A Citizen’s Guide to Burning Down the California Republican Party – Part 2 (Central Committees)

A lot of local activists are fixated on their local Central Committees. It is easy to see why as there is perceived power in the local County Party apparatus.

A local County Party can vet and endorse candidates and with that comes a lot of perceived power.

In practice, most County Central Committees are debating societies with people that are barely civil toward each other. Most County Central Committees raise no money, have few if any events and accomplish next to nothing. I am aware that even today many County Central Committees can’t make quorum. (meaning that the minimum number of members required to be present are not, thus no legal meeting can occur) Most all accomplish nothing.

The fixation on Central Committees by activists has allowed the Swamp to keep activists distracted while they go out and spend massive amounts of money electing unprincipled puppets.

So, part 2 of the Burn Down the California Republican Party series is to put Central Committees in proper perspective. They can be an effective tool in forcing accountability from elected officials and they can be a gigantic, ineffective waste of time.

If you want to take over a local County Party, you are going to have to have a plan. (If you are in a large county, this will have to be replicated across each Assembly District)

1. You will need a plan to raise money for the committee itself so that endorsements made mean something
2. In order to raise money, you need something to sell meaning:
3. You need to have a plan with volunteers or paid staff that registers voters
4. You need real, participating volunteers that will seek out candidates for local office
5. You need a real plan to reach out to people in the community to get them to buy in to your vision for the future
6. Do you have a cohesive vision for the future? If not, why do you want to take over a County Central Committee?
7. Will the people involved in this effort be cohesive with each other? Are they healthy people with their egos in check? Are they kind of people that you’d be proud to be with in public?

It makes no sense whatsoever to try and take over a County Party Committee if you do not have enough active participants that will engage and make the control of the Party Apparatus mean something. It also will fail if the effort is led by nerds, malcontents or otherwise unhealthy people. You must have ethical, balanced, healthy people at the head of any effort. Remember – the money is against the Conservatives so our effort has to be efficient, well run and mistake free or “the Swamp” will win.

I don’t know of many groups, let alone conservative groups capable of mustering this sort of plan or vision. It can, however be done with discipline, commitment and focus.

The Third House spent money in 40+ county party races in an effort to neutralize County Parties or in some cases to be able to use them as funding conduits for their anointed legislative candidates in future elections. They don’t need to have a group of activists or a vision – with no cohesive opposition they can spend their way to what they want.

If the Conservatives can unify and focus, then taking over a County Central Committee can be devastating. A body that can recruit and fund candidates for office, with a volunteer army can not be stopped by the Third House because Conservatives have the passion of their conviction. When conviction is combined with a few dollars and a few boots, it is a winner in an election.

So how do you take over a County Central Committee in 2017? The elections are not until 2020.

1. You need to know the rules in your county. How many per supervisor district (or Assembly District in certain larger counties)?
2. Recruit a candidate for EVERY open seat there is. Get the exact number, don’t recruit too many or too few as this will cause you to lose seats
3. Get each person running to commit $250 – $500 to the effort, create a PAC if needed for everyone to chip in to. This way you can buy advertisements. (those annoying slate mail cards)
4. You can buy the voter file in your county cheaply and use it to find people to talk to. You have 3 years to start developing a support base that will withstand the thousands spent against you
5. Join a volunteer club and get active. (this will be the subject of another post)

If you spend all of your time on social media are not out in the community meeting people, don’t bother even trying to file for Central Committee or any other office. It is completely unfair that Conservatives have to run actual campaigns to counter the wads of money being spent by the “third house” trying to control the County Parties, but until we beat them they will continue spending the money.

Think it through as an unprincipled business decision for the Swamp / Third House. They are looking for a result from their investment. If they start losing, they will go away.

County Central Committees only mean something if there are real volunteers doing community outreach, recruiting, fundraising and campaigning. Having Conservatives in charge of County Central Committees with a real plan and real results will cause those in office to start thinking twice before supporting insane bills like “Cap and Trade”. Effective Central Committees are a counter balance to unprincipled leadership – and so are Volunteer Clubs…

Up next in the series, Volunteer Clubs