People sign up to run for Precinct Committeeman and Committeewoman every two years. While most precincts have one of each, there are several with 2, 3, or even 4 pairs of precinct people.
Typically, few people want to run and there is always a mad scramble after the Primary to either validate write-in votes or find someone who will volunteer to serve. Not this year.
There seems to be a concerted push for people who have never been involved with the Republican Party to run for precinct positions this year. You'd almost think it was orchestrated by someone who wants to change the character of the county party. They've employed the old High School Homecoming Court routine: finding people who have recognized names and are in the clique of popular people. Don't be fooled by this.
Typically, the popular folks can't be bothered to actually do the work: showing up and participating in meetings. It's not that hard, just time-consuming, and they are busy, don't you know. Every one of the "popular" people you elect keeps someone who will actually represent you out of office. Wouldn't you prefer to be represented by someone who shows up and does their job?
As they say in the financial world, past performance does not guarantee future performance, but let's take a look at the Class of 2023. These are the folks you elected in 2022 to serve as your precinct representatives. We take roll at each meeting, so to be counted Present, the person either had to 1) show up in person, 2) submit a valid proxy, or 3) inform the chair they couldn't make the meeting. Not too strict a standard.
Below is a table of attendance for 2023 & 2024. It is organized by Percentage of Meetings Attended / Precinct / First Name. There are four colors: White are the folks who attended 100% of the meetings, Yellow are 75%, Orange are above 50%, and Blue are those at or below 50%. Keep in mind the party meets quarterly, so this represents eight meetings over a two-year period. Also keep in mind that had people informed the chair or had a proxy, they would have been counted as Present. We are being very generous to some folks.
We can't speak for the newbies who signed up to run, other than that many were recruited by the people who couldn't be bothered to attend the meetings and do the work. We can say that if you have any doubts, the people who showed up and participated 100% of the time are the folks who represent you the best.
EXCELLENT INFO to bring to us!! I sure hope many voters SEE this ! ! !
Also it IS OK to leave an 'box unchecked' (Under-vote) if the voter has no info about a candidate.
There are several possibilities, one is that we have all been more vocal and involved and talking about issues with each other and more people understand they can be direcly incolved at a local level, the other is there are enough folks that didn't like what we were doing as a central committee and decided they wanted to be more involved. Whatever the reason, competition and interest are generally a healthy thing in most endeavors. I have appreciated seeing more faces in the gallery this past year or so. Hearing and watching things directly provides the most clear communication of issues and proceedings.