Running in 2018? Start Now!

As I've said ad infinitum on this blog, it's never too soon to start your campaign. Going to Holiday parties? Have something to hand out; even a business card with your name and what your running for on it. A remit envelope is handy too. And get those first fundraising letters to friends and family in the mail. Yes, your holiday card list is a good place to start. Why not? Send Aunt Rose a card and tuck a note with a remit into it. She probably doesn't know what to get you for Christmas/Hanukkah anyway.

You're doing her a favor.

Don't be shy. Even at the office party, the neighborhood block part, your union's big do; tell people you're running. They'll be thrilled. And it gives you a chance to practice your elevator speech with a friendly crowd. If you get business cards in return, dash a note on the back to remind yourself how you met and any other pertinent facts about the person, then enter it in your data base as soon as you get home.

Follow up. Your fund appeal letter can go to them; a friendly phone call, or maybe even a lunch scheduled after the holidays, if they seem open to helping out. You never know when you'll meet that next big donor or stellar volunteer.

Above all, have fun, keep it a little bit light in keeping with the season, and know you are getting launched on your next big endeavor.

One week before Election Day. Do you know where YOUR voters are?

It's one week before the big day, and you don't know who is voting for you and you is voting for the other guy? Why not? Because you neglected to do some basic campaign steps back in September.

Mistakes candidates make that leave them in limbo in November:

1. Don't go door to door. If you don't go door, to miss key opportunities to meet actual voters, and, more important, to have them meet you (or your surrogate) and hear your message from a flesh and blood human being. What's more, you don't get a sense if your message is working or not.

2. Don't target and go to more doors than you need to. You've heard me talk about targeting frequent voters ad nauseum. when you're walking precincts, trudging up hill and down dale, you'll soon know why. Some people never vote and no matter how much persuasion you give them, they never will. You're wasting valuable time going to those households, missing the key voters who do vote, and will be likely to vote for you if they hear your message, and that's time you'll never make up.

3. You don't keep good records of who you waked to and what they said. Whoops, you forgot to note the voters' responses on your walk lists. Your volunteers gave you back a stack of completed lists with nothing but check marks on them. This won't happen if you either download the right app and keep your records electronically, or do it the old-fashioned way (I still do), and check the boxes on your walk sheets, Yes, No, undecided, not home.

4. Say, "Glad that's over with" and drop your walk sheets into the receycle bin after the last door has been knocked. Wait. Now you go back and call all your Yes voters and remind them, in the nicest way possible to go to the polls Tuesday. Then, on Tuesday, you and your volunteers physically get down to the polls and check who's voted on your lists. Call the ones who haven't and remind them, gently, but urgently, that now is the time. Of course this applies only to poll voters, and any abseentte voters who may have neglected to mail their ballots in. They can drop them off at any polling station until closing time.

Once all this is done (and your mail went out on time, your website got updated frequently, your ads were all printed, your TV spots delivered), then, and only then, can you relax at your victory party, secure in the knowledge, win or lose, you have run the very best campaign you could possible have, and all your votes are accounted for.

Good luck!

Making Nice

Last night I attended the party for our new Assembly member, Marc Levine. Please note that I worked, although in a minor capacity, for his opponent, Michael Allen, an incumbent whose seat was redistricted this year.  As a progressive Democrat, I naturally gravitated to the more progressive candidate, Allen, whose short term in the Assembly was marked with bills protecting consumers, the mentally ill, farmworkers and much more.  Yes, this was not only a redistricted seat, but the first test of California's "Top Two" primary.  So we had two Democrats running against each other for the coveted new 10th Assembly District, covering all of Marin and some of Sonoma Counties.  To the surprise of many a pundit and political insider, the voters spoke out for the less established, more moderate, Democrat. Or maybe simply against what they perceived to be insider vs. outsider in an era of mucho distrust of government.

More about the actual campaign later.  This is a report on a party, held in a crowded upstairs room of a popular venue in San Rafael.  People lined the stairs to check in.  Young men in short haircuts handed out clipboards for us to sign.  Marc graciously greeted guests at the top of the stairs.  Everyone was checking out the crowd.  There were lots of new faces.  The question that naturally sprung to mind was "How many of these people are Democrats?"  Marc had appealed (wisely it now appears) to independents and even Republicans. 

Some of the old stand-bys were there too.  A couple of County Supervisors, sitting or former City Council members, and the usual partygoers.  I got a drink from the bar and worked the room.  A duet sang folky style "soft rock" music, and guests dined on mini-burgers, crab, oysters, mussels, cheeses, and some healthy veggies.

A newly elected school board member from Sonoma expressed her surprise to see me there.  "We're all Democrats" I said, realizing that wasn't even necessarily true, but since she and I both are, she nodded her understanding.

It became apparent the venue was too small, and fire codes must have been invoked. As I was leaving I ran into our Party chair who said they were not letting anyone up.  Everyone wanted to see the new kid on the block it seemed.

It's a new era, and we all must figure out our place in the political strata.  Looking forward to new campaigns in the coming year.