davis fired back, saying Johnson County has suffered under the education cuts, which he blamed on Brownback's policy of cutting taxes.

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Kansas Gov. Brownback, Democratic, Libertarian rivals spar at debate

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By: Doug McIntyre

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