The Jefferson County, Tennessee Republican Party today officially published that the date of its county convention (called colloquially “the Mass Meeting”) will be held on Saturday, January 12th, 2013 at 9:00 AM at the historic Jefferson County Courthouse, 204 West Main Street in Dandridge. The meeting will be the party’s biennial reorganization, and the six elected “chair offices” of the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee will be voted on by the convention. Those citizens eligible to be nominated or to vote as part of the Mass Meeting are those considered by the party to be bona fide Republicans. For the purposes of election to party positions, bona fide Republicans consist of those members of the community who identify themselves as members of the Republican Party, and who have voted in at least the last three Republican Primaries.. Any participant’s bona fide status can be verified by the Contest and Credentials Committee.
Any bona fide Republican may attend the meeting, vote, be nominated for an office, or run. Those positions which will be voted on by the Mass Convention include Chairman, First Vice Chairman, Second Vice Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice Treasurer, and Senior Chairman (any person seeking the office of Senior Chairman must be 55 years of age or older). The Immediate Past Chairman, State Executive Committeeman, State Executive Committeewoman, Young Republican Chairman, and Presidents of the Jefferson County Republican Women and Republican Women of the Future all have seats on the committee under State and county GOP bylaws by virtue of their position in the party, elected party office, or election by the membership of their party-affiliated organizations and are therefore not chosen by the convention-those positions elected at a county Mass Meeting are those which Republican Party rules say must be elected by a county convention at the beginning of a term.
Jefferson County may be the first county in Tennessee to reorganize under GOP rules following the 2012 election. Current party rules state that each county party must reorganize between January 1st and March 31st of every odd-numbered year.
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