SkaroffBlog

Interested in local politics and community service? Are you ready to go beyond merely complaining about the system?

A good place to start in Philadelphia is the position of Ward Committee Member– no experience is required, and there are almost 7,000 openings!

Here’s how it works: The City has 66 Wards which are divided into a total of 1681 Divisions– what are often called Precincts in other jurisdictions. Your Division is your immediate neighborhood. Each Division has just a single polling place (sometimes shared with neighboring Divisions), and the Democrats and Republicans can each have two Committee Members serving a few hundred voters registered in the party.

Committee Members actively support party causes and candidates for higher offices. They’re the link between the neighborhood and the larger political world and have some say in selecting local party leadership. Committee Members often help neighbors interact with City bureaucracies– it’s the essence of retail politics.

All Committee Members are chosen in the May Primary. To run, you must be 18+ and registered in the party. You’ll need signatures of 10 supporters (call 215-686-3460 for forms), collected between Valentine’s Day and March 7. Now’s the time to get moving. Make a difference!

Other offices up for grabs this spring: State Committee Member (100 signatures required) and State Assembly Representative (300). Call 717-787-5280 for forms.

No vacancies? Note that none of the current State Assemblymen from Philadelphia have said that they won’t be running again.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 4:08 pm and is tagged as Democrats, Election 2006, Pennsylvania, Philly, Politics, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.