Blog For Arizona

A Message from T. Stephen Cody, LD 29 Secretary

Dear progressive Southern Arizona Democrats,

Join me in creating November's Headline:

"Dean-invigorated Democrats Defeat Bush, re-take House and Senate, and gain in state and local elections nationwide"

There is only one person who can Beat Bush, and that is the Democratic Party's nominee for President.  We need to support the Democratic Party and its nominee for President in order to fire the Bush Administration and take our country back. To help that person govern well, we also need to elect a supportive House and Senate, and supportive elected officials in state and local government.

We also need to hold our Party and elected officials accountable to the "Dean principle" of fact-based policy focused on the common good (as opposed to policy dictated by those special interests who are able and willing to buy it).

YOU HAVE THE POWER. To exercise it, do three things NOW (details below):

• get active in your local Democratic Party,



• get appointed as a PC (Precinct Committeeperson) for your voting precinct, and



• get elected as a PC in your local voting precinct.

If you have any questions, contact Barbara Bernstein at the Pima County Democratic Party 326-3716, bberstein@azdem.org or the Pima County Precinct Committee Person Recruitment Chair, Peter Newton, at newton530@aol.com.

HOW TO BECOME ACTIVE IN THE PARTY:

Start (or continue) attending meetings for your legislative district (LD) Democratic Party committee.  To find out your precinct, city, legislative, congressional and other districts, check your voter card, or look it up using your residential address and zipcode at:

http://www.recorder.co.pima.az.us/search/geocode/search.html

To get info on monthly LD meetings, officers and elected state representatives for your district, see links to the LD (legislative district) committee pages at:

http://www.pimademocrats.org/LEGISLATIVE_DISTRICTS.html
or at:
http://www.maricopa.azdem.org/contact/district.asp

Become a Precinct Committeeperson (PC) for your precinct. You can be appointed now by filling out a form and submitting it to the Pima County Democratic Party chairperson, Paul Eckerstrom.  Forms are available at Democratic Party Headquarters (HQ) (phone: 326-3716, address: 4639 E. 1st Ave., near Speedway and Swan).  The off-hours phone answering message has info on location, office hours, email and website for the Pima County Democratic Party HQ.

Pima County Democratic Party website: http://www.pimademocrats.org/

For an overview of what it means to be a PC, see the "Precinct Committeeperson Online Handbook" at:

http://www.pimademocrats.org/pc_handbook.htm

Attend a PC training session and learn about the duties of being a PC and how to get elected.  The next training session is on March 27th at HQ at 10 AM.

ALL PC slots will be up for election at the Primary Election in September this year. Here is paraphrase from a letter (sent to all current PCs) that I received from the Pima County Democratic Party Chairman, Paul Eckerstrom:

"...We strongly encourage you to run for election, as it is very important to the Democratic Party to have elected PC's.  Pima County receives 1 State Committee slot for every 3 elected PC's, not for appointed PCs.  

In addition, only elected PC's will be able to participate in the re-organizational meetings for the County & District Parties next December and January.  Further, if replacements are required for members of the Legislature in the coming term, only elected PC's will participate in the process of recommending a replacement to the Board of Supervisors.

If you have not done so before, you will find running for election to be a fairly simple proces. You must file a signed and notarized affidavit with the Division of Elections, giving your address, how you want your name to appear on the ballot & other info. You must file a petition with signatures of registered Democracts in your precinct.  The number of signatures is based on the Democratic registration in your Precinct.  However, the most signatures you will need are 10 under Arizona law. We strongly suggest you obtain at least 10 signatures from Democrats in your Precinct...(Ed: these signatures MUST be registered Democratic voters in your precint) After you have had your affidavit notarized, you may bring it and your filled petition to the Democratic Headquarters and we will file them for you at the Division of Elections. We will help check your petition to be sure it is filled correctly. (The back of the petition must be filled out & signed by the circulator - which can be you) You may also be a petition signer on the front. Since the filing period is from May 10 through June 9, you have plenty of time to get this done. Thanks for your continuing help and support of the Democratic Party."

NOTE: Most precincts have more PC slots available than people to run for them, so once you've qualified for the ballot in those precincts, all you have to do is vote for yourself and you're elected!

You can get the partisan nomination petition and the affadavit (titled "Pima County Partisan Nomination Paper Affadavit of Qualification Campaign Finance Laws Statement [A.R.S. 16-311, 16-905 (K)(5)]") from Pima Dem HQ.

You can also get the partisan nomination petition online at:
http://www.sos.state.az.us/election/Forms/Partisan_Nomination_Petition.pdf


Thanks for your continuing support of the Democratic Party. Si se puede!

T. Stephen Cody, Democratic Party LD29 Secretary
tstephencody@rvwifi.com

posted by Michael Bryan @ 3/16/2004 11:45:00 PM