Change Your Local Party

Cross-posted from Florida Netroots  Note: While the details are specific to Florida, the sentiment applies nationwide.

Whether you’re a libertarian who thinks the Republican party has gone too far in getting invading personal liberties, a progressive you thinks the Democratic party hasn’t done enough on issues of workers rights or social justice, a social conservative who doesn’t think the Republican party has done enough to protect your vision of our country’s moral values, or a Blue Dog Democrat who thinks the party has ventured too far to the left and wants to find some common ground on social and economic issues ... this blog entry is for you.

Be the change you want to see: become a precinct committee person.

A precinct committee person organizes the area in which they live for canvassing, election monitoring, and voter registration.  In addition, that person gets a vote on who becomes a member of the local party's executive committee.

Section 103.091, Florida Statute, provides for each political party to have a county executive committee. This committee is entitled to have at least one committee man and woman for each precinct. For precincts with 1,000 or more registered voters, two men and women are elected to each precinct position. Election is by plurality -- the person receiving the most votes wins. If you have no opposition for the position, you name will not appear on the ballot. If you have a contested position, candidates will be listed alphabetically. Those positions appear only on first primary ballots in Presidential election years. This is a four-year term of office or until you move out of the precinct. Party rules determine whether a vacancy occurs if you move out of the precinct which elected you prior to the end of your term.

To file for your party's precinct committee seat, the following qualifications must be met:

• You must be a registered elector of that political party.


• You must be a resident of the precinct you seek to represent.


• You must qualify with the Supervisor of Elections in your respective county between noon on the 71st day prior to the first primary, but no later than noon of the 67th day prior to the date of the first primary. (F.S. 103.091(4)) Noon, Monday, June 16, 2008 to noon, Friday, June 20, 2008.


• You must complete Form DS-DE 24 which is the Loyalty Oath (and designation of office sought/how name is to be listed). You are not required to complete any forms relating to financial disclosure, designation of a campaign treasurer or depository (bank). Executive committee candidates are exempt from Chapter 106, Florida Statutes.

Start attending your county executive committee meetings.  They are typically once a month and it will give you an opportunity to meet local activists, party insiders and the individuals currently representing your precinct.  The party organization in each county may have its own procedures, as a formality, for getting on ballot as a committee person.

Keep in mind, this is no easy job and one that you must be willing to take quite seriously if you want to change your party.

Once elected, your job will be to get to know your precinct by organizing social events for your precinct, sending out literature or making phone calls, and just keeping in touch with your voters so that you are familiar with the issues of concern in your neighborhood. You will also encourage others to join the party recruit volunteers.

As a committee person you will also be very involved in the local executive committee by attending monthly board meetings and other official functions.  You will also be involved in helping candidates get elected.

All politics is local.  While all the attention is paid to the presidential and congressional races, it is in these local committee person races where changes in the political parties really take hold.  After all, it is what the Christian Right did during the 1980's to take more power in the Republican Party. These locally elected positions have a great deal of influence. Pay attention to them.

•  tips/flames

  Take a break from presidential politics for a moment and look at how you can change things right in your hometown.

  by meowmissy on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 08:50:49 AM PDT

  •  Local politics is where changing national ...

    ...politics begins.

    by Meteor Blades on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:01:30 AM PDT

  •  Democracy Begins at Home

    For all the talk about taking over the country, if we can get started in our own backyards, talking neighbor-to-neighbor, we will build a deeper, stronger framework for change.

    by raines on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:50:01 AM PDT

•  What a coincidence...

  I've been asked to be the precinct captain for my precinct & just received some info on it yesterday.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it.

  (Because we're post-primary, I can be appointed since no one ran for the position.)

  Thanks for the diary & info.  

  by madame defarge on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:04:06 AM PDT

•  Just a matter of time

  I see that the "New Traditionalist" movement is alive and well.

  by LaEscapee on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:16:18 AM PDT

•  Why do the rules have to be different....

  in every state, and often in every county and in every city?  Not to mention being radically different between the Republican and Democratic Parties, and different yet in other parties?

  by neroden on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:21:48 AM PDT

  •  wish I knew ...

    Maybe to make it more difficult to oust the establishment.

    by meowmissy on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:23:42 AM PDT

  •  ummm, because...

    ...every state's political system is different?

    ...political parties are private organizations?

    by N in Seattle on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:24:57 AM PDT

•  damn right

  The surprising truth is that in many jurisdictions all it really takes to "take over" the local party organization is to show up.  Thankfully, the likes of the Larouchies have never figured that out.

  Differences between Florida and Washington (in this regard, I mean):

  • Washington doesn't register by party.  Thus, local organization membership, caucus attendance, and/or running for PCO are pretty much the only ways one can "officially" identify with a party.
  • No matter the size, each precinct in Washington gets (at most) one PCO from each party.  As in Florida, they are elected in the primary.  Unlike Florida, it's not at the "first" (AKA presidential) primary, but at the regular primary in late summer.  Also unlike Florida, PCO terms are two years, with the elections held in Congressional election years.
  • Another responsibility of Washington PCOs is that of chairing the precinct presidential caucus.  That may be the true highlight of being a PCO.
  • Loyalty Oath???  Loyalty to what?
  • I see nothing about a filing fee.  In Washington, it costs you $1 to file to run for PCO

  I've been the Democratic PCO in my precinct since 2005 (elected in 2004).  When I moved to Seattle in 2001, the woman across the hall from me was the Republican PCO.  She's now housebound and no longer political at all; there is no longer a GOP PCO in this 90%-Democratic precinct.

  by N in Seattle on Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 09:43:09 AM PDT