Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed Tempe, Arizona, attorney Daniel J. Schultz, the creator and advocate of the ‘Precinct Strategy.’
Schultz said the Republican Party’s precinct and neighborhood committees control the party, and roughly half of the 400,000 seats across the country are routinely left vacant. If conservatives fill these 200,000 vacant seats, they will take over the party, and control how it gets out the vote and which candidates it endorses.
TRANSCRIPT
McCabe: The Precinct Strategy catching fire with conservatives is simple: Fill the roughly half of 400,000 local Republican committee seats across the country left vacant and take over the party from the ground up.
The strategy’s creator and advocate attorney Dan Schultz told The Star News Network and The Arizona Sun Times he based it on words his Wisconsin social studies teacher gave the class at the end of a course.
Schultz: If our country ever gets into a political quandary where the country needs help, you’ll know how to help it. And the first thing you’ll need to do is pick a political party and then become a voting member of it. So now we’re in a political crisis.
McCabe: The graduate of West Point said the precinct and local committees are the party, and when conservatives take over these committees, the party is theirs.
Schultz: You’re part of the apparatus. You elect the chairs all the way up to the RNC. If there’s no precinct committee, if there are no Republican precinct committeemen, there’s no party. Precinct committeemen are the party. And then the other really important thing you get to do is help get out the vote for the candidates of your choice.
McCabe: And while it is always better to get elected, often someone could just walk up and get appointed to a seat by a chairman. However, now the establishment is catching on, he said.
Schultz: The Precinct Strategy has gotten pushback from both the Left and from the Republican establishment around the country, and that pushback varies: “Oh, gee, we’re sorry we lost your paperwork,” or “Gee, we’re sorry you didn’t attend all the meetings you should have and therefore you’re no longer precinct committeemen.” Things like that are starting to happen.
McCabe: Schultz said the good news is that the GOP is like any other private organization.
Schultz: The Republican Party is a private organization and it’s no different than like a yacht club. The good news for conservatives is that if it’s being run by establishment people who aren’t very conservative, we can outnumber them if we’ll run for these positions and fill them all up.
McCabe: Reporting for The Star News Network and The Arizona Sun Times, Neil W. McCabe, Tempe, Arizona.
