E
xpanding power and influence within local county republican party organizations may be the most important and effective thing a grassroots citizen conservative can do to bring about beneficial change in government. And it may not be very hard to do.
Although most people don’t know what a party’s county Central Committee is — or does — getting on the committee to express your views and protect your freedom from infringement by insider politicians may be easier than most people realize.
The object is to get elected, or appointed, to represent your neighborhood’s voting precinct on your county’s Central Committee.
What is the Central Committee?
The Central Committee is the controlling body of every county GOP and democrat party in Ohio. Serving on the Central Committee doesn’t necessarily require a lot of time or effort, but it provides an important voice — and vote — on local party business.
The reason almost half of Cuyahoga County’s voting precincts are not represented on the county’s GOP Central Committee is because nobody has tried to get elected or appointed to those positions. Cuyahoga County has about 975 voting precincts, with about 560 vacant precinct representative positions (57 percent vacant). About 264 of those vacancies are among Cleveland’s more than 300 precincts. Outside of Cleveland, 44 percent of Cuyahoga County’s GOP Central Committee positions are unfilled.
Filling vacancies with conservative, freedom-focused citizens can help to steer more control over candidate selection and party principals away from professional career politicians and their flunkies who cater to the big money establishment (donor class) at the expense of regular people (“deplorables” as described by Hillary Clinton).
Becoming a member of your party’s county central committee isn’t necessarily difficult, and it could put you in a position to make an impact on choosing candidates and advancing policies that help to reverse the course of big government interference in our lives.
Here’s how it works
Every county in the United States is broken into voting precincts. Each precinct is entitled to have a representative on its county republican and democrat party organization. In Ohio, a precinct may contain no more than 1,400 voters. Strongsville, Ohio, for example, is broken into 30 precincts. You can become your precinct’s Central Committee representative in one of two ways:
- Get elected. GOP precinct representatives, or precinct committee members, are elected in the primary election every four years — during presidential election years. On the ballot, the precinct committee person race generally is located at or near the bottom, and very often there is no candidate for that position.
- Get appointed. When no candidate is elected, a precinct vacancy can be filled by an appointment of the chairman of the county party, with a vote of approval by the sitting Central Committee members.
Strongsville, for example, is broken into four geographical wards, each containing seven or eight precincts, for a total of 30 precincts. Since 2003, I have represented Ward 3, Precinct C. I was originally appointed to fill a vacancy in my precinct and have been voted back onto the committee every four years since 2004.
Officially, according to the Cuyahoga County GOP, here’s what a Central Committee member is supposed to do:
Duties and responsibilities
- Attend meetings of the Republican Central Committee to vote on matters relating to organizing and supervising the party operations and to endorse candidates. There are three or four meetings per year, which last about two hours each — so that’s a time commitment of only six to eight hours per year.
- Participate in local and county meetings and events, including Republican city and ward club meetings. This is optional. I am a member of the Strongsville GOP and the Cuyahoga Valley Republicans, and occasionally attend meetings of other area clubs.
- The party encourages committee members to campaign — distribute literature, etc.—for republican candidates in their precincts and to recruit republican booth workers for Election Day. It isn’t a requirement.
- Register new people—like move-ins and people who have reached legal voting age—to vote.
- Get republicans in your precinct to get out and vote.
To me, though, the important job is to help to outvote the political class insiders and ensure that republican candidates and office holders are held to account as representatives of the people — not the masters of the people.
In addition to 88 GOP county central committees in the state, the Ohio Republican Party is governed by the State Central Committee, which is made up on one man and one woman representative elected from each of Ohio’s 33 senate districts.
If you are interested in being appointed to your county’s GOP Central Committee, you can call or contact your city’s “ward leader,” or your county GOP party office. If you want help to determine whether your precinct has a vacancy in Cuyahoga County, feel free to email me.
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