Contact: Bob Sturm, 703-396-6974; After 6 PM Eastern & on weekends, 703-307-8176

MANASSAS, Va., Feb. 18, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- ConservativeHQ.com Chairman Richard A. Viguerie announced that he is sponsoring "The Liberty Prize," a contest for grassroots conservatives to submit a plan or ideas to take over the Republican Party, win the November 2016 elections, and govern America by 2017.

Viguerie said the most important political battle in America is not between Republicans and Democrats or between conservatives and liberals.

"It is the battle for control of the Republican Party between establishment big government Republicans and limited government, constitutional conservatives.  It has become clear that establishment Republican and Democratic politicians have failed America because they have both accepted big government as the solution to every problem," he said.

"The urgency of this effort cannot be overstated," noted Viguerie.

"With big government establishment Republicans, led by Karl Rove, launching a multi-million dollar PAC to control Republican Primary elections and the changes to the Republican Party rules rammed through the 2012 Republican Convention by Mitt Romney's inside-the-Beltway allies, conservatives must have a well-organized and well-thought-out plan to take control of the GOP from the grassroots up.  Otherwise, the Republican Party will continue its slow creep away from the conservative principles that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Contract With America Congress in 1994, and the Tea Party wave Congress in 2010," he said.

In asking for ideas how to "help save our country," Viguerie said he named the $10,000 prize "The Liberty Prize" because he wants to encourage the grassroots conservatives of the GOP to liberate the Party from the control of the Beltway insiders who are pushing the Party away from the conservative principles that win elections for Republicans.  The entire $10,000 could go to one person who writes a great plan or it could be divided among persons who submit specific ideas to advance the project.

The winning plan/idea will be included in a book to be published this spring Viguerie is writing entitled, "TAKEOVER."

Plans should be submitted through the special website thelibertyprize.com by Friday, March 8, 2013.

In announcing "The Liberty Prize," Viguerie said conservatives at the grassroots level have the ideas and principles, as well as the numbers, political skills, and talent to govern America, "but unlike the liberals who control the Democratic Party, we conservatives don't control the Republican Party."

Viguerie said that in the 51 years he has been in politics at the national level, he has "never been more enthusiastic about our prospects for success.  Out of the ashes of the Republican establishment's 2012 defeat, without compromising our principles, we conservatives can rebuild the Republican Party into a strong and principled voice for the majority of Americans who believe in, and will vote for, candidates who stand for freedom of the individual, economic opportunity, and traditional values."

NOTE TO EDITORS:  Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation) and one of the "conservatives of the century" (Washington Times).  He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.