We’ve been trying that here in conservative York County, PA for years. The party regulars are very good at keeping out those they don’t want, even in this conservative county. We have no conservative elected officials. Some may claim the mantle, but their voting record says otherwise.
Hmmmm.....that IS a problem. As you say, and my experience has also been, if unchecked, you can get a group of "good ol' boy country clubbers" in who like having the petty power more than they care about conservatism. Can you please FReepmail me with some of the specifics about how they go about keeping everyone else out? There are probably ways around it, where you can force yourselves in, with the right parliamentary procedures and maneuvers. I can maybe talk with some folks here, off the record, and see if they have some tips I could pass back to you. It may be just as simple as finding out when the yearly County convention is, and showing up en masse, nominating yourselves, and overwhelming them with numbers. Or it might now be that simple.
That's how we're doing it in my (liberal) county. We have a small cadre of regulars who like the idea of controlling the party apparatus. Unfortunately, they don't do a thing. The GOP in my county had basically no presence or visibility in the county in the last election - they didn't even make pre-election phone calls, do mailings, or anything. Only 5 or 6 of the 49 precincts actually have chairmen. Coming up this Saturday, that's going to be changing. We're getting together a lot of like-minded turnout, are running candidates for chairs in each of the 49 precincts as well as for the executive committee positions, they've all been vetted as solid conservatives, and have received some rudimentary training on parliamentary procedure so that we can recognise and head off any tomfoolery that may be tried.