GOP Chair To Hold Organizational Confab At The House

Not open to the public, it's open to people who will work

What will it take to wrest away the reins of Congressional
power, grab state house mojo and sway local policies to the
level of an elephant's eye?

Numbers.

To be effective, the Party of Lincoln must marshal its
forces in new and more efficient ways.

These are not, indeed, the days of the summer soldier and
the sunshine patriot. These are the times that try men's
souls, saith Citizen Tom Paine.

Now more than ever, saith Richard M. Nixon.

It's a mid-term year, a census year and a time of
redistricting.

Serious business.

"I'd rather have four people who will work with me than 16 I
have to work around," said Tom Bratcher, newly sworn Bosque
County Republican Chairman.

That magic number, 16, refers to the number of voting
precincts in Bosque.

The purpose: swearing in people in three categories to serve
as precinct chairmen.

It's an organizational meeting, one to which the public is
not invited.

To do that takes a sit-down and this one will be held in
private, at his house near Meridian, with dinner and a
guarantee that each precinct chairman is sworn.

That includes all who have been a) elected by voters on
Primary day; b) by the County Executive Committee of
precinct chairmen through the nomination of his predecessor,
Helen Dozier; or c) by the same committee at this meeting
which is to be held tonight.

The oath requires a candidate to swear or affirm that he or
she will protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States of America and of Texas "against all enemies, foreign
or domestic."

They can serve as election judges, too, but they must take
on the duties and responsibilities of precinct chairmen if
the GOP hopes to change the political map of Bosque County
in this year of decision, Congressional redistricting and
the desired goal of a reversal of Congressional
representation in one of the most gerrymandered districts on
record - Chez Chet, Texas House of Representatives District
17.

Its shape follows the slanting path of the river, the
railroad and the highways from Cowtown to College Station.

Dr. Bratcher refers to the Republican Party manual.

"...The job is year in and year out - not just before an
election. Precinct chairs who are doing an effective job
will produce: 1) an increase in the precinct's turnout in
the Republican primary and 2) an increase in the number of
straight ticket votes cast in that precinct in the general
election."

How is that to be done?

According to the manual, to accomplish the primary goal,
that of building the party in a neighborhood, each precinct
chair "needs to become an expert on his/her area and what it
will take for Republican candidates to win there."

Successful candidates for the office will:

* Recruit volunteers who will
* coordinate activities by serving as the link to
* get out the vote.

Get out the vote.

How is that to be done?

It comes back down to tried and true methods.

According to the manual, to get out the vote, you must

* Register potential GOP voters
* Contact GOP voters
* Encourage early voting
* Assist getting GOP voters to the polls "as needed"

It's not enough to just agree to serve as an election judge,
then sit back during the years and months before elections
and wait for the great day, hoping everything turns out the
way one would like.

Who gets the job done?

Volunteers.

It's not enough to just say you would like to do the job of
precinct chairman, says Dr. Bratcher.

"I want to see people who are involved in (Bosque County
Republican) Club activities."

To make them work together as a team, one must "recruit,
train, supervise and encourage" them to register with the
County Tax Assessor-Collector as assistant voter registrars
and make sure everyone who would like to register to vote is
registered.

It's almost reminiscent of the days of Huey P. Long's South
Louisiana Ar-ah See Ay Program - RCA - or, how you call,
Registered Coon Ass.

The Kingfish, a native of the red dirt cotton lands near
Shreveport, was at a disadvantage in the land of the Red
Stick - Le Baton Rouge - the land of the pirogue, the gator
and the concertina. That's where the oil wells are, either
on rather soggy ground or off sho', as it were.

A chairman needs people who will go down the phone list and
let them know it's time to find out who would like to vote -
on the great day, early, or absentee.

From there, the job is to get them to the polls to cast that
vote in person early, or place the appropriate applications
in their hands to make their desire to vote absentee come
true.

If necessary, come election day, either the statutory day or
early voting day - or by absentee ballot - one must have
drivers on hand who will agree to go get people, put them in
the car and haul them to the polling place if necessary.

It's an everyday thing on every election day - nationwide.

Just ask the Republican National Congressional Committee,
the folks from across the aisle in the Party of Jefferson,
or any other major dude.

They will clue you in.

Some voters are shut-ins, others cannot drive for one reason
or another, and friends and family are unavailable to get
the job done.

Each vote counts the same. No one is more equal than others.

It takes knowing who and when and how each vote is to be
obtained, how to assist, and when to act.

It's knowing house by house, street by street and road by
road who needs what to cast that vote for the good of the
party and how to help them do it.

That is what really counts.

The alternative is grim. There is no count whatsoever.

You can do both, serve as an election judge and serve as
precinct chairman, but Dr. Bratcher, a tenured professor of
mathematics at Baylor University, will require each
candidate for Precinct Chair to sign up with a declaration
that "Yes, I would like to continue as Precinct Chair;" or
"No, I no longer wish to serve as Precinct Chair; or "Yes, I
volunteer to be a Precinct Election Judge."

It seems one makes his or her choices and then sticks to
them in this life boat drill.

It's no picnic and it is definitely no pleasure cruise.

The job of Precinct Chair starts on the day after the
General Election in November and runs right through until
the next one, he says. It says so in the manual, too.

The job of election judge begins and ends on election day.

You can do both, but the responsibilities of neither one are
mutually exclusive.

The ultimate goal: to open a County Republican Headquarters
on Highway 6 in Clifton, 119 N. Avenue G, on the day of the
next Bosque Republican Club meeting, May 18.

That's the day when Bill Flores arrives riding in his
campaign special, the bus that goes to Capitol Hill.

He aims to sup with the Bosque County Republican Club.