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For various reasons, the GOP places far more importance on the role of PCs
By Jeremy Duda | Arizona Mirror
Once people realized this month that a bill the legislature unanimously approved eliminated elections for precinct committeemen, activists began hounding Republican lawmakers to reverse course, which they moved to do almost immediately.
Angry precinct committeemen filled legislative hearing rooms as lawmakers debated bills to restore their elections for this year. One GOP senator told them they were the most important elected officials in America. A House Republican compared them to George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere. Republican legislators vowed to revive the elections for precinct committeemen, whom they lauded as the backbone of the party’s activist base.
On the other side of the aisle, Democratic lawmakers largely shrugged. They say they’ve heard few, if any, complaints. Most Democrats are happy to let the status quo stand and aren’t backing their Republican colleagues’ impassioned efforts to ensure that precinct committeemen will be on the ballot in August.
So who are these people who inspired so much frantic legislative activity?
PCs, as the positions are usually called, are the voting members of political parties’ legislative district-level organizations. They elect the chairs and other leadership positions in their districts, and select the committee members who do the same for the state political parties. When legislative seats become vacant, the PCs in the district nominate three finalists to fill them, with the new lawmaker being selected by the county board of supervisors.
Each party’s legislative district organization gets one PC per precinct, plus an additional slot for every 125 voters the party has in the precinct. Rarely are there more PC candidates than positions. When there are, the candidates go to the ballot, where members of their party select the winners in the primary election.
