iVote - www.ivote.us.com

POLITICS: Harris faces unusual challenge in campaign for Congress

By Justin Martino

Staff writer

(POL) R.J. Harris, a Republican candidate for the Fourth Congressional District, is facing an unusual problem during the election season. Unlike most of his opponents, he will not be in Oklahoma for part of the campaign season because he has been activated by the U.S. Army National Guard.

"I will be here and able to campaign all the way through the primary date," Harris said. "Not too long after that time, I will be deployed to Afghanistan."

For Harris, the primary election may be the biggest election. No Democrat candidate has announced an intention to run for the seat, and the election may be decided long before November if a Democrat does not file. The seat is currently held by Republican Congressman Tom Cole, who filed for re-election on Monday.

Harris said he still has plans to run a campaign after the primary, however, having called on various tea party activists and liberty candidates throughout the state and county to speak on his behalf while he is in Afghanistan.

Harris said he plans on continuing his campaign because he thinks it is important to bring a sense of constitutional conservatism to Congress.

"I've observed a decades-long movement in our government away from a federalist and constitutional type of governance that our founders intended to a socialist, progressive type of governance," he said.

Harris said that movement is even affecting Cole, pointing out that Cole voted for bailouts and other bills that Harris said he feels are not supported by the people of Oklahoma. That is one reason Harris decided he should run for the congressional seat.

He added that he also plans to fight for individual liberties from the start of his term if he is elected, using the national health care reform as an example of the government infringing upon individual rights.

Harris said voters are listening to his message and responding positively.

"They've been very positive and very responsive at the grassroots level," he said, but he added that many businesses and big campaign contributors appear to be a little "standoffish" to avoid appearing too friendly to "the upstart challenger."

Part of the reason for the positive response at the grassroots level is people are ready for a change, Harris said. He mentioned a recent study that showed that 60 to 70 percent of Americans are ready to vote for any person other than the incumbent, and such voters are more aware of the issues than they have been in the recent past.

"I think the American voters have been waking up," he said. "They've been listening to the radio, they've been reading the news, they've been looking at the Internet, they've been educating themselves."

That is helping to create an environment friendly to self-described upstart challengers like Harris, even if he will be serving in Afghanistan during part of the election season, he said.

"We've seen incumbents around the country dropping like flies," he said.

Harris is a law student at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and has served three deployments with the Army National Guard, two of which were in Iraq.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First and foremost, I am the husband to Jennifer R. (Friend) Harris. She is my wife of eighteen years and the mother of our five children: Mercedes Elaine 14, Georgia Michelle, 9, Wyatt Marshall 3, Peyton Optimus 1, and Braxton Magnus 1. In addition to being a Mother of five, Jennifer is an accomplished professional in her own right having earned her Bachelor's of Accounting from Arizona State University in 1998.

I have served our country on three deployments: one for a peacekeeping mission in Korea and two for the Iraq war. Both of the war deployments were with the Army National Guard. Additionally, I have used my military Air Traffic Control Training to work for the Federal Aviation Administration. Desiring at one point to try my hand in business, I founded a small chain of games/toy stores, which unfortunately did not survive the economic downturn of 2001. In 2006, I decided to return to college to make a civilian career change from aviation to law; although, I do continue my aviation career in the Oklahoma Army National Guard as an Air Traffic Control Platoon Leader for two Platoons in the 1-245th Aviation Regiment. I completed the undergraduate portion of my education in Philosophy in May 08 at the University of Oklahoma. Currently, I am a Second Year Law Student at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

I am an ardent Constitutional Conservative and will not vote affirmatively for a bill unless it is constitutional, good for the Republic, good for Oklahoma, of a readable-digestible length and contains an explicit reference to the constitutional authority that underpins the bill. I am not a career politician and will not participate in either the Congressional health care plan or the Congressional pension plan. Additionally, I have vowed NOT to solicit donations from lobbyists and TO fund my campaign only with grass-roots donations from citizens and pacs.

My platform is to save the Republic, restore the Constitution and Oklahoma sovereignty. Success requires that we lead a nation-wide effort to retake the Congress from the bailout voters, the socialists, the corporatists and the progressives that have infiltrated all levels of our government and both major parties. I will not rest until these people, who's aims are subversive and destructive to our individual liberty and state sovereignty, are removed from their positions of power and replaced by those who are prepared to return to us the Constitutional Republic established on earth by the Spirit of the Founders.

RJ Harris January 15th Major Fundraising Event

From First District U.S. Congressional Candidate RJ Harris

"Many are questioning the staying power and tenacity of the Tea Party/912/Liberty Movement currently sweeping the Nation and whether it will have the political muscle to initiate and sustain real changes in the current government. On January 15th 2010 the Citizens of Oklahoma will have an opportunity to show the world that they are ready to directly engage the ruling classes in the political establishment by donating to a Congressional Candidate who owes no political favors, who has no political "career" to protect, and who has made Constitutional Conservatism the watch-words of his campaign." - RJ Harris

Until now the RJ Harris 2010 Campaign has done very well getting our message out via the internet, word-of-mouth, robo-calling, chain-emailing, youtube video blogging, and with personal campaign appearances around the district from RJ and his staff. Now we need to pump- up our ground game and open up a visible campaign HQ from which we can direct a district-wide effort to energize the Liberty Constituents and directly disseminate the Liberty Message to the entire electorate. On January 15th, we'll be holding our biggest fundraising event yet. www.rjharrismoneybomb.com will be the central online location for the event. Further information on physical locations will be announced in the coming days.

To read more press releases and blogs from RJ Harris 2010 you may visit

www.rjharris2010.com/blogs.asp These blogs are free to use for Op-Ed's and Editorial's.

The Way Forward in the War on Terror

By First District U.S. Congressional Candidate RJ Harris

Somewhere between the events of 911 and the President's Afghanistan "surge speech" we seem to have forgotten that what distinguishes us from the terrorists trying to kill us is our commitment to the rule of law. Terrorists and pirates care nothing about safeguarding individual liberty or fundamental human rights, but we do. Our commitment to these formalities is what makes us human and free and makes them the enemies of humanity. This commitment requires us to provide due process and equal protection to all persons, not only citizens, within our Republic's jurisdiction regardless of where they were captured or where they are currently held. (14th Amendment) To meet this due process requirement, and to classify enemy combatants, terrorist or pirates as prisoners of war, requires; 1. notice; 2. an opportunity to be heard. For soldiers of a foreign sovereign to have the required notice requires a formal declaration of war issued by our Congress. Article I section 8 of the Constitution limits this power to only the Congress. This power cannot be delegated to the President by way of Authorization for the Use of Force Resolutions, as was done in Iraq and Afghanistan, because the President would then be able to commit acts of war without a war being first properly declared. The President may defend the lives, liberty and property of U.S. Citizens while eminent threats remain but to go on offense requires a proper congressional war declaration.

For suspected international terrorists or pirates to have the notice required under due process requires that Letters of Reprisals (declarations of war upon stateless actors and activities) be issued against them by Congress and for Congress to have defined and set the punishments for piracies and offences against the law of Nations. (Article I Section 8) To date, no Letters of Reprisal have been issued against ANY terrorist organization or activity. For all of the persons herein mentioned, an opportunity to be heard is provided when the above formalities have taken place, before or during the outbreak of hostilities, thereby allowing these persons to be classified as prisoners of war, held under military authority and tried in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Considering then our commitment to the rule of law, the way forward in the War on Terror is clear. First, we must withdraw conventional occupation forces from any sovereign that has not had a congressional declaration of War issued against it or Letters of Reprisal issued against terrorist groups harbored therein. Second, those foreign groups and individuals that have in the past and continue to this day to use violence to infringe upon the lives, liberty or property of Americans must have Letters of Reprisal issued against them so that they can be killed or captured legally. Third, those that are then captured must be treated as prisoners of war and housed in military prisons until they can receive a fair trial and just punishments in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And finally, we must use our superior force projection capabilities, Letters of Marque (bounties) and diplomatic contacts to interdict those with Letters of Reprisal levied against them as they attempt to travel and or congregate.

Given the government's current commitment to expanding our military presence in Afghanistan as outlined by the President's speech Tuesday last, I am calling upon my future colleagues in the Congress to remember our commitment to the rule of law by immediately voting on resolutions to secure Letters of Reprisal against Al Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan and to define and set the punishments for international terrorism and piracy. To do otherwise is to turn the courage, honor and valor of our veterans into instruments of lawlessness and unconstitutionality. Such is the size and scope of our legal errors prosecuting the War on Terror up till now that they are nearly insurmountable. But if we will return to our founding principles, codified in the Constitution, the Spirit of the Founders will light our way.