The Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy, outlined below, entails a tried-and-true, peaceful, Constitutional, ballot box solution to our present political predicament. The procedures and system for this solution have been in existence for decades. Obama used them. (You can get the Strategy as an ebook here.)
Do Not Waste Your Time.
If you think you already have the solution for stopping the Democrats’ headlong rush to destroy our country, I don’t want to waste your time. Stop reading.
Stop wasting your time and do not read any further if you will not go to a Republican Party meeting or walk a precinct on behalf of a candidate. If the future of your country is worth a few hours a month outside your comfort zone, read on. (If you’d rather watch a video explaining the strategy, click on the video below — about 13 minutes total.)
Otherwise, read on.
Just one or two generations ago, our forefathers all knew their precinct committeemen. My dad did (I’m 54 and I remember, when I was knee-high to a howitzer, the Kennedy-Nixon contest – my dad was, alas, a Kennedy guy. But I still adored my dad. He was my “main hero.”) My dad was a precinct committeeman.
Obama Used The Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy To Defeat Billary.
Need more recent evidence that the Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy can work? Obama and his minions used this Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy to defeat Hillary and Bill Clinton and the Democrat Party establishment in the Democrat Party presidential primaries. Obama and his backers came out of nowhere to defeat the complacent “powers that be” of the Democrat Party. You don’t have to believe me – see the evidence with your own eyes. Search YouTube using the search words obama precinct captain. That search will bring back many videos of brand new Democrat Party precinct committeemen (also referred to in some states as precinct captains) explaining how they were recruited into the Democrat Party’s precinct committeeman ranks and how important their efforts will be for Obama to win the nomination.
This strategy has already worked in 2009 in Nevada and Minnesota. And Utah grass roots conservatives have united there to INVADE the Republican Party to vote in the upcoming 2009 Party primary elections at the GOP state convention.
Obama and those who write the speeches for his Teleprompter now want to further solidify their power through ACORN and by taking over the Census. All the more reason for conservatives to implement the Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy in the Republican Party.
We need more than feel-good Tea Parties. Do not get me wrong; the Tea Parties are great for networking and for physically demonstrating our numbers and wrath to the existing officeholders. The April 15, 2008 Tea Parties affected Obama and his minions. They first tried to ignore them. After the Tea Parties received media coverage, Obama and those who write his teleprompter scripts started to bad-mouth them. Obama’s friends in the mainstream media ridiculed the Tea Partiers. But, we need more than rallies and choir-preaching on internet blogs and web sites. Let’s face it – no Tea Party on April 15, 2009, had the numbers that Obama had at many of his rallies. Not one of those Tea Parties would have even filled up half of a Major League ball park. Those are the facts. With Twitter and Facebook, etc., those numbers increased, as we saw on 9.12.2009 in Washington, DC and around the country. But, here’s the bottom line: unless those Tea Parties translate into election victories in 2010, they are worthless.
A Few Hours A Month Is All It Takes — And It’s Easy.
Rather than spending a few hours at a Tea Party, do YOU have a couple of hours a month to spend on a weeknight and, perhaps, on a Saturday, to take our country back? Is your, and your children’s, liberty not worth at least that?
Don’t Have A Few Hours A Month? Stop Reading.
Where do the candidates on our primary ballots come from? An estimated 95 per cent of the candidates of the Republican and Democrat parties who win the primary election are those who are endorsed by the leadership of those parties.
Do You Know Who Elects The Party Leaders? Did You Elect Them?
Who elects the leadership of the parties? Do you know? Are you a registered Republican? Guess what? As a “mere” registered Republican voter, without more, you DID NOT have a vote in the election of the present leadership of the Republican Party. Sorry, but those are the facts.
ONLY elected precinct committeemen get to vote for the leadership of the Party. Do I yet have your attention? Ponder the fact that ONLY elected precinct committeemen get to elect the Party leadership. Don’t you want to have a vote in those elections?
About 3,141 counties exist in the United States. Each has a county party organization. And, those county organizations almost always endorse candidates in the party primaries. And, usually, those party-endorsed candidates win. Tired of the kind of Repubican In Name Only Republicans who are winning the primaries? Then DO SOMETHING REAL and become a Republican Party precinct committeeman! Guess what? About half of the Republican Party precinct committeeman slots, nationwide, are unfilled!
Do I yet have your attention? Has the light bulb above your head clicked on yet? In some counties, like the one where I reside, Maricopa County, Arizona, within which Phoenix sits, TWO-THIRDS of the precinct committeeman slots in the Republican Party sat unfilled on Election Day, 2008. Well, it’s now January, 2010, and we’re now at 53 per cent strength instead of where we were a year ago, 31 per cent.
Spend a few moments and picture this in your mind’s eye: thousands of conservatives flock to the Republican Party and join it as precinct committeemen. And, in the next internal party elections, these conservatives (you, me and others) elect NEW, CONSERVATIVE leadership. (Or, instead, these same conservatives (me, excepted) sit behind their computer screens and put first on their priority list, instead of second, writing that next, great blog post that is going to, somehow, save the republic.)
Exit your mind’s eye. Back to reality. The Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy CAN work. Now. I have seen it work first hand. Click on the Nevada and Utah links here for more proof. I was, just by chance, part of achieving this kind of outcome in my legislative district in the 2008 internal party elections. Somewhat by design, somewhat by chance (I was one of those “newbies” who just, by chance, came into the Party PC ranks), conservatives, in my legislative district, defeated the old-guard, moderate Republican candidates by electing conservatives to the leadership positions. Same thing happened at the county and state levels. (Don’t know what a legislative district is? Hang in there – an explanation follows.) But the margins were razor-thin. And since then, we just elected 5 conservatives to the county Executive Guidance Council five “at large” positions. With all the new conservative precinct committeemen we recruited, those 5 won over 80 per cent of the vote on the first ballot. One long-tiime John McCain moderate got less than six per cent of the vote. The conservatives won because about a thousand conservatives left their keyboards for a couple of hours each month and got into the REAL political ball game. So, I and others continue to try to recruit more conservatives into the precinct committeeman ranks. We try to get people off the sidelines and into the ACTUAL, REAL ball game. The rough-and-tumble hard work of actually showing up – God forbid – at a Republican Party legislative district meeting once a month. Instead of typing away to the conservative choir on the internet. Egads! Oh, the misery! For example, on July 4th, 2009, I attended two Tea Parties in an attempt, with posters and flyers and conversation, to recruit conservatives into the Republican Party precinct committeeman ranks. Several other PCs, at my urging, committed to do the same and helped me.
Every state is divided up into legislative districts from which your state assembly and senate candidates are elected. Each legislative district is divided up into precincts. Precincts generally, in a city, are about the size of five or ten city blocks, depending upon the population density of the city. (My precinct, in suburban Tempe, Arizona, is about a half mile on each side.) Each precinct is allowed a number of precinct committeemen. For example, in Arizona, each party is allowed one precinct committeeman, plus an additional one for each 125 registered voters of that party as of March 1 of the general election year. (My precinct is allowed to have 8 precinct committeemen, and three of the slots are vacant – I’m working on filling those vacant slots with conservatives.) Arizona has over 2,239 precincts, with 1,142 in Maricopa County. Two thirds of the 6,231 Republican Party precinct committeeman slots in Maricopa County currently were unfillied on Election Day, 2008. Not any more. Were over half strength now.
So, What Does One Have To Do To Become A Precinct Committeeman?
The requirements vary from state to state, but Arizona is typical. One has to get 10 registered Republican or independent voters from their precinct to sign a nomination form requesting that their name be placed on the primary ballot. (In Ohio, for example, one needs only 5 signatures.) Most precinct committeemen run unopposed. I was able to get my ten signatures in fewer than three hours on a Saturday. As suggested by the existing PCs, I got five extra signatures just to be safe (people move!). Before gathering your signatures, the Party will give you a computer print out showing where all the voters in your precinct live. And how often they voted in the last four elections. You go to the homes of those voters who ALWAYS vote. They will be happy to sign your nomination papers. It’s fun. I took my impressionable then-eight year-old boys along. A great, real-life civics lesson.
Because most precinct committeemen run unopposed, most counties, to save money, get the parties to agree that all non-contested precinct committeeman candidates be omitted from the ballot to save printing costs. That’s one reason why most voters don’t know about the office of precinct committeeman. Another reason: public schools no longer teach Civics.
So, what to do? About 200,000 precinct committeemen slots nationwide in the Republican Party are vacant. Hmmm. The NRA has about 4 million members. Think we could get some of them to become Republican Party precinct committeemen? Or Federalist Society members? Or other Constitution-loving folks?
If our existing elected Republican Party leaders will not respect our Constitution, then we must kick them out of office and replace them It’s a pure numbers game. The more Constitution-respecting conservatives join the precinct committeeman ranks, the more Constitution-respecting, and conservative, the leadership will be. And then, that conservative, Constitution-respecting leadership will endorse the candidate in the primary who is most faithful to the Constitution.
Is this all new to you? Why? Think about it. I was taught all of this in Civics in seventh grade in my public school in 1968. (I grew up in a rural county in the Midwest in the Sixties and early Seventies – we learned this stuff and saw its implementation first-hand.) Plus, I had the benefit of having a great dad (an Army veteran of Korean War vintage), who was a city councilman, county board member and county board chairman (among other public offices), and he taught me all of this early in life. My 1968 school class photo shows me wearing a “NIXON NOW” button despite the fact my dad HATED Dick Nixon! We had great political discussions! God, how I miss him (my dad, not Nixon!). And I had a couple of uncles who were involved in party politics. One was a mayor of a small town (he drove a truck from Normandy Beach to Berlin and fought in the Battle of the Bulge), the other a dairy farmer and rural town clerk. Their highest academic degree was a high school diploma. Back when that meant something. They are at the top of my list of heroes.
What Will You DO?
But what about you? Is this new to you? If not, why are you not a precinct committeeman? And if it is new to you, don’t you think you should become one? I do.
Thank you.
I am only one. But I am a conservative Republican precinct committeeman. And trying to recruit more.
Cold Warrior
American first, conservative second, Republican precinct committeeman BY NECESSITY!
“Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” (Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Art. 3, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp.)
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” (President George Washington’s Farewell Address to the Nation, 1796, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp.)
“The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.” (President George Washington’s Farewell Address to the Nation, 1796, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp.)
I found your link on redstate.com and wanted to thank you for bringing this to light. I for one had no idea what a precinct committeeman was and think this is the key to taking back the Republican Party! I have already contacted my party leadership for my county. Unfortunately, my precinct is not open, but I will keep in touch with them so that I can hopefully take this position next time it is open. I will also keep in touch with the lady who is the precinct committeeman now to see if she needs any help. I am also a part of a local activist group and brought this up to the members tonight at our meeting and gave them the information. Thanks again! Great information!
I am very interested in becoming a PC, but I may have just taken myself out of the running. I have always been a registered republican, but in the last few years I have really become disgusted with the leadership of the republican party. The nomination of John McCain finally broke the camels back!! I recently went to the registrar of voters and changed my affiliation to “declines to state”. I guess since I’m not a registered republican now I would not be considered. Would that be correct?
Thanks in adance for your reply
Yes, you will need to re-register as a Republican voter to be eligible to become a voting member of the Republican Party.
I have become familiar with this through http://www.wagthedog2010.com and was prepared to do it. However, it seems the R party is not sincere in changing it’s platform, repent for their wayward actions in the last 25 years (or more). Until they straighten up and define themselves the original conservative party of ole’ I will not walk streets, make phone calls and carry water for the lets make big government BIGGER party! I am still a republican and holding on by a thread, praying they will change their ways!
You have it completely backwards. The Party will — or will not — change depending upon who is IN it to MAKE it change. If YOU want the Party to change, then YOU have to become part of it. And recruit others who think like you to do the same. Go read the articles again. YOU need to become part of the “they” you refer to.
Thank you.
Yes, I intend to do this. It seems my local County Republican Party is energized by my enthusiasm. I have found several expressing an interest in this. I have also noticed the philosophy of local level of the Republican Party is in line with all of us Patriots. Somewhere along the chain upwards it is getting lost.
This is a good site, and I have put up a good site at http://www.Precinct.Weebly.Com and http://www.ConservativeVictoryPlan.WordPress.Com BUT what is next?
What should be next is that people like us who are on to this Precinct thing should organize ourselves to work in unison, so we have the joint power to implement this.
Having Precinct officers is only the first step, ORGANIZING THEM is the second step, and that is what we must now do.
We need a list of every Precinct officer in the nation on computer, and we needs to begin organizing this group.
There are 50,000 Precincts in the nation and they need a national Precinct organization to stand up for them and help them do their jobs right.
Will you people on this site join with me to do that? That is the question we have to answer.
WE CAN’T ALL BE ONE MAN SHOWS. THAT HAS TO STOP, AND WE HAVE TO WORK AS A TEAM, NOT AS ONE MAN, OR ONE WOMAN SHOWS. OK?
First we need to organize the organizers. We are asking people to commit to be Precinct Officials, but offering them inadequate back up, and back office support. They will not be able to do what we ask of them unless WE first organize ourselves, in order to equip them to win. How say you all????
Don’t just go for the feel good rhetoric, lets get down to brass tacks of action, action, and action. An Army travels on its stomach, and by that is meant logistics, ordinance and supplies, including food. What say Ye???
Let’s do it…. I don’t want words, I want commitments to organize and train ourselves….This site and others are bare beginnings of organization. We need a coalition site that has links to this site and others, but that offers much more in terms of logistics.
For one thing we need to raise buckets of money, and make sure every penny of it is spent to best effect. NO ONE ON SALARIES. RULE NUMBER ONE. We pay documented approved expenseses only.
Great job, Precinct Project. My brother told me about what you are doing. I emailed my local Republican Party office about being a precinct committeeman. Email too wimpy? Well, if I don’t hear from them, I will call. Thanks again, and keep up the good work.
K.L.,
Thanks for the kind words. And thank YOU for getting into the real ball game of politics! Don’t wait more than a day for a reply. If you don’t get a reply, follow up with a phone call and, if you have to, call every local GOP contact you can. If you don’t get a call back in a day, then plan to drive to the local GOP office and knock on the door. Don’t give up. In a lot of places, the GOP is short on people, supplies, volunteers — and, especially, conservatives!
Thanks again,
Cold Warrior
This is an excellent blog. Out here in Orange County,CA I ran for a spot on the Central Committee and won last year in a very competitive district. I want to see the party get back to our core mission of following the Constitution.
Thank you for what your doing!
Pray. Recruit. Repeat.
Cold Warrior
CW,
Here’s a selling point I wrote up for Texans to get involved at the precinct level chairperson.
I keep refining it and saying the same thing many a different way, in a attempt to convey the importance.
Many thanks to you for finally tipping me over the edge into understanding the importance after 10 months of hearing about it!
Here’s the sales pitch for Texans:
Benefits vs. the sacrifice of a precinct chairperson.
You have seen the email blasts urging you to do THE ONE THING that will bring measurable results toward bringing back and establishing liberty and freedom in this country.
Some……..of you are beginning to ask questions and that’s a good thing.
(Don’t worry about being stubborn, it took me from January to December to comprehend how powerful the office of a precinct chairperson is.)
The Benefits Of Being a Precinct Chairperson:
1. You never have to argue with a liberal hypocrite, ever again, because we the conservatives numbered @ 41% of the demographic have the largest voting block, consistently, year after year. The liberals have 21% of the demographic and the moderates have 23%.
So the fact is, all you as precinct chairpersons have to do, is persuade a very small percentage of the moderates to win ANY general election.
Winning the primary election is basically the same minor challenge: Persuade a very small number of voters to switch from governor Rick Perry’s camp (for example), to switch their support to Debra Medina, since wherever Medina is known, she is polling at 50% of the primary voters.
So all you need to do to in order to win the primary for Medina, is to secure the distribution of factual information to the primary voters in your precinct, highlighting the failed hypocritical faux “conservative” policies of Rick Perry vs. the real objectives that will liberate Texas from property taxes and nullification of the Federal Healthcare overreach as planned by Debra Medina.
The real benefit? Texans win liberty and freedom from property taxes and run away spending of the 10′s of billions of dollars that Rick Perry put us in debt for in his 10 year term.
The sacrifice? You won’t have time to attend a Tea Party meeting and argue over what might……..MIGHT be successful.
The cost? About the price* of a restaurant meal for two (2), for each simple but factual precinct group of mailers or door hangers.
*That cost is an approximate calculation by figuring that there are only about 1/4 of precinct voting in the primary: 1/4th of 200 – 500 voters in any given precinct equals: 50 – 125 people/flyers x the cost of paper and stamps.
Benefit #2.
You can IGNORE Obama, because you know beyond doubt that the liberals will hit a boulder in every precinct across the country. That “boulder” is going to be you as the gate keeper of your precinct – guarding and protecting your few hundred voters against the lies of the liberals, by highlighting the truth relentlessly.
The sacrifice? You are going to miss the endless campaigning of Obama on TV, instead…. you will be getting to know your neighbors and building long lasting relationships.
There are many people watching Obama for us, so we don’t need any more watchers.
What we need to do is get our otherwise lazy rear end down to the _______ County GOP office before the deadline – applying for precinct chair which is the 31st (here in a few days). Actually, it’s the 4th of Jan., but PLEASE don’t wait till the last day!
What you need to sacrifice RIGHT now:
(a) about an hour of your time; (b) your voter registration card; (c) your current address; (d)notarization of your application which is free at the GOP office.
The process after that is if you are unchallenged in your application, you will automatically be seated. If there is a challenger it will go to vote after the March primaries. Prior to that you will canvas your precinct as described above.
DIRECTIONS TO THE GOP OFFICE:
________________________
________________________
NOW QUICK! GO MAKE SOME HISTORY!
This is the first time in the history of our country that we had THIS MUCH conservative activism! If we quit bickering amongst ourselves and we go do our duty at the precinct level, well then Obama and the radical left can kiss their socialist agenda: GOODBYE!!
THE CHOICE IS YOURS!
For the sake of liberty and freedom into the next several hundred centuries and beyond!
———-
I hope that helps, Cold Warrior. I have been getting some actiom from my email blasts, but it takes about 3-4 emails to get people rolling.
On to victory!
[...] plan to take back the GOP: We need more than feel-good Tea Parties. Do not get me wrong; the Tea Parties are great for [...]
Wow, why did I never wonder about how candidates won the Republican nomination before? I’d be tempted to lament my stupidity, but it is clear that I was not alone in this and I only started caring about politics recently, in any case. I am going to print a bunch of these and distribute them at the Chicago April 15th Tea Party! Holy cow!
Just wanted to say THANK YOU! Been looking for a good way to start getting involved that will actually HELP get our country back! Much appreciated!
[...] Learn more about precinct involvement here. [...]
Hi Cold Warrior, and greetings from Northern Minnesota!
I am a member of TPN and read your GREAT post – Own it.
Now, I want to share with you what we’ve done in northwestern Minnesota – yes, the land of Al Franken…
Two years ago I convinced a couple of friends to join me in getting a TEA group going. Since then, they’ve been accepted into membership on our Republican county committee. I’ve served on that committee for over 10 years as secretary, but last February I won the Chair seat (without even really running) I had been asked by the Chair of the 7th Congressional District to run against the RINO deputy chair and I won THAT seat, as well.
Seven of the 10 counties in northwestern MN are chaired by TEA Party Republicans. We have made huge progress in rooting out the RINOs and we are proof that it can be done. People simply have to get off the couch!
All but two of the 7th CD executive board members are TEA partiers, and they are on their way out in the next party election. Our sights are now set on unelecting Colin Peterson and Amy Klobuchar.
Onward to Victory in 2012!
Barb, NW MN
Thank you for doing this! I have taken the first steps by calling my local (New York county) Board of Elections and expressing my interest. The director put me in touch with my local town committee chair who I met with yesterday. He said he will send my name in as an appointment (which he’s allowed to do with open seats) but he wants me to circulate petitions and get on the ballot.
Petitions will be released June 6th with lists of all registered voters. Then I’ll be able to hit the ground running. Except for petition time (a few crazy weeks a year) meetings are minimal, usually around quarterly.
It’s going to be nice to be engaged in the process.
Thank you so much for your fast and informative answer! Cornelia
Thank you Red State for pointing out something I should have known. I was a committeewoman in my small town when I first moved there (I had connnected with our State Rep because I worked at the Capitol). I was in for one term and was completely turned off when they INSISTED we had to support Arlen Specter (PA) for another term. It turned my stomach. There were plenty of us that did not want to, but we were “instructed” that we had to give our support to the candidate the President (then Bush Jr) was supporting. I finished my term and quit. I didn’t want to be a party hack. With things changing the way they are, I just might have enough other people supporting the truly CONSERVATIVE candidates to get somewhere. DAMMIT, I just found that the deadline was 8/1. Oh well, at least I can call the county committee and see if I can volunteer to help candidates.
Felicia Ernst
Patriot who wants to make a difference.
Glen Rock, PA
Thank you for your “how to” guides. I think a good many people, myself included, want to make a difference, but just don’t know where to begin.
[...] while it guards its treasure of liberty. Then leave your cave and find your local GOP meeting, become a Precinct Committeeman, help with GOTV, take OUR Party back from the RINOs. Dragons consider RINOs a tasty snack. Share [...]
[...] a better understanding of this simple yet profound concept, read this insightful article at The Precinct Project: The Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy, outlined below, entails [...]
Cornelia,
I don’t believe there’s any time limit. As far as I know, in the vast majority of states, the state statutes, typically the Election Code, govern the formation of the political parties and set forth general requirements regarding who may participate within them as “voting members.” In the vast majority of the states, you must be a registered voter of a particular party to be a precinct committeeman or to participate in the voting at caucus meetings. Find you local party committee meeting and go to it and don’t be bashful about asking questions. Meanwhile, try to obtain copies of your state’s election code, your party’s state, county and local bylaws, and read them. Also call your local party or local elected officials and ask them if they can provide you with an overview of how their party operates. Ask if they have a precinct committeeman handbook.
Thank you.
Cold Warrior