Republican Party -- Bottom Up or . . . DIE from the Top Down!

The Yavapai County (Arizona) Republican Committee had an election of our delegates to the Arizona State Republican Convention.

Yavapai County, Arizona is a Republican stronghold, although we are seeing a lot of Republicans re-register as Independents. We have our share of RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). Many "would be Democrats" have thought it necessary to register as Republicans in order to get elected to local offices.

We have had an active TEA Party Movement here and our voter turnout at 68 percent was about 22 percent above what it was in the rest of Arizona. Here is the article that I wrote summarizing our Freedom Rally 2 in Prescott Valley.

Prior to the election by our Precinct Committeemen, we were given a slate of officers for the executive committee. It turns out that there was an appointed "nominating committee" which believe did not meet as specified in our by-laws and possibly in violation of open meeting laws. My issue was not so much about who was elected as it is about the process of making the nominations with a committee that did not meet as a body.

When we heard how the appointed "nominating committee" worked, several of us, including one of the members of the official "nominating committee" true Reagan conservatives got together and made our own list of write-in candidates to be nominated from the floor. We have not been doing TEA Party events for the last year and a half to allow this to happen when we can get to those who are clinging to theI status quo.

We did not win any of the seats on the Executive Committee, but we came close. We are, however, sending 34 self-identified conservatives as 60 % of Yavapai County's 57 delegates to the Arizona State Republican Convention. I made a survey of the 150 PCs who were eligible to vote. It found that 82% of those answering the survey place principles above the "Big Tent" philosophy.

Here are the results of a survey I took following the election. It appears to me that The TEA Party Movement and Conservatives in general have more power than the RINOs who will compromise at every turn.

We took our stand in the Precinct Committee election and will continue to do so. We base our position on the following quote by Ronald Reagan:

A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs, which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.... And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these conservative principles, then let them go their own way.

I have heard that the "TOP down" process is happening all over the country.

Please comment here to let us know if it is happening in your area.

If the Republican Party continues to be run from the TOP down, I predict that we conservatives and TEA Party activists will form a real third party for the next election.

The TEA Party will be tested to see if it is stronger than the RINOs.

Please take our survey to let us know where you stand.