Love local politics? You won’t want to miss Will Higgins’ story in this morning’s Indianapolis Star about the fading power of precinct committeefolk in Marion County.

The once-coveted positions, drained of their influence in this post-patronage era, today go begging in Marion County and across the country. Even as a historic presidential election looms, local Republican and Democratic parties each have about 50 precinct openings. They have had vacancies for more than a decade, but the waning interest is especially startling because in January the number of precincts in the county was reduced from 914 to 590.

The job used to mean constant door-to-door canvassing, voter-registering and sometimes front-porch debating.

These days, not so much. For a variety of reasons — personal safety, increasing reliance on political advertising, expanded voter registration methods — it’s no longer common for precinct committeemen to walk their neighborhoods.

I’d argue that there are still a small handful of powerful PCs in the county, but Higgins is right: They’re a dying breed.

Personally, I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. It just means the parties have to be smarter about recruiting talented, involved people who can carry the message back to their neighborhoods. It’s not enough to rely on yard signs, slate cards and the string-laced field maps of yesteryear. There are new technologies and strategies out there that can make party organization a lot easier; we just have to embrace them instead of clinging to the way we’ve always done things.

Though I’ve got Barack Obama’s groundbreaking, impeccably executed campaign in mind, the lessons learned apply to folks on both sides of the aisle.

After filing his paperwork on Friday to challenge Ed Treacy to become the next Marion County Democratic Party Chair, Sam Carson abruptly withdrew from consideration earlier today.

Treacy is the former Marion County Chair who had been running unopposed until Carson, who is Seventh District Congressman André Carson’s first cousin, threw his name in the mix late last week.

Because the filing deadline has passed for the Wednesday night caucus, this means Treacy will fill out the remainder of current Marion County Chair Mike O’Connor’s term, which ends in March.

At that point, it’s anyone’s guess how many folks will vie for the leadership title.

After several weeks of chatter and behind-closed-doors negotiations, the race to replace Marion County Democratic Party Chair Mike O’Connor has turned into a contest after all.

O’Connor announced he would step down, and it was agreed that former Marion County Chair Ed Treacy would take his place for the remainder of the term, which expires in March. Treacy has the support of Seventh District Congressman André Carson, though it is widely expected that Treacy will give up the leadership position in March to let someone new take over.

Apparently, that whole plan fell by the wayside on Friday when Sam Carson informed county party officials he plans on running against Treacy in the caucus, which will be held this Wednesday night.

Congressman Carson’s supporters have been burning up the phones all weekend to make sure all of the eligible precinct and vice-precinct committeefolks show up at the caucus and vote for Treacy.

Here’s the big catch: If there aren’t enough people at the caucus to satisfy a quorum, the Indiana Democratic Party gets to control the process.

Of course, all of this will be overshadowed if Barack Obama picks Evan Bayh as his running mate this week, but don’t take your eye off the local political scene for too long.

   I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to presidential politics, Hillary Clinton is like a party guest who has overstayed her welcome and needs to go home.
   This Saturday, the Democratic National Credentials Committee will decide what to do with the delegates from Florida and Michigan, the two states which moved their primaries and were punished as a result.     
    Already the democrats’ legal team says the most that could happen is that half the delegates from both states get seated. 
    Hillary says all the votes should count. But that’s like saying someone who robbed a bank should get to keep some of the money.
    The states of Michigan and Florida broke the rules and cut in line in front of a lot of other states, and they should have to live with those consequences.
   I also think it’s funny that Clinton keeps saying she leads in popular vote if you count the two states.  She conviently leaves out the fact that Obama did not campaign in Florida and wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan. 
  And she also leaves out votes in caucus states like Iowa, Nevada, Maine and Washington.

  For Cinton to say she’s the front runner is like my son telling me he was valedictorian in summer school. I told him to go somewhere and sit his rear end down.
  Maybe the democrats will tell that to Hillary.