Who's Successfully Performed a "Takeover" of Their Local County GOP ?

[raystone]

With a plan to restore their local party to constitutional/liberty principles.

Looking for potential pitfalls, lessons learned, strategic planning advice. Thanks !

[acptulsa]

Set up a local meetup, get all the members to their precinct meetings, get them all to the local convention, meet a few days before that convention to work out a plan. Get familiar with Robert's Rules of Order and the local party rules, so if they break their own rules you can raise points of order. The Platform Committee is the one everyone wants to be on, but be sure people sign up for the Rules and Credentials Committees as these are the ones with power to screw your forces over. Distribute lists of liberty people or work out some kind of code--like someone who doffs his cap when others are nominated for delegate slots and the like, and puts it back on when your people are named. Expect that code to be broken, and expect 'them' to use it to know when not to vote for 'your' people. Find leaders of the evangelical groups and try for alliances; they're often our best friends in the room.

And make sure your meetup does fun things and builds a sense of community, so people stay interested.

Beyond that, it's just a matter of getting yourselves to the point where you outnumber the oldsters who have been doing it for years--or be persuasive enough that they don't see you as the enemy (some will, anyway, since they're in it for the patronage and you're in it to get rid of the patronage).

Some of the long-time activists will be completely sympathetic and grateful for the influx of allies. Find them, get them involved with the meetup, and wherever they're willing run them for offices. They are generally known and respected, and even people who have disagreed with them for years are likely to be reticent to oppose them.

And don't give up.

[ninepointfive]

We did this, but the biggest pitfalls were egos and keeping the group together and cohesive.

Now there are members installed, but there isn't a meetup or anything like that which meets regularly - or even at all.

[acptulsa]

Interesting. Our meetup is our backbone. Don't know what we'd do without it. Meetup.com is how we stay in communication. How do you handle communications?

[ItsTime]

Interesting. Our meetup is our backbone. Don't know what we'd do without it. Meetup.com is how we stay in communication. How do you handle communications?

Facebook groups so you can delete the non-sense.

[ninepointfive]

Interesting. Our meetup is our backbone. Don't know what we'd do without it. Meetup.com is how we stay in communication. How do you handle communications?


switched over to another system called ning

It would be nice to have a system for all to use and would be free to the groups with a suggested donation.

[torchbearer]

Too busy eating our own.
Back to business as usual.

[acptulsa]

Too busy eating our own.
Back to business as usual.

We've managed to avoid that, though we have had trolls infiltrate. Activities that build a sense of community among us are important. It sounds esoteric, but it can be mighty vital.

Do reach out to other groups within your state. The state convention will be along before you know it, and they can give you the 'lay of the land'.

Try to dampen people's expectations at first, and emphasize from the first that 'taking it over' means nothing if you don't then use it, take care of it, and maintain it.

And play the long game. Do expect the entrenched to try to use the rules to screw you, but never stoop to their level. If you succeed, give them every assistance in their efforts to take back over short of letting them get away with ignoring the rules.

[raystone]

Set up a local meetup, get all the members to their precinct meetings, get them all to the local convention, meet a few days before that convention to work out a plan. Get familiar with Robert's Rules of Order and the local party rules, so if they break their own rules you can raise points of order. The Platform Committee is the one everyone wants to be on, but be sure people sign up for the Rules and Credentials Committees as these are the ones with power to screw your forces over. Distribute lists of liberty people or work out some kind of code--like someone who doffs his cap when others are nominated for delegate slots and the like, and puts it back on when your people are named. Expect that code to be broken, and expect 'them' to use it to know when not to vote for 'your' people. Find leaders of the evangelical groups and try for alliances; they're often our best friends in the room.

And make sure your meetup does fun things and builds a sense of community, so people stay interested.

Beyond that, it's just a matter of getting yourselves to the point where you outnumber the oldsters who have been doing it for years--or be persuasive enough that they don't see you as the enemy (some will, anyway, since they're in it for the patronage and you're in it to get rid of the patronage).

Some of the long-time activists will be completely sympathetic and grateful for the influx of allies. Find them, get them involved with the meetup, and wherever they're willing run them for offices. They are generally known and respected, and even people who have disagreed with them for years are likely to be reticent to oppose them.

And don't give up.

Thank you for the great insight !

[Uriah]

In 2008 and the beginning of 2012 we used meetup.com We live in a small community and realized we didn't really need meetup anymore. We setup regular meetings, once per week and did the bulk of our planning, strategy, delegation of tasks, etc during those meetings. By word of mouth and email we invited others to join. This worked out well for us. We could have done things differently such as sending a recap of our proceedings to our group more often. The thing about our group was it was like herding cats. Everyone wanted to do their own thing. There was no formal structure to our group or our meetings. This has obvious shortcomings but it allowed people the freedom to do as they wished. It was very loose. On the plus side, our county had the highest percent for Dr. Paul.

Despite our loose organization we were fiercely persistent. We used just about every tactic we could leading up to the caucus.

Leading up to the county convention we stayed mostly quiet. On the outside we looked inactive but our core group was vigilant. We crafted a plan for the convention and determined the leaning of each delegate. We realized we had the majority so we planned accordingly. We took all delegates and alternates but one.

For the district convention we used basecamp.com I recommend the service but it does cost. For the district & state conventions we forged coalitions. I've found the evangelical activists to be our friends more so than any other group. They believe in liberty much more so than the rest.

From my experience politics is almost entirely being present and building relationships, in that order.

Despite the strength in my county during the caucus and convention we don't have full control of our county GOP. One of the building blocks of success for Ron Paul in my county was the anti-war crowd along with die-hard libertarians. Suffice it to say these people were of no help during county reorganization. Keeping people active and engaged has been hard. I'll take advice on that. Out of the four officer positions I am the only serving, as co-chair. There are very few willing to put in the effort and time.

[torchbearer]

One of the building blocks of success for Ron Paul in my county was the anti-war crowd along with die-hard libertarians. Suffice it to say these people were of no help during county reorganization.

I'm shocked!!! /s
They won't lift a finger to help you, and will be the first to bitch when they are once again handed their asses in future elections.
Its easy to find an excuse not to do the hard things.
"So-and-so isn't pure, i'm going home to bitch because it makes me feel better about myself and my ego is fulfilled, plus I don't have to inconvenience myself with the mundane task of building coalitions that are required for political change"

[Uriah]

I'm shocked!!! /s
They won't lift a finger to help you, and will be the first to bitch when they are once again handed their asses in future elections.
Its easy to find an excuse not to do the hard things.
"So-and-so isn't pure, i'm going home to bitch because it makes me feel better about myself and my ego is fulfilled, plus I don't have to inconvenience myself with the mundane task of building coalitions that are required for political change"

Paul pulled in many liberals during the caucus in my county. That crowd only associated with the Republican party long enough to cast a ballot for Paul. Many then swiftly changed their party affiliation back to whatever it had been previously. These are people that won't be active in party politics but will cast ballots during some primaries and most general elections for a good candidate. Everyone has their personal level of involvement.

[torchbearer]

Paul pulled in many liberals during the caucus in my county. That crowd only associated with the Republican party long enough to cast a ballot for Paul. Many then swiftly changed their party affiliation back to whatever it had been previously. These are people that won't be active in party politics but will cast ballots during some primaries and most general elections for a good candidate. Everyone has their personal level of involvement.

oh, the people i'm talking about join the gop, became delegates and now decide to sit on their hands because they worship ron paul.

[raystone]

Keeping people active and engaged has been hard.

I'm finding Salinky's rules more helpful everyday.

RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.
RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news.

[UtahApocalypse]

Muskegon, Michigan

We now hold all the leadership positions and a majority of the executive committee (which I am on) we also have a majority of county delegates.

We did this by showing up... Every month over the last year. Volunteering within the party. Even knocking doors for Romney, but only after the nomination.

We never hid the fact we want a more liberty minded party. We have educated them on issues. We have built respect, and coalitions.

[eleganz]

We have done very very well here in Los Angeles County (our county central committee is the largest in the nation with over 170). If you'd like to hear from some of my personal experiences, we can chat on the phone. PM me.

[TheTyke]

We have the chairmanship of our county, and sympathetic people in the rest of the spots.

In 2008, we had the numbers, but didn't really understand what we were doing. Our convention size more than doubled in 2012, but fortunately so did we. Even with less than 50% being our people, our candidate for chairman was adroit enough to form coalitions with other factions, even the ones who weren't "Ron Paul people," and was able to win in a landslide even with elected officials opposing him.

I still don't understand how we did it... many counties report they can't get anyone out at all, which doesn't make sense to me. We studied the rules exhaustively, had several practice sessions so people would be more comfortable, and just asked all the people we could and allies we had made to back us up and told them how important it was. And it was just enough. Even after all that, a lot of our people didn't show up or want to stay involved long term, or we could've taken more. But we got the chairmanship and it has been a big help.

We also tried to help a few other counties understand the rules and do the same thing... we had a few successes, but need a much bigger reach next time.

[raystone]

We have done very very well here in Los Angeles County (our county central committee is the largest in the nation with over 170). If you'd like to hear from some of my personal experiences, we can chat on the phone. PM me.


Thanks for the post. Tried PMing, but recvd error message box is full.