Participants at the Central Committee Meeting

Today’s El Paso County Republican Central Committee meeting was an underwhelming event. Approximately 175 members of the Central Committee were present. When I arrived, the party was moving line-by-line through changes to the county bylaws. There were a lot of opinions for and against each of the proposed amendments. But interestingly enough, Vickie Tonkins, the county party chair, had one of the most interesting observations.

During a debate on the number of proxy votes allowed by each member of the central committee, Tonkins opined, “This has to do with the Central committee who were elected to come and participate. I understand emergencies happen, life happens, and you might not be able to get there, but one person carrying more than two proxies just seems a little inappropriate to me because we have got to be committed. Look around, this place should be packed. These people were elected, but they’re not here. Why should I take that responsibility. Yeah I’ll, I’ll carry two for you, but outside of that you should be here. You should take the responsibility serious[ly].” — Vickie Tonkins, Chair, El Paso County Republican Central Committee

It is almost as though the idea that the EPC GOP did not advertise the Central Committee meeting went right over her head. How can a party expect a robust turn out when the meeting appears as an afterthought to the party itself? The short answer is they cannot. Like it or not, the general membership of the party is just not that tuned into the day-to-day goings on of a party that barely believes in releasing information. If you are going to make it difficult to find out details about meetings and events, people are just not going to show up — even if they wanted to participate.

Once the Central Committee broke, the party moved onto House/Senate/County District meetings. I attempted to attend my House District 18 meeting, but the first order of business was to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA). I decided I might not be that welcome and decided to leave.

The EPC GOP must decide if it is going to continue to just be a rules committee, or become an active leader of an engaged and informed caucus. If it expects to gain any support, it must become the latter.