The Catoosa County Republican Party convention is scheduled for Saturday morning in Ringgold.
Beginning at 9 a.m. at Patriot Hall, 320 Emberson Drive, registered voters can caucus with others from their precinct to elect delegates to the county convention that begins at 10 a.m., the party's chairwoman, Joanna Hildreth, said in a phone interview.
Precinct delegates will elect party officers and the executive committee. The county convention also elects delegates (and alternates) to party district and state conventions.
The fee for the convention is $15, and registration begins at 8 a.m. Those who attend only the precinct caucus will have their registration fee refunded. The fee is charged to cover the cost of the convention, the party's website said. Photo identification is required to participate.
County party resolutions will also be considered, Hildreth said. Around five are being considered, including one designed to protect firearm ownership from federal intrusion, but Hildreth said resolutions can still be presented from the floor Saturday. Resolutions are policy positions the party would like to see enacted.
Seeking a second two-year term as county party chairwoman, Hildreth said she wants to build on the work the current team of party leadership has accomplished. She has no known opposition.
Attendance at county party meetings has increased about fivefold, she said, a get-out-the-vote operation was organized for May's general election, and the county party is organizing on the precinct level as well.
"For the first time since I've been participating with the party, and that's been 11 years, we've had a full-fledged get-out-the-vote campaign from August through the runoff," Hildreth said.
Every weekend plus other dates, she said, party volunteers were out knocking on doors, phone banking and writing postcards to potential voters.
Joanna HildrethThe county party staffed poll watchers at precincts for the primary and general election and hosted a fundraiser for the county party, Hildreth said.
There's been an upswell of attention on county government due to a recent property tax increase and plans to regulate backyard chickens, issues important to Hildreth as someone who focuses on local government. During her work on local political issues over the years, she said she's invited people to participate in the county's Republican Party.
There was also an influx of participation into the county party after former President Donald Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020, she said. Hildreth said if heavily Republican areas like Catoosa County are only focused on the fact that Republicans will always win there, they're not thinking of the big picture statewide.
"We're the red counties, and we need to turn out the vote to offset what's happening in those heavily populated urban (Democratic) areas," she said.
When she first got involved, Hildreth said, she didn't understand the party process and it didn't seem accessible. But over time, she said, she found the party was open to anyone who believes in Republican principles and wanted to get involved.
(READ MORE: Catoosa County, Georgia, residents suggest cuts to avoid property tax increase)
Jeff Holcomb, a vice chairman of the Catoosa County Republican Party in the late 1990s, owns a security company and works part-time in law enforcement. He said he is concerned that some of the county party's leadership are libertarians working through the Republican Party because it's the only game in town.
Holcomb said he's talked to Catoosa County libertarians who voted for the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate in 2020, Jo Jorgensen, who won about 1% of the vote in Georgia. Holcomb said those votes could have helped Trump secure a win over Democrat Joe Biden.
Holcomb said he wants to get the party back to traditional Republican leadership and would like to see the county party address issues like legalization of cannabis, abortion and preserving the traditional family.
Even though Holcomb is critical of how the county party is being run, he said he's not interested in getting involved or attending the convention Saturday. The county party is just a place where political factions argue and fight, without accomplishing much, he said.
Marshall Bandy was one of 20 who established Catoosa County's Republican Party in 1984 and was the party's first chairman when he was 19. Now, he's a semi-retired attorney with a practice in Ringgold.
In 1984, Republican Ronald Reagan ran for his second presidential term, defeating Democrat Walter Mondale with the biggest landslide victory in U.S. history.
Bandy said he thinks there are three factions in today's Catoosa County politics: the country club Republicans, officials who have enjoyed the relationship between business and government; libertarians, who are focused on personal liberty who don't want to make laws about morality and think laws should only keep one from interfering with another's rights; and those who think that laws originate from God, first laid out in the Bible.
He said he's not interested in getting involved in party politics because it's basically a one-party county, but he thinks a party platform can be a powerful tool. Policies like zoning laws and elected school and utility boards became law in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bandy said, because the county party held candidates accountable to those points in the platform.
When asked if he thought county party leadership needed change, Bandy said in a follow-up interview that no matter who leads, the Lord is in charge. Referencing the book of Daniel, he said, "The reason God selects the lowest and basest is because he wants us looking to Him and not them (leaders) to worship."
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.