Precinct Elections took place last night in Knox County. Conservatives and Tea Party volunteers took many of the open slots. Around the first of this year we became aware of the precinct project through the diaries published here on Redstate. I contacted a recent candidate (defeated  in 3rd Cong. District), Attorney Randy Irons. Mr Irons campaign signs sported a tea pot. I thought he might know a Tea Party contact and , in fact, he did. He recommended I touch base with the  Knox County Tea Party co-chair, a Sally Absher. I described the precinct project to her and her first words were “We need this here. No one is doing this in Knox County.”

Fortunately, Mrs Absher through her Tea Party connections already had an extensive contact list. She is a dynamic whirlwind on a mission. She contacted GOP and Tea Party connections in other Tennessee Counties, edited and exchanged “how to” materials,  spoke at several GOP and Tea Party meetings  describing the project, and we both began calling and emailing conservative individuals we knew.

The local GOP party has not been particularly helpful. They have a do nothing, no rocking the boat, nondisclosure approach.  Nevertheless, in just a few weeks we added a substantial number of conservatives to at least five precincts. I was elected Secretary of mine (13 available slots, only 3 people showed up), plus a large addition of Tea Party folks in other precincts. Just show up, folks. The election took all of 15 minutes !

Next Saturday is  the bi-annual GOP County re-organization meeting. We have two years to build and grow this conservative movement. We plan to reach out through Tea Parties and conservative churches in other  nearby counties. We will be doing “surveys” of Republican voters, asking people  in what direction they would like to see THEIR party move ? If they want more conservative constitutional elected officials, we want to encourage those people to join THIS PROJECT, just as COLDWARRIOR has encouraged us. For LIBERTY.