Superficially, yes, we can blame “the RNC” or the individual state party committees for all that ails us with respect to our current primary system.

So, how to fix it?

Start with the RNC committee members and the state party committee members and work backwards. How do we we conservatives have a hope of affecting what they do?

In the end, there’s only way.

Change them.

How?

There’s only one way. We conservatives have to be in a position to elect the committee members.

I’ll give you an example of how it works in my state, AZ. And I’ll just focus on the three people AZ sends to the RNC. The AZ GOP has three representatives on the RNC, our state chairman and our national committeeman and national committeewoman. (Just like all of the other states; see the Rules of the Republican Party.)

Our AZ GOP chairman is elected every two years. To be able to cast a vote for a candidate for that slot, one has to be a state committeeman. To be a state committeeman, one first has to be an elected precinct committeeman. To be an elected precinct committeeman, one has to have been elected in the primary election of the even numbered year. To get on the ballot to be elected, one has to get ten or fewer signatures from registered Republican or independent voters in their precinct. After the general election, all of the elected precinct committeemen (who are now members both of the legislative district committee and county committee) will meet at their respective legislative district committee meetings (AZ has 30 legislative districts) to elect officers and state committeemen.

Each legislative district committee has the right, per the state committee bylaws, to elect one state committeemen for every three elected precinct committeemen. (This is an incentive for each legislative district to recruit more PCs.) These elected state committeemen may then attend the state annual meeting to elect the state committee officers, including the state chairman, who also serves on the Republican national committee. (I know of one legislative district that succeeded in electing 69 conservatives to all 69 of its allotted state committeeman slots; by contrast, the conservative PCs in my LD were able to only fill about two-thirds of our allotted slots with conservatives.)

The AZ national committeeman and committeewoman are elected to a four year term at the AZ GOP convention held during the presidential election year. The precinct committeemen in each legislative district elect delegates (separate from the state committeemen) to attend the state convention. Unlike the requirement to be a state committeeman to vote for the state chairman, any registered Republican can nominate themselves to run for a delegate position. But, it’s more likely that the precinct committeemen will end up electing as delegates fellow precinct committeemen. Those delegates then attend the state convention and elect the delegates to attend the national convention and the AZ GOP’s national committeeman and committeewoman.

So . . . if you want to get people to change the rules for how the primary process works, you’ve got to elect people who might be inclined to discern that we have problems with the process, both in terms of how the RNC can make fixes and how the state committees can make fixes. And to do that, you’ve got to get “inside” the Party where you live. It’s not hard to do. Every state has a unique system.

As an example of how a state primary system can be changed, here in AZ we have a “somewhat open” primary system. Those who are registered “independent” or “party not declared” can choose whether to receive a Republican, Dem, Green or Libertarian ballot. Some of us want to change that. How do we do it? It would take either a lawsuit by the Party or legislation. The Party can’t afford the lawsuit, I’m told, and I’m told the Republican state legislators don’t see the urgency for changing the primary process. So to make the changes, we either have to raise the money and convince the state chairman and state committee to spend the money on the lawsuit or lobby the Republican state legislators and governor to enact legislation.

The Texas GOP web site has a very good summary of “how it all works” in Texas: http://staging.electionmall.ws/texasgopsite/inner.asp?z=2

I’ve linked at my little blog, which is linked below, whatever state “how it works” guides or videos I’ve found.

Yes, we can blame the RNC and the state committees, but we’ve got to go beyond that and blame those who elected (or chose not to participate in those elections) these Party officers. Overall, on average, in every state, half of the “voting slots” of the Party are vacant and one third of the precincts have not even one Republican precinct committeeman. The Party is there for the taking by conservatives, but they have to show up. And so far, they haven’t been. We’ve been pretty successful in changing that here in AZ. All of the grass roots conservative groups that sprung up after Obama got elected were fertile grounds for recruiting conservatives to come “inside” the Party to try to change it and strengthen it from within. Now, after almost 3 years, many of our county and legislative district committees have new conservative officers as does our state committee. For example, here in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous, we’ve gone from 1,989 PCs in 2008 to 3,511, and a strong majority of the new ones are conservatives.

That kind of change makes all the difference in the world in terms of what kind of Republicans get elected to the officer slots. Including the state committee and national committee.

I hope this helps.

Thank you.

ColdWarrior