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Life In The REC (Part One)

I’ve said this in a couple of comments, but I have joined the Lake County Republican Executive Committee (LCREC). I hope to describe what it is like in the LCREC and other entires. For ease, I will refer to them here and future “Life” entries as the REC.

I am not here to critize anyone in my local REC (even if they deserve it), because I think that would be unseemly on my part. If you are looking for drama, look elsewhere. I will just try to describe what it is like for those who are not part of the Republican Party.

Orientation

I went through orientation in the last chaotic days of the election. I got in so late that I wasn’t that big of a help to my fellow precinct committeemen/women. They told me that they had already covered the precinct. Fair enough, I was able to help (before I joined) in Daniel Webster’s district and help fire Alan Grayson.

I filled out an application that asked me some basic information about myself. We have to do this every four years during the presidential election cycle, so I will have to do this again in two short years. Interesting to note: if someone disputes my placement in the REC during that time, I will be place on the ballot.

Then I went to a training class in order to learn how to organize my precinct in a get out the vote effort. Again, I was real late in getting my credentials, so I was not really effective. However I am looking forward to using the next two years to get organized for the 2012 election.

Once I turned in my paperwork and took my training class, I gave a short speech to the REC at the general meeting and they voted me in.

Get Out The Vote

One of the biggest things the local RECs are there for, is to get out the vote. Now that’s not the biggest thing we do, but it’s more or less our main goal. And on November 2nd, Lake County voted overwhelming Republican. So they think they were a huge success. Some precincts didn’t vote as much as others, but we can’t force people to vote.

Parliament

The closest I can best descibed the type of committee this is, is that of a parliament. We are all Precinct Committeemen/women, then the Executive Board is our elected officers. We also conduct our meetings using Roberts Rules Of Order (I honestly have to get me a copy of this book).

I don’t know if I will run for an officer post or not, I have not decided yet.

We just clearify and expanded our by-laws last night. It was a fun debate.

Resolutions

Another part of our function, is to propose policy resolutions, vote on them, and then send it to other RECs of Florida.

An example of this happen the last two meetings. Florida is posed to introduce legislation that would mirror (with slight differences) Arizona’s SB 1070. We got a resolution from Martin County REC to support this legislation. However it contained a bad WHEREAS’ clause that killed it for us.

The other day, I submitted a resolution that will be brought up in our January meeting. It should be fun, because it deals with Repealing The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution. So if it passes, it becomes the official policy of our REC to support the repeal. Then we will send it to other RECs of Florida to vote on. If enough pass the resolution, the RPOF might notice and take up the subject themselves. It will be interesting to watch the process.

Join Your Local REC

I highly recommend that everyone join their local REC, if you can. I believe power comes from the bottom-up. I think if you are unhappy with the Republican Party as a whole, then you need to join them at the grassroots and do something about it.

If you are already a local REC member, great! By all means share your story with me. By all means, please write about your own adventures in the REC. Tell us how you are making the Republican Party the conservative party of the people.

[Cross-Posted On Practical State.com]

BigGator5.net

COMMENTS

  • George Neitz

    Becoming a REC member is even easier in Citrus County
    1 be a registered Republican
    2 show up for two REC meetings in a row
    3 be voted on by the rest of the REC
    we really need more members if anyone out there lives in Citrus County PLEASE come to the meeting at the Realtors Association building on Gulf to Lake Highway (route 44)
    the first Monday of the month, doors open about 6:30 PM
    http://www.citrusgop.com

    • http://www.facebook.com/BigGator5 BigGator5

      Thanks George. I like how other RedStaters are joining up. We just can’t complain about the Republican Party, because that won’t make things better.

      Joining the REC here is easy, just got to fill out an app.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    and here are a couple more Florida resouces for recruiting more REC members in Florida:

    The Florida Precinct Project

    nickegorofforlandopoliticalactivist.blogspot.com/2010/11/we-are-wind-in-sails-of-republican.html

    And, in case you missed it today, see Anita Moncrief’s Diary on the great work American Majority is doing to encourage conservatives to get involved in party politics:

    www.redstate.com/anitamoncrief/2010/11/17/organizing-for-freedom-american-majority-and-the-new-leaders-project/

    Thank you again.

    For Liberty,
    ColdWarrior

    • http://www.facebook.com/BigGator5 BigGator5

      No, thank you for the great links!

      I hate to repeat myself ColdWarrior, but I am loving how more and more people are getting involved.

      • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

        and UNITE inside a political party.

        Monday night in Legislative District 6, in Deer Valley, constitutional conservatives elected a full slate of constitutional conservatives to the officer slots of the LD 6 Republican Party committee ? tossing out RINOs in the process. Two of the new conservative officers are tea partiers I personally recruited to become PCs in 2009 at tea parties. Not only did these conservatives band together and elect new officers, they also had a slate of 69 constitutional conservatives for the 69 allotted state committeemen the LD gets to send to the annual state GOP meeting where the state officers are elected. (Each LD gets to send one state committeemen to the state annual meeting for every three elected PCs in the District.) All 69 constitutional conservatives won.

        Why is that significant? Because in 2007, Randy Pullen, our current, conservative, GOP Chairman, and RNC delegate, was elected by a 4 vote margin over Lisa James, a McCain ?moderate,? and in 2009 he defeated her by only 20 votes. That shows how ideologically split we are in AZ.

        Now, consider these numbers at the county level. In 2008, we had 1,989 PCs in Maricopa County for 6,231 allotted slots (there?s one PC in every precinct for every 125 registered Republicans in the precinct). We were at 31.9 per cent strength. At the county election to elect the officers, our conservative candidate won ? by a less than one per cent margin. But, now, through my aggressive recruiting, and recruiting by others, we have 2,936 PCs. Our allotment grew to 6,241. So we?re at about 47 per cent strength. And we think most of the new PCs are conservatives recruited from the tea parties. By me and others.

        Why is this important? Because if you want to have an affect on incumbents, the only thing they fear is a threat to their reelection. The BEST way to make them fear that the might have a more conservative challenger in their primary election with a credible chance at defeating them is to FILL UP ALL THE EMPTY PC SLOTS WITH CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVES. (Oh, and this is important ? why do you think virtually no elected Republicans ? even the ?conservatives? — ever implore conservatives to become PCs? Because they are TERRIFIED constitutional conservatives will UNITE POLITICALLY AND DO THIS. IF constitutional conservatives did this, why, they might find an even better conservative to take out the incumbent ?conservative,? and also their friends in the Party leadership. Many, many of the so-called conservative Republicans are not really all that conservative. So, they stay mum, because if the status quo remains, they have a VERY good chance of getting reelected; historically, incumbents enjoy a reelection rate of about 95 per cent. We can DRASTICALLY change that.)

        There’s no way I can prove it, but why do you think Jon Kyl has finally stood up to Opuppet re the new, dumb START treaty? Maybe, just maybe, because he’s noticed that things are changing back home in Republican Party land — that all of the new PCs are hard core conservatives and they seem to be recruiting more, and that that might mean he’ll have a real challenger in the primary in 2012 with a large contingent of PCs getting out the vote for that more conservative challenger. I think Kyl understands that he might face the same kind of primary outcome as “conservative” Utah Sen. Bob Bennett faced, as I chronicled here:

        http://www.redstate.com/coldwarrior/2010/05/08/2101-of-3500-of-75000-denied-bob-bennett/

        Here?s the real kicker:

        If in the coming month thousands and thousands of constitutional conservatives UNITED locally, not at a tea party rally or meeting, but at their local GOP committee meeting ? expressing a desire to become a precinct committeeman ? a SHOCK WAVE would be sent through the political world.

        I’m trying to make that happen.

        Thank you again for all you are doing.

        And please keep informing the rest of us here at Redstate of your progress!

        For Liberty,

        ColdWarrior

  • http://www.800cart.com Ron Robinson

    I hope you will stay in close touch with your activities and your recruitment – I linked to your article in two places that are both kinda pre-release … stand by.