How to Run for Local Office

by Robert Thomas

“So, if this community can find it in their hearts to elect me as their mayor, I promise that I will wear that suit. I promise that I will attend all those important meetings. I promise that I will make those important and tough decisions regarding our community. But most importantly, I promise to never forget why I am doing it. I will be doing it for the people in this...

that trust. Thank you and I will be more than happy to answer any questions t...

Make sure that you have a few supporters mingled with the reporters and have them ask you about some of the most important issues facing your community and since you will already know what questions will be asked, you will have a great response. Some might call that cheating but I call it good strategy. Besides, you opponent will be doing it and he or she will have...

have a few supporters mingled with the reporters and have them ask you about some of the most important issues facing your community and since you will already know what questions will be asked, you will have a great response. Some might call that cheating but I call it good strategy. Besides, you opponent will be doing it and he or she will have som...

YOUR DA...

You need to create your database of what I will consistently refer to in this...

most important part of your campaign database is the “good voters.”

I learned early on in my first campaign how important my database was, and I made sure that I created it right the first time.

TARGETING THE VOTERS

“good voter” often throughout this book. He or she is the voter who will most likely vote in the election...

These are the people I considered most likely to vote in the next election for mayor. These are the people who I sent literature out to. These are the people I visited at their doorstep to ask for their support.

You might think that this is unusual and only happens in my community but you would be amazed at how common it is to see such low voter turnouts at local elections all across this country.

This is what is referred to as targeting the voter.

If you want the best odds at winning your election, you must target your voters.

You also need to ask for the voter history.

use this information to your advantage by saving time and money while increasing your odds at winning your election or reelection.

When getting your data, ask the clerk’s office for a list of precincts and how many people voted in the last election for the office you are running for.

Ask for several copies of the precinct maps for your community.

they are also available at the engineering department or at the department of public works.

You will need these maps to determine the location and boundaries of each precinct and you will need these maps for walking door-todoor as well as for your sign crews.

elections department should have the data for each ward or district.

Get the number of registered voters in each precinct and compare it with the number of people who actually voted in each precinct and you will get a percentage of registered voters who voted in the last election in each separate precinct.

An election can be won or lost based on what I call voters per footfall.

do you want to walk; or do you want to win!

Stick with the “good voters.”

Just check the data at your clerk’s office.

There are other data companies where you can get voter information for your community or any city, township, village, county or state. These are national database companies and they can tell you many other things about the voters in your community, like which ones have donated to a campaign and how much they donated.

There are dozens of politically based Internet web sites out there that will have a long list of services that they can provide your campaign including GOTV, literature, consulting, etc.

The point here is; how smart is it to spend a lot of money and effort on people who are not going to vote in the election you are going to run in espe...

All you would have to do is convince them that your product is the one to buy! Well, selling your candidacy to the voter is much the same.

You have to convince the voter that you are the better choice,

If you stop at every house, and your opponent stops at only the houses that contain people who vote, and you both have the same amount of time invested, your opponent will most likely defeat you!

Here is another good reason to target your voter and skip the non-voters. For some reason, and I do not know the answer as to why, but in most cases, the non-voter will take up more of your time talking to you when you stop at their house.

The fact remains that if you stop at the non-voter’s house, you will probably spend four times as much time as you would at a good voter’s house.

Good voters are generally well informed about what has been going on in their community, and they read up on the issues and candidates, so you don’t need to spend much time with them. In many cases, they will tell you within the first three minutes who they are going to vote for. If it is not you, thank them for listening and get moving to the next stop.

So, now that you have the list, how will you use it? Find an off-the-shelf program to utilize it such as Microsoft Access or Excel or any of a dozen other programs to manipulate the data. I have used Microsoft Access along with Microsoft Excel in the Microsoft Office package. You can transfer the records ba...

find one of your volunteers who understands about computers and database programs and they will gladly donate some time to setting it up so that it works easily for you. Make sure it is someone you can trust. Remember, this person is going to know everything about your database. Do this early ...

recommend getting your database set up in the computer early enough to print out a few copies of your walking lists and a few sets of mailing labe...

Make sure that you do test runs on everything that you will print out from the database. Now that you have this very powerful tool, let’s get into how you are going to actually use it to print walking lists, mailing labels, etc.

The most important thing you will do as a candidate, especially in your first run for office, since you will be an unknown candidate, is go walking door-to-door introducing yourself and asking voters for their support in the election.

will need walking lists with the names and addresses of a...

you’re printing out precinct one. You want to print it out by street alphabetically, and the addresses going either up or down. Also, ask for a page break between each street; that way you can hand out one or more streets to an individual.

The birth year in the last column is important information. The older a voter is, the more likely they are to vote and to be what is called an absentee voter; one who votes by mail.

Absentee voters can make up as much as 30 percent of all votes cast in any election, and on the average they are 55 and older.

Spend a little more effort and time with these “young” seniors—it will pay off later.

You should have your system set up so that you can print out labels for just one street, one age group, absentee voters, one precinct, several streets, an entire subdivision or the entire community.

You might consider postcard mailing since it is cheaper than regular first class mail. The only drawback is that you can only put so much on a postcard. Postcards make great intro pieces and last minute reminders and work well in other situations, but you should not try to use postcards for your entire campaign.

I would recommend that you use some postcards, some literature that goes out bulk mail and tri-folded letters that go out first class.

WALKING DOOR-...

This is, by far, the single most important thing that you, the candidate, w...