Time to Start Your Run

Today is the day you start running for office!

Okay, maybe it isn’t, but it is a great day to start thinking about your first run for office. Today is National Run for Office Day and, with all the new candidates motivated by the 2016 election, it is an exciting year for this holiday.

There always appears to be a little spike in the number of people who are talking about running for office as soon as an election ends. They are motivated by seeing people they disagree with get elected, the knowledge and experience they developed during the campaign for someone else, or the fact that they feel that their time to run has finally come. Regardless of their reason, having this national day to encourage and support new candidates is a great way to build on the momentum or begin undoing the losses of the previous election.

So, this post is for all those first-time candidates who know they want to run, but don’t know where to start. This will very briefly touch on two important aspects of deciding to run. There are a lot more, but start with these and see where you end up.

What office are you planning to run for?

The first thing I hear over and over again is “I want to run for office, but I don’t know what for.” This is the first mistake. Running simply to run does not usually result in a well run campaign nor an effective elected official. If you are going to run, it should come from your passion and you should have a purpose. I’m not here to tell you what that passion or purpose should be, but without a passion for the seat you will serve in you will be miserable. Most elected seats carry very few perks and a lot of negatives, so your desire to be an elected official may fade very quickly after the campaign if you don’t have a passion and purpose for seeking the office you are in. The little to no pay, evening meetings, and anger of some (if not all) of your constituents for things that may or may not be under your control makes being an elected official a real challenge and I know very few who do it just for the prestige (spoiler alert: there likely is no prestige), especially at the local level.

So choose a seat that speaks to you. If you have a children or are an educator, you may find that serving on the school board may speak to your personal and/or professional priorities and allows you to make an impact on something that is important to you or that you have knowledge about. If public services (water, roads, police, firefighters, etc.) are a priority for you then city council, township board, or county commission may be the right fit for you. You are a retired civil engineer, maybe county road commission (some are elected in Michigan, others are appointed, check with your clerk to find out) is where your expertise can be best used. Find that fit for you. If you are unable to find an office that fits you, then maybe running for office isn’t the best option for you.

However, there are other ways to serve that those new to politics sometimes overlook, appointed boards and commissions. Most counties, townships, and cities have numerous appointed boards and commissions that cover a wide-variety of issues: building commissions, safety review boards, municipal airport boards, mosquito control boards, public housing commissions, compensation boards, etc. Basically, if there isn’t an elected seat that fits you, then there is probably an appointed seat somewhere that will. This is a way to serve that only requires a vote of the governmental body overseeing the boards. For those apprehensive about putting their name on the ballot, this can be a way to support the community without going through that process. Boards and commissions are also a great way to get experience and knowledge about your local government before you decide to run for an office.

Are you willing to make the commitment?

Every potential candidate believes they are willing to make the commitment to run for office, but they often make that assessment without knowing what the true commitment is. When reality hits belief, the commitments of a campaign and being an elected official can be more than someone is willing to take on.

So first, we’ll start with the campaign commitment. Now, this varies hugely based on the office you run for, the competitiveness of any opposition, and the size of the community you are running in, but the basics boil down to time and money.

Every candidate has to put in time. This isn’t just the time to go to candidate forums, but taking the time to go to meetings, knock doors, and, if needed, raise money. If you have never attended a meeting of the body you want to join, it is time you start. Going to meetings of the city council you wish to join gives you insight into how the body operates and what issues it is dealing with. You can get to know the views and personalities of other members who may still be on the body when you join it and members of the community who regularly attend these meetings. All of this will help you understand what you are getting yourself into, if successfully elected, and make you more informed as you do outreach to voters. In addition to attending the meetings of the body you wish to join, you should, and may sometimes be invited, attend political party meetings, neighborhood association meetings, retire meetings, union meetings, community groups, and any number of community events where you can do outreach to and get your name in front of your likely voters. In many races, you could eat up every evening and weekend just by attending meetings, however, you’ll also need that time for canvasing your district.

Every candidate should be knocking doors or canvasing their district. No matter what. Even if unopposed. This is the most effective way to get your message out, get voters to know who you are, and increase your likelihood of winning. It is time consuming and can be a real challenge to get a hang of, but it must be done. If you are not knocking doors, assume you will lose. This doesn’t mean go out and knock doors the weekend before the election, but going and knocking regularly. Your goal should be to at least knock all of your voters’ doors at least once, preferably multiple times, over the course of the campaign. Depending on the size of your community this could take days, weeks, or months and the number of volunteers helping you could impact this significantly (don’t forget to make time to or find someone to manage and train your volunteers). Plan accordingly and make knocking a part of your campaign routine. The ideal times to knock are in the evening and weekends when voters are more likely to be home. This means you will lose your evenings and weekends at home with your family. If you aren’t willing to give up this time, running for office is not for you.

Raising money is dependent on the size of your race and your ability to fund your campaign. Even a small campaign costs money. Yard sign, a door flier, a mailer, and feeding volunteers can add up quickly. It doesn’t take long before you have $1,000 sunk into a race. Even a competitive small town race can cost a few thousand dollars to run successfully. If you don’t have $3,000 you can kick into your campaign, then you’re going to need to raise it and, unfortunately, fundraising is time consuming. A large fundraiser costs initial investment and planning that will hopefully result in a net gain, but determining a location, arranging for food and drink, creating an invite list, and sending invites will take longer and cost more than you think. As a result, your fundraisers need to be successful to both cover the costs of the initial investment and to leave your campaign with additional funds you can use for your voter mobilization efforts. Think a campaign fundraiser event is too much of an investment of time and money, you can go the route of cold calling family, friends, coworkers, college and high school acquaintances and asking them to send you checks. This may require a cheaper initial investment, but will take significantly longer. Ultimately, understand that the campaign will have to spend some money.

All this only covers the campaign side of things, this only gets worse if elected and even worse if elected and running for reelection. So recognize the full commitment you are making if you decide to run.

General Tips

Here are a couple general campaign tips I like to share. They don’t all tie directly to the topics discussed above, but I think they are good to put in a candidate’s head early on in the process.

• Your time will not be your own while running or once elected. The campaign schedule can be grueling and unforgiving and, once an elected official, your time becomes part of the public’s interests. However, plan time away. Take a few days mid-campaign to have family time or a vacation and plan some time for after the campaign is over. This can help cope with the stress of running and give some time to focus on family and personal relationships that may become strained over the course of the campaign.
• Most candidates lose because they don’t do the work. They decide that they don’t like knocking doors or raising money so they don’t do those things. Campaigns are comprehensive and if you aren’t willing to do what they require, you can’t expect to win. Learn to do all aspects of what a campaign requires. You may not be the best at all of it at the beginning, but by the end of the campaign you will have mastered the basics of even the parts you don’t like.
• Yard signs don’t vote, so don’t go overboard on them, but no yard signs make people feel like you aren’t campaigning and frustrates supporters that want a sign to put in their yard. Buy them, but buy as few as you can justify.
• Never knock doors without something to hand the voter or leave in their door. Voters will not remember your name or what you said and that flier will act as a reminder even if they only look at it once while throwing it in the recycle bin. Also, if no one is home, they will never know you were there or who you are if you don’t have something to leave on the door.
• Be aware of campaign finance law. In Michigan, it is pretty simple if you raise and spend less than $1,000. If you exceed that, talk to someone who knows the rules. Campaign finance is the one area of campaigns where messing up can result in fines and potential jail time for the candidate and treasurer. Don’t mess it up.

Like I said above, this is the briefest of overview and there is a lot more to consider and steps to take if you plan to run. We need more high quality candidates and I hope more people will begin the process of considering their run for office.

If you’ve looked through this and still are thinking about running or have questions about anything above, feel free to comment on the post and we can begin a discussion on what else it takes to run.

Happy Campaigning!