Your Guide To Taking Back The Republican Party
If you’re reading this, then you are probably one of the thousands of people who’ve been awakened to the danger facing our nation. You’ve realized that in government, like most other things in life, if you want something done right, you’ll have to do it yourself.
A vital step in this process is revitalizing the Republican Party by involving people of good principle and Constitutional values. The first step in that process is becoming a delegate to your Precinct, County, District, and State conventions, and electing true Constitutionalists to party office. What follows is a nuts-and-bolts primer on how to accomplish just that. If you did your part in November, I urge you to step up to the plate again. It’s the only way to make those gains permanent.
Part I: Organization
The North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) is organized into four levels: Precinct, County, Congressional District, and State.
To become a delegate, you must attend your Annual Precinct Meeting or submit an Absentee Letter to your County Chairman. You must also have registered to vote as a Republican prior to January 31, 2010. If you are not sure about your registration, check your Voter ID card, or go to the State Board of Elections website. You can find contact information for your County Chairman by clicking here.
Also, if you are already registered Republican, but have moved recently, you should check to make sure the Board of Elections has your updated address on file. Otherwise, you could very well go to the WRONG precinct meeting location and be disqualified from delegate participation.
Just as you should be registered Republican prior to January 31, you should also make any needed updates to your address by this date to ensure eligibility to become a delegate. You can check your address with the Board of Elections at the first link above.
Part II: Execution
What you will need:
1.) Your Voter Registration Card
2.) A photo ID
3.) $10 Registration Fee
4.) A copy of Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised (10th Edition). This last item is not required to become a delegate, but it is the rulebook by which Republican Party conventions are run. Without at least a passing familiarity with these rules, you can quickly become lost.
This year’s Mecklenburg GOP Precinct Meetings will be held on February 17 at eight public schools in Mecklenburg County. Make sure to bring your Voter Registration Card and photo ID in case there are questions about your voter registration.
When you arrive you will sign in at the registration table. Once you have registered, you will enter a large room with several tables set up with labels for specific precincts. Find the table with your precinct number (this is on your voter registration card). There will be a folder containing another sign-in sheet. Sign in and check the appropriate boxes indicating you want to be a delegate to the County, District, and State Conventions. There will also be boxes to check indicating you’d like to be an Alternate. Check these too; if for some reason there are more people attending your precinct meeting than allotted delegate slots, you can still attend the conventions as an alternate. Should a delegate not be able to attend, alternates will be seated as voting delegates.
Bonus Opportunity: If your Precinct is “unorganized” (i.e., does not have a Precinct Captain), you can volunteer! If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity and would like to know if your Precinct has a Captain, call the Meck GOP HQ at (704) 334-9127 or send an email to contact@meckgop.com. You should also check that you would like to serve on the Meck GOP Executive Committee. The Meck GOP Executive Committee finds and encourages Republicans to run for public office, appoints members to the NCGOP State Executive Committee, and nominates Republicans to the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections.
Once you have become a credentialed delegate from your Precinct, you may move on to the Meck GOP County Convention. It will be held March 19th, location TBA. There will be officer elections at the County level this year. In Mecklenburg County, the declared candidates are Scott Babbidge, who has strong Tea Party backing, and Gideon Moore, the current Technology Chairman for the Meck GOP.
There will also be one important motion to watch for: a motion to declare, via acclamation, that all credentialed delegates for the County convention be declared credentialed delegates to the District and State Conventions. Mecklenburg County has a maximum of approximately 700 delegates it can send to the District and State Conventions, but has never had this many people show up; thus, the motion to send everyone on to the next level is always made. This motion will also apply to people who have submitted absentee letters before the cutoff.
Once this motion has passed, you’re through to the next round! Observe, learn, and take notes for later questions. If you hear a motion you like, vote for it! If you hear a motion you don’t like, vote against it! This is your party, and you have a right to be heard.
Part III: What’s Next
Conventions for the Congressional Districts and NCGOP as a whole will take place in the spring, probably in April and June, respectively. The NCGOP State Convention for 2011 will be in Wilmington, North Carolina, and a new Chairman for the State Party will be elected. Current declared candidates are NCGOP Vice Chairman Dr. Timothy Johnson, former Congressman Robin Hayes, and former Guilford County Chairman Marcus Kindley.
It is vital that as many members of the Tea Party as possible participate as voting delegates in this year’s convention cycle. While the Tea Party movement made a huge difference in last November’s mid-term elections, at the top levels, the same establishment forces that controlled the Republican Party during the disastrous Bush years are still in control.
For the Republican Party to truly be able to claim the mantle of the party of free markets, sound money, and a constitutional foreign policy, that hold must be broken and the party reclaimed by people who truly believe in those principles. The only way to do that is by becoming a voting delegate, as only voting delegates can decide who occupies the Chairman’s seats at the county, district, and state levels.
If you did your part in November, I urge you to step up to the plate again. It’s the only way to make those gains permanent.
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Adam Love is the NC State Coordinator for Campaign for Liberty. The Mission of Campaign for Liberty is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.
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