Educate Yourself

Welcome to The Precinct Project in the Last Frontier. If you are unfamiliar with the nationwide precinct concept, please visit one of the following websites that discuss it at length:

The National Precinct Project, Eagle Forum, Campaign For Liberty,
The Precinct Project at Glenn Beck’s 912 Coalition, The Conservative Underground, Precinct Strategy 2010 at ResistNet.com, RedState.

This project is a collaborative effort by members of conservative groups across Alaska. We welcome you to participate in the most effective grassroots action you can take today to directly influence the political process here in Alaska.  Join us in taking back Alaska, one precinct at a time. (Start here: What is Precinct Project Alaska?)

Tea Party Activists Team-Up with Conservatives and Successfully Take Back Ownership of the Nevada Republican Party

New York Times: In Power Push, Movement Sees Base in G.O.P.
by Kate Zernike
January 14th, 2010

Why Participate in Local Party Elections?

If you want conservative leadership, you have to vote for it – both on election day and the other 364.25 days as well.

More than that, you influence the election even before Election Day. If you are silent and don’t make your presence known, then a conservative candidate considering running for a contested race (such as a higher party office position) may not even run because they don’t think they have any significant support!

Most people don’t realize it, but your silence itself is a vote. If you let folks know that you will be showing up on voting day, then good candidates will be inspired to run. When it comes right down to it, it’s just that simple.

All politics is local. It’s been said by countless political figures, from Tip O’Neill to Pat Robertson. Every political leader starts in a local neighborhood. Every leader makes his way up through the ranks by learning “how the process works.”

How does the process work in your community? Are political leaders held accountable? Or are they instead being taught through practical experience that the Constitution is a historic concept that they ought to “look past” because of our “pressing modern needs and emergencies”? The simple truth is we are training up future political leaders every day. Some of our local men and women will take positions of community leadership. Some will go on to higher levels of leadership. What lessons will they take with them when they do? If they learn their lessons from an apathetic and disengaged community, we will have failed them. But there is an even more practical political truism:

“For better and for worse, we tend to get the leaders we deserve.”

Here in Alaska the political process is specifically designed to be driven by the grassroots. The Republican Party officially calls itself “Alaska’s leading grassroots organization,” and it has every right to do so. The very structure of the party is such that the grassroots are the gatekeepers; they hold all the keys.  The board of governors of the Alaska Republican Party (“The Alaska State Central Committee”) is elected right in your backyard, and in backyards all across the state.  The Chairman of the Party, and all of the statewide party officers are not elected in a backroom where only the wealthy or politically connected are invited to attend. Every statewide officer is elected by delegates, every one of which is chosen right in your backyard and in other backyards. The requirements to vote in party elections are minimal:

1) Show up to the convention (some are only an hour long)
2) Register as a voter and pay the convention fee

You don’t have to have ever registered to vote before in your life. You can register to vote for your very first time on the morning of the convention when you walk in the door. They’ll even have a blank voter registration form for you. And if you register as a Republican voter, there’s nothing they can do to keep you out or keep you from voting in the Republican Party Elections. It’s that easy!

The moment Alaskans take personal responsibility for the direction of their government is the moment things will change. It’s time.

What Does it Mean to be a Conservative?

We are not united today as equally indistinct cogs in a political machine. We will not ask one another to abandon principles and convictions for sake of a supposed “common good”. Each of us work together on some issues and have the freedom to disagree on other issues. We do not assume or require agreement when it comes to specific policy proposals or the election of particular candidates, which are decisions best left to each individual either to support or not as seems prudent to them.

That being said, we do not take either the name Conservative or Patriot without sound reason. We are proud in saying that Conservative is not a vague or fuzzy concept, despite the attempts of some to make it so.  It is not an amorphous idea meant to cast a net wide enough to include nearly everyone, despite fundamental disagreements on the proper role of government in these United States. In the words of Frederick Douglass:

“What, then, is the Constitution? I will tell you. It is no vague, indefinite, floating, unsubstantial, ideal something, colored according to any man’s fancy, now a weasel, now a whale, and now nothing. . . . The American Constitution is a written instrument full and complete in itself. No Court in America, no Congress, no President, can add a single word thereto, or take a single word therefrom. It is a great national enactment done by the people, and can only be altered, amended, or added to by the people.”—Frederick Douglass, Glasgow, Scotland, March 26, 1860

As our Constitution is a tangible document, attesting to the legitimate actions of both common citizens and their fellow citizens temporarily serving as representatives in the halls of government, it is something we can and will defend. So, too, we offer the following tangible statement of core principles we hold in common. As these reflect principles and values that are fundamental to our way of life, we will defend these, both at the ballot box and in our daily lives.

Ten Principles of Conservatism
Being Conservative is a way of understanding life, society, and governance:

1.   Conservatives believe in the written Rule of Law as expressed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights by the founding fathers and reject the idea of a living Constitution.

2.   Conservatives believe that government is best which governs least.

3.   Conservatives believe in the individual right to life, liberty, and property.

4.   Conservatives believe in the sanctity of the individual from conception, that families are the basic units of society, and that anti-family policies should be ended.

5.   Conservatives believe our freedoms and rights are God-given natural rights, not given by the government.

6.   Conservatives have compassion for the poor and oppose policies, such as socialism, that cause or extend poverty.

7.   Conservatives believe in free and fair trade of goods and services.

8.   Conservatives believe in a strong military and have a great respect for those who have put their lives in peril to protect others.

9.   Conservatives believe in public policy that encourages advancement based solely on ability and achievement.

10.  Conservatives believe English should be the common language for the United States.

Source: Thanks to Alaska Conservative Patriots Group for publishing these as core principles that both their members and the members of other groups may rally around.

The Process

Here in Alaska the process is straightforward:

Step 1) Attend your local party convention this February or March.

Those who show up will vote to elect local party leaders, will vote on to fundamentally change the state party platform and constitution (which is call “The Party Rules” in the Alaska Republican Party) and will elect local delegates to the state convention in April.

Those who do not show up will be left to wonder on Election Day why the same Republican establishment continues to support and fund the same establishment candidates as it has in the past.

Civics is not a spectator sport! Be the Grassroots – Get involved!

You can visit the Precinct Project Calendar on the right side of this page to find the date, time, and place of your local district convention.

Fact #1 – Precincts

There are 40 districts in Alaska. Within those districts there are a total of 438 election precincts.

Every precinct has a Precinct Leader position. Larger precincts will have two positions. Regardless, it is almost certainly the case that one or both of those positions in your precinct is vacant. All together, there are approximately 600 precinct positions throughout the state. Of these, it is estimated that nearly 400 are currently vacant because the party has not been able to find (or more likely not even tried to find) someone to fill that position.

Every precinct will vote to elect new precinct leaders in either February or March 2010 (elections take place every two years).

Well, perhaps we should qualify that. Every precinct should vote to elect new precinct leaders. The fact is that in the most Republican district in the state, there were no elections two years ago simply because no one cared to hold them. You may very well find that the elections for your precinct are not even scheduled, and won’t take place unless you express an interest having them. Vacant positions means no one ran for the position two years ago. And if there were no candidates, why hold an election? I’m sure you understand, which brings us to Fact #2.

Fact #2 – Districts

In the absence of active precincts, the district has become the default hub of the local Republican Party.  The 40 districts correspond exactly with the 40 State House Districts throughout the State. It is the District that is responsible for organizing local party elections every two years in the 1-2 months leading up to the State Convention.

It is important to note however that Districts very widely in their level of activity. Some districts will be very active, while others will be struggling, and some districts do not even have a single Republican volunteer who is willing to lead the District (this usually pertains only to the most rural House Districts).