2023 GOP Town Caucus

Major Parties Organize Town Committees in September

by Ron Lawrence, Essex Republicans Town Chair, Chittenden County Republicans Vice Chair

You might find politics to be distasteful; but clearly, those who get involved have tremendous capacity to impact the lives of all Vermonters and Americans...for better or for worse. You don’t want to leave politics up to those who have an agenda. The best possibility is for people who have a genuine heart for service to others to get involved in making policy for party, candidates, and law.

By statute, major parties are required to reorganize their town committees every two years. That means your own town committees will be looking for new members, new officers, and new delegates to the county party committees. Don’t have a town committee? Start one! You need only three people to start an official major party committee in your town.

The counties will be reorganizing in October. You must be a “delegate” from your town to be a member of the county committee and to vote for county officers. The county committees, in turn, elect delegates to their party’s state committee. Similarly, the state committees will reorganize in November. They will elect new officers and delegates to the national party committees.

Are you frustrated by what is happening in our state? Frustrated by divisions? Wish we had better candidates to represent us? Wish we had better leadership in our major parties? Now is your chance. Town committees are available to all. This is where the political process begins and where messaging is shaped. If you want to change the politics of our state, I invite you to roll up your sleeves and get involved by joining your party’s local town committee.

If you believe that our governance has grown to be too big, too overbearing, and too invasive, you sound like a Republican to me. Find out when your local town GOP committee is meeting and attend. The official date set by Paul Dame, the VT GOP chair, is September 19th; but each town committee will set and announce the date of its own meeting. Those meetings will be posted to VTGOP.org. If you are having trouble finding your local committee, you can contact me, Ron Lawrence, rlawrence41@comcast.net, and I will help direct you to the right people for your town and county.

As you can see from the heading above, the Essex Republicans will be holding our town caucus on September 19th, 6:30 p.m. at 1st Republic Brewing Co. on the River Road in Essex.