The AZGOP recent decision to close two popular offices in Maricopa County was initially met with alarm, but help is now on the way.
AZGOP Chairman Kelli Ward recently announced the closures of the southern Phoenix office that was home to Latinos for Trump, as well as the Sun City (“West Valley”) office that has been in place for the better part of a decade. She claimed the offices were poorly run and a bad use of the party’s limited resources.
That sent West Valley district chairmen and activists scrambling, and the concern about the Party’s poor financial position in the lead up to the 2022 election has sparked an official effort to save the West Valley office.
LD21 GOP Chairman Johnny Melton announced the launch of the effort in a press release and on social media.
“I heard from a lot of people who wanted to save our office and two of them, Sergio Arellano and Constantin Querard, told me that they would start a formal push to raise the money we needed to keep the office going.” said Melton.
Arellano is a well-known GOP leader in Southern Arizona who was nearly elected State Chairman in a contentious and questionable AZGOP election earlier this year. Querard is a long-time conservative consultant whose stable of clients dominates the conservative ranks at the Arizona Legislature.
“That office has been an important piece of our GOTV efforts for a lot of years, and it is home base for a great group of volunteers who want to remain active and involved. So we want to save it and keep good things happening there.”
“It is a great location that voters and volunteers are both familiar with, and it will be critically important as we gear up for the 2022 elections.” said Querard, who pointed out that “there is virtually no off-season in politics anymore and the work has already begun on protecting Republican held offices like Governor, Treasurer, etc while taking back offices like the U.S. Senate seat, the Secretary of State’s office, and more. So we don’t want to wait until 2022 to open offices in high traffic and deep red districts like that one.”
Their goal is to raise $25,000 to keep the office open through the 2022 election, leaving its future beyond that up to whoever is next elected party chairman. Arellano and Querard have also each pledged $1,000 to kick the effort off, and both they, Melton, and other groups and leaders, will be promoting the cause and soliciting contributions to help the LD21 Republicans reach the goal.
“It is awesome that they’re stepping up like this and I’m encouraged by others that are also indicating a willingness and desire to help out. Contributions of any size are welcome and appreciated at LD21.org.” said Melton.