How to Run for Local Office

by Robert Thomas

Before you design your literature, try to find someone who had copies of literature...

Look over the color schemes and how the litera...

Especially look at the samples that were used by candidates who act...

One of the more common color schemes is white paper with a medium blue ink with a few important words highlighted in red.

This gives your overall color scheme a red, white and blue effect, which is why you will find a lot of literature with this color scheme.

When you are writing your literature, write out the first draft. Then take each paragraph and try to shorten it...

Select the most important issues to place in your literature and then select the best position for those issues.

You cannot fit all the issues in your piece, so pick out the most important ones and make them stand out.

Make your literature simple and co...

You can ask your printer to give you price estimates, but one very costeffective way is to print your literature...

Print it on both sides and fold...

You end up with four areas that are 5...

Use just 20-pound paper, whit...

Picking a colored paper and black ink is sometimes cheaper than using colored ink and can give you the same appeal. Most print shops always have...

If you can afford two colors, such as black and red or blue and red ink on white paper, it does set the literature off and you can use the color to get the v...

Remember, you want the color to make something stand out.

Here is a company to check out and get quotes. The company is called Simply Brochures, Simply Catalogs, and Simply Postcards. Yes, they go by three separate names but they are the same company, just three divisions.

Simply Brochures is 859-0629, Simply Catalogs 859-0649 and Simply...

have two web site addresses for them. The first one is simplybrochures.com and simplypostcards.com. Their physical address is Simply Postcards, 4020 Palos Verdes Dr. Nor...

you will want to mail your first piece of literature about four weeks before Primary Election Day. Your second piece should be mailed out at least one week before Primary Election Day.

Make sure you check on the timing of the post office regarding bulk mail.

you can always use volunteers to hand drop your piece of literature instead of mailing it.

you may want to mail three pieces to all the primary “good voters,” or two pieces to the primary “good voters” and one to all the “good voters,” instead. You will save money in postage costs and get more bang for your buck.

You can also maximize your postage even more by mailing to all the “good voter” households that hold at least two or more voters.

Don’t use envelopes for your short pieces of literature or letters you send out in the campaign.

I have to tell you that when we use tri-folded letters back in 1993 and 1997, we never put the little sticky circles on the tri-folded letters.

there are many ways to save money and to maximize your resources if they are limited.

different handwritten letter!

used red ink,

You may want to only use this tactic in the general election so as not to give the idea to your opponent, but it would work just as well in the primary.

should also do one separate mailing just to what is commonly called the “permanent absentee” voters in both the primary and the general election.

Your database should be set up so that you can sort out the absentee voters as a group and print mailing labels for them.

printer tri-fold

Since the majority of absentee voters are seniors, you will want to mention your support for seniorrelated issues,

Timing is extremely critical here.

pays off to have a contact person in the clerk’s office

If you can’t be sure that you have the correct date, mail them early!

support po...

You generally don’t mail these postcards out yourself. You hand these cards out to your friends, campaign workers and supporters.

write a short personal note to their friends and family and personally sign it.

you will need to put out at least two pieces of literature, and hopefully three, in the general election, to all the “good voters,” as well as one letter to the absentee voters.

when you mail literature in the general election, you have to mail to all the “good voters” on your list, with a few exceptions that I will mention in the next paragraph.

Your last piece of literature in the general should at all costs go to all the “good voters.”

You can adjust your methods and strategy as you go along, but the bottom line is, you must get your message out to the voter one way or another. You do not have a choice if you want to win.

Each time you and your inner circle sit down to write another piece of campaign literature after the campaign is underway, you will ultimately face the decision of whether or not to answer the claims your opponent is making in his or her literature. Your first inclination will be to answer every claim.

The smart candidate will refrain fro...

You can, however, answer some of the most important claims when it pertains to the issues that you are basing your campaign on.

Keep your message consistent and clear so that everyone understands what your positions are.

stick with you...

you do not, the voters may very well consider you more professional in the way you handle yourself and may consider your opponent as a nit picker and someone they don’t trust to lead their community.