Isn’t that against the law or something? There will be very grave consequences if it gets passed in this manner….

I was on the Americans for Prosperity national healthcare conference call tonight. As was Rep. John Shadegg, AZ CD-3. My connection dropped a couple of times so I didn’t hear the entire call. But twice I heard people ask, “Congressman, what can we DO to stop this healthcare bill?” It was all “make phone calls, send e-mails, talk to your neighbors.” There was no, “If you really, really want to send a shock wave through the political world, in addition to making the phone calls and sending the e-mails, all 10,000 of you conservatives on this call, tomorrow, get in touch with your local GOP organization and tell them you want to become a PC and then do it.”

I have his private Blackberry address. I sent him and e-mail asking him why he wasn’t imploring these 10,000 conservatives to become PCs. No answer. Not that I expected one.

I know why he doesn’t want conservatives to become PCs. Because he FEARS being tossed out in the 2010 primary election by all the new conservatives who might come into the Party. As well he should.

Folks, I have searched far and wide for elected conservative Republicans who make the pitch to conservative audiences to come into the Party as precinct committeemen. I have only found three so far, and they’re all here in Arizona: AZ State Sen. Russell Pearce, AZ State Sen. Jack Harper and AZ State Rep. Carl Seel. Do you know of any?

Even worse, Shadegg is on record of actually trying to talk conservatives out of becoming precinct committeemen (see the fifth paragraph):

http://www.gopusa.com/arizona/news/shadegg_rjc_0904131.shtml

I called him about this and read him the riot act. He piously apologized. I told him he should be urging conservatives to come into the Party. He listened. But he wouldn’t pledge to do so. I guess reelection comes first. Shadegg has some problems. He tried to speak at the April 15, 2009 Tea Party at our capitol. He was booed the entire time he spoke, I’m told (I was busy handing out PC recruitment flyers) because he voted, I believe, for one of the bailouts.

Thank you.

ColdWarrior

www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

My vote he won’t get. I haven’t decided yet who I’ll support in the GOP primary but he’s out.

BTW, CW, I’m getting in contact with my county GOP to see what role I can play there. Hopefully I’ll hear back from them soon and PC would be a good start.

Not all states have the caucus system. When I lived in Minnesota we had precinct chairs, elected delegates etc. In Tn we have open primaries, not caucus votes. What we need to work for in TN is to close primaries (you need to be a registered Repub to vote in the Repub primary). Many politicians don’t want to do this so that undeclared voters can vote in the primary. This is how the squishy candidates win. Or as has happened in my district (4), the Democrats all vote for the whackiest Republican in the primary to eliminate any competition for Rep Lincoln Davis.

I don’t believe most people understand this system, hence they don’t support changing it. My state Rep Glen Casada just sent out the results of a survey with the question about open vs closed primaries with 41% for closed and 49% against closed primary.