Plum Borough Republican Committee

The Most Powerful Office In The World is Not The President Of The United States!

It is an office you can hold if you care about the kind of country you live in - and leave to your children.

            Now what a minute!  Isn’t the President of the United States , the leader of the Free World, the man with his hand on the nuclear trigger, the administrator of a multi-trillion dollar budget the most powerful office in the world?
            The President IS indeed the most powerful person in the world, but the Presidency is NOT the most powerful office in the world.
            Another office is more powerful because it chooses whose names appear on the ballot for elective office and what will be the policies of the political parties that provide the major support for those candidates.  The most powerful office in the world is the local Committee Person!  To understand why committee people are so powerful, you must understand the 7 steps of government.

1. To change things, you have to change the law.
            Are there things about our country you want to change?  Taxes?  Deficits?  Schools?  Crime?  Government over-regulation of business?
            Our Constitution makes Congress the most powerful branch of government.  Congress can pass laws, impose taxes, and spend our money.  It’s the same at the state level
            So, if we don’t like the present policies, what do we do about it?  The Constitution gives us a way to remedy laws, policies, and taxes - members of the House of Representatives in Congress and State Legislatures must run for office every two years.

2. To change the laws, you have to change the people who make them.
            Congress and the State Legislatures pass thousands of laws every year.  No citizen or group can possibly read them all or research them to find out their effect in advance.  Congressmen and State Legislators who are liberal will not be receptive to your messages anyway.
            If you want to change the laws or taxes, you have to elect representatives you can reliably count on to vote the Republican agenda all the time.

3. To be elected, your candidate must be on the ballot.
            How often have you voted for “the lesser of 2 evils” when you didn’t like either of the two candidates running for an important office?  Have you ever wondered why, despite the rhetoric, both candidates seem to back the same agenda?  How often does it happen that a good conservative or Republican is not even on the ballot?

4. To get on the ballot in the General Election, a candidate must be nominated in the Primary Election.
            The winners in the Primary Election are the candidates who appear on the ballot in November.  Except in very rare cases, all candidates must first win a Primary Election.  Write-in campaigns are possible, but they rarely succeed.  Third-party candidates are also possible, but unless a candidate has as much money as Ross Perot, running as a third-party candidate probably won’t be successful.

5. Candidates endorsed by the Party usually win the Primary Election.
            Most voters don’t investigate the Primary candidates, or even find out who they are.  Sometimes in the Primary, many candidates run for the same office, and the voters are confused.  Only a small minority of Americans vote in Primary Elections.  One of the reasons for the small turnout in Primaries (in addition to voter apathy) is that every voter must register as a member of one of political parties in order to vote in the Primary.
            Many Americans don’t register as a member of a political party.  The result is that persons nominated to be “Republican candidates” on the ballot in the General Election are chosen only by those willing to declare themselves “Republican” in the Primary Election.
            Sometimes the Party organization endorses candidates in the Primary Election.  Many voters who don’t know much about the candidates vote for the “endorsed” candidate just because they are disposed to support that Party’s candidate.

6. Party endorsements are made by the Party Committee.
            Each major political party has a national, state, county, and local organization called a committee.  These committees frequently endorse candidates in the Primary.  And that endorsement is often the key to a Primary Election victory.
            It is not necessary to have a majority of local committee people to influence the endorsement process.  In a typical county, some committee people will be liberals and some conservatives, but the majority will be Party regulars who are interested in patronage and power, not issues.  They can be influenced to support your candidate if you can persuasively show that your candidate has a good chance to win.  For Party regulars, winning is the name of the game.

7. It’s easy to be elected a local Committee Person.
            The way to get elected as a local committee person is to contact the County Dept of Elections and get the petition form.  You must then get 10 registered Republican neighbors residing in your district to sign the petition requesting that you be placed on the ballot in the Primary as a candidate for committee person, and file the petition by the required date.  Then you walk around your district, knock on doors of Republican voters and say, “I would appreciate if you would vote for me for District Committee Man (or Woman).  You will find my name on the Republican ballot in the Primary election on Tuesday, ________.”  If you win, you become the elected District Committee Man (or Woman).  Each district can have a Republican Committee Man and a Committee Woman.
            Of course if your district already has good committee people who are doing their job, they may not take kindly to you as an upstart and may defeat you.  You should find out the situation before making your decision by attending the local Republican committee meetings.
            However, typically many districts have unfilled committee positions because no one has bothered to run.  It is often easy to be appointed to one of these unfilled committee positions by contacting the local Committee Chairman. 

In Summary:

·         To change things, we must change the laws.

·         To change the laws, we must change the people who make the laws.

·         To get elected, your candidate must be on the ballot.

·         To get on the November ballot, a candidate must win the Primary Election.

·         To win the Primary, the candidate must get the support of people who make endorsements in the Primary, who reliably vote in the Primary, and who get out the votes of others in the Primary.  These people are the local committee people.

Therefore, the district committee man and woman is the most powerful office in the world because the district committee people determine who gets the chance to be elected to office at every level of government.

Duties of District Committee Men and Women:
            The District Committee people are legally charged with getting out the vote on Election Day.  If he or she does their job well, he/she will ring the doorbell of every household in the district and ask polite questions to find out the Party and other political views of every voter.  Then, before each election the Committee Person will personally deliver campaign literature to every Republican voter.  Then the Committee Person makes sure that all the voters in his/her district get to the polls on election day.  This is the way elections are won.

Powers of District Committee Men and Women:
1. Friendly access to neighbors. Most people are eager to know more about their government and the people who run it.  When you introduce yourself to your Republican neighbors as the “Republican Committee Man (or Woman),” they assume you have something to say.  You can provide them with information on candidates and issues.

2. Respect from elected officials. Since a Committee Person represents about 500 voters, and has the power to vote for other Party officials and to make critical endorsements of candidates, any call or letter from a Committee Person gets the attention of elected officials.

3. Launching pad for other offices.  You would be amazed at how many of our Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, and state and local officials started as Committee People, and still serve as Committee People even though they hold important elected office.  This is because they know the power of Committee People.

4. Direct influence over Party Platform, Policies, and selection of candidates.  At the state, district, county, and local caucuses, the Committee Person is an active player.  He/She can have a tremendous influence on the adoption of the Party Platform and policies, support of or opposition to issues, and selection of candidates.