A Great Anderson County Event
A Great Anderson County Event
Robert West | August 17, 2023
I was invited to speak for The Anderson County Republican Club on the 14th and received a very warm reception. Mike Smith, GOP Precinct Chair from Cherokee County introduced me and Bob Brewer, GOP Precinct Chair from Smith County was also in attendance.
Besides the regular topics we really made an effort to recruit a lead for our, “Double the GOP Program” and Mandy Kirkland, Anderson County Precinct Chair stepped up to fill that role.
Anderson had 9 of 24 Precinct Chairs filled when we got there but I did a bit of an “alter call,” which seemed fitting as we were meeting in a church and five people volunteered to fill empty seats.
Several of the local elected and law enforcement personnel were in attendance among them the new County Judge, Carey McKinney. Judge McKinney credited his election win to the last judge’s lockdown policies and has made it his mission to make the entire budget as open to the public as possible. You can also livestream the Commisioner’s Court Meetings because of this man.
During the Questions and Answers
Something that came up in the Q&A that we hear a lot is, “How do I find the phone numbers now that the counties are not sharing them on the voter’s lists?” There is a service called That’s Them, where you receive a certain number of free lookups each day. If you have a group of people making calls this is the best site, we have found and unless your group is super ambitious the number you get for free each day should be enough to keep you busy.
I want to thank Steve Barnett for covering our gas and the crowd for buying just about every book we brought. We even met a couple that had recently moved to Texas from Colorado. We found out they had been associated with The Arapahoe County Tea Party. This is a group my wife and I founded in 2009 and they are still going strong. At last count they had over 700 hundred members which is impressive for a county political group. We were also pleased to know they were still using our original slogan “holding both parties accountable” 14 years later.
Hayes County will be hosting me soon and after that a group in Wisconsin wants me to address their state-wide group. That is about 1,000 miles away so if you know anyone near Minneapolis, I will be in St. Croix County Wisconsin soon which is right across the border.
In other news I would like to congratulate the Bandera GOP for not only filling all ten of their precinct chair positions but assisting counties around them. This whole “talking and coordinating” thing between county GOPs is spreading and if you have not reached out to your neighboring County GOPs then I encourage you to do so.
Precinct Chairs Positions
Precinct chairs are the direct descendants of the Committees of Safety and the Committees of Correspondence. The positions existed before the nation was founded and indeed, without them, it would not exist. If we are to renew our republic, precinct chairs must be filled, must utilize the powers they have and must expand that power to give the voters in their precinct more power and control over the elected.
I foresee a day when GOP PCs will meet to determine if Republican incumbents are to be allowed to run for re-election as Republicans in every voting district. Is there any doubt that John Cornyn should be denied the use of our brand when he so blatantly votes against our core beliefs?
If our elected wish to vote as independents or Democrats, let them run as such. I was raised to “Dance with the one that brung’ya.” If you are tired of seeing people use our ticket then dance with the other side, the next Republican State Convention is closer than you think. Start organizing people that agree with you to flood the Precinct and County Conventions. These happen after the Primary elections and then volunteer to be delegates for the state convention to make this happen. The leadership we have now will fight you every step of the way so while you are there you can vote many of them out as well.
Only Republicans can clean up the Republican Party and hold elected Republicans accountable. Only Democrats can do that in their party. It is time for the everyday voters in both parties to start cleaning house and that is going to take getting a lot more people involved.
Robert West
