Last Sunday, on February 27th, President Trump released a statement in support of the “Precinct Strategy” organization enlisting America First Patriots to their local County Republican Party committees, positions which are too often left vacant.
On Thursday, Arizona lawmakers voted unanimously to pass an “emergency bill” radically altering how the precinct committeemen will be selected in the state.
The Gateway Pundit reported that RINO Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers sponsored this bill after President Trump highlighted the importance of enlisting America First Patriots to all local precinct committeeman positions.
The bill gives county supervisors and parties the authority to appoint PCs instead of precinct members.
GOP Grassroots Co-Chair Tyler Bowyer called on GOP legislators to repeal the section that allows this.
The state legislature needs to repeal section four from the emergency legislation that was passed. This is the solution that benefits all political parties that did not get consulted.
— Tyler Bowyer (@tylerbowyer) March 7, 2022
Here is the current language from the bill that was passed by the Arizona legislature.
Sec. 4. 2022 election cycle; precinct committeemen; county party committee; board of supervisors
Notwithstanding any other law, for the 2022 election for political party precinct committeemen only, the following apply:
1. Candidates for precinct committeeman shall submit to their county political party committee a nomination paper or other similar written statement of candidacy not later than April 18, 2022 and shall not be required to submit a nomination petition or file other documents with a filing officer.
2. The county political party committee shall verify the potential candidates’ eligibility based on the April 1 voter registration totals prescribed by section 16-168, subsection G, Arizona Revised Statutes.
3. Not later than May 2, 2022, the county political party committee shall submit to the county board of supervisors one precinct committeeman candidate’s name for each election precinct in the county for appointment pursuant to section 16-410 and section 16-822, subsection B, Arizona Revised Statutes. The county political party committee is the sole determiner of the single political party precinct committeeman candidate whose name is to be submitted for appointment from each election precinct in the county.
4. The county board of supervisors shall appoint the political party precinct committeemen from the names submitted pursuant to paragraph 3 of this section. Precinct committeemen who are appointed pursuant to this section for the 2022 term of office are deemed elected precinct committeemen for all purposes.
5. For any vacancies in the office of precinct committeeman that occur during the 2022 term of office, the county political party committee shall appoint eligible persons to fill those vacancies and shall maintain a current roster of precinct committeemen for the remainder of the 2022 term, and no further action regarding vacancies is required by the county board of supervisors.
The Arizona GOP is calling on grassroots members to call and urge lawmakers to correct this language immediately.
The grassroots DEMANDS the state legislature repeal #HB2839 TODAY!
Call your representatives NOW: https://t.co/ZbL6WQMBC2 https://t.co/lsmEBpJfIZ
— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) March 7, 2022
Arizona State Representative Jake Hoffman released the following statement over the weekend.
Hoffman: I spent most of the day yesterday working on how to resolve the issue with HB2893 and the insane provision to strip PCs of their elected status and totally circumvent the PC elections.
This provision was snuck into the bill unbeknownst to most members. We were told that the Party supported the bill, which has proven to be false and that this was intended to fix the utter mess Katie Hobbs has made of our election procedures for 2022.
More concerning, this provision was seemingly intentionally hidden in the legislation. New provisions are supposed to be in BLUE CAPITAL LETTERS. Deletions are supposed to be in red. Current law is supposed to be in black normal case letters, yet this NEW provision was hidden in black normal case. This is standard practice for all legislation! Was this change in standard practice done intentionally in order to hide the provision from those of us that actually read the bills?
I am working on a full repeal of the language in HB2893 relating to PCs.
I am also working to get to the bottom of where this language came from. I have heard rumors that it was a done at the request of AACO, but have not been able to confirm for sure if that is the genesis of it.
I stand with the PCs!
We must have PC elections in 2022!
Hoffman expects a full repeal today.
From representative Jake Hoffman. pic.twitter.com/Jd26D4manS
— AZ State Rep. Austin Smith (@azaustinsmith) March 7, 2022
Rep. Hoffman pointed out that the new provisions were actually hidden in normal text to hide them, whether or not legislators read the bill.
Read the full bill here.
The Arizona legislature must correct this mistake!
