Those who show up to play the game determine the outcome. From the Miami Herald, Sept. 26, 2011:

Broward GOP blocks Muslim activist from party membership at raucous meeting

A Muslim activist seeking to join the Broward Republican Party?s executive committee was soundly rejected during a rowdy meeting in Fort Lauderdale.

Islam and tea-party activism clashed at a raucous meeting Monday night when a group of Broward County Republicans blocked a Muslim activist from becoming a member of the party?s executive committee.

Republicans, who changed their rules to publicly vet Nezar Hamze and then vote on his application by secret ballot, said they didn?t oppose him because he was a Muslim ? but because he is associated with the Center for American-Islamic Relations, whose Washington-area affiliate was an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal terrorism indictment.

Of the 11 applicants for the party, only Hamze was rejected ? the first time anyone in the room could recall that happening in a county where Republicans complain about how outnumbered they are by Democrats. Prior to deciding the new-member applications, a Republican successfully moved to change party rules and require that applicants say how long they?ve been a Republican and to take five minutes worth of questions for the crowd.

Hamze called it ?The Hamze rule.?

A new litmus test was then born: Do you support Rep. Allen West? The tea-party Republican has repeatedly denounced Islam and clashed with Hamze. So has Joe Kaufman, chairman of the group Americans Against Hate and former vice-chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition of South Florida. ?Are you willing to support Congressman Allen West? as a Republican?? Kaufman said loudly in the microphone. ?Will you denounce terrorism?”

Hamze said he couldn?t comment on the politics of CAIR because it?s a non-profit non-partisan group. He later said he denounces terrorism and that he?s not involved in any terrorist activities.

Hamze said he was considering filing a complaint with the Republican Party of Florida because the county party?s constitution says that a ?vacancy shall be filled? by a qualified Republican ? that is, one who is a registered Republican who lives in the county.

But the constitution also says that a vacancy ?shall be filled by majority vote.? And he lost that badly.

Those who show up to play in the game of local party politics determine who wins. It’s a pure numbers game. Majority rules.

Go here for the complete article:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/26/2426666/broward-gop-blocks-muslim-activist.html

Thank you.

ColdWarrior

P.S. We will probably see more of these kind of activity. And not just in the Republican Party. Remember this?

to gain by an “unconventional campaign” have been informed about The Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy but, for reasons unknown to me, have failed to implement it.

I believe whichever of the “non-Establishment” candidates first “occupies the field” and claims the title of the “national spokesman” for the Strategy will, ultimately, either win the nomination or have built a constituency inside the Party of new, grass roots conservative voting members of the Party in numbers sufficient to effectively lobby for the VP slot.

Imagine one of the candidates imploring those conservative, grass roots conservative audiences they speak to (there are no “grass roots moderate” organizations) that they their country needs them to unite politically inside a political Party and that they ought to, if at all possible, consider spending a little bit of time and effort to at least explore the possibility of attending their local Republican Party committee meeting to find out about the opportunity to become a precinct committeeman in their “political neighborhood” — their precinct — to help GOTV for their favorite candidates in the primary elections and the Republican candidates in the general election. And explaining that, on average, about half of these precinct-level positions are vacant and that over one-third of the precincts across the country have not even one Republican precinct committeeman.

This message would need to be tailored for each audience, taking into consideration “how it works” in each state. For example, Georgia and South Carolina have already had their Party officer elections for the 2012 election cycle. So, it’s too late to elect new, more conservative Party officers. But it’s still not too late to attend the Party meetings and “learn the ropes” as to how the local, county and state committees function, how they are organized to get out the vote, etc.

Ron Paul actually made robo calls in South Carolina during the Republican Party precinct committeemen and Party officer elections explaining to registered Republicans that if they wanted to become a nominating convention delegate they needed to get involved in their local Party committees meetings.

I am hopeful one of the conservative candidates (now in the race or about to dive in) will adopt this strategy. The one who is the “first mover” on this will be able to set himself apart from the others, explaining that they urged grass roots conservatives to come into the Party ranks at the precinct level before any of the other “copy cats.”

Time will tell.

Thank you.

ColdWarrior