How To Run For Office

From dKosopedia, the free political encyclopedia.
Information on running for office: state, county, local, what have you...

Table of contents
1 Candidate
2 The Campaign
3 Strategy
4 Campaign Plan
5 Tips & Ideas
6 Local Elections
7 Federal Elections
8 State Specific Elections

Candidate

Running for office is something everyone can do; yet unexplored by many. The breakdown of Candidate requirements is usually Age and nationality. The Constitution, Article I specifically sets precedence for federal elections as follows:

President: Natural-born U.S. citizen, age 35 or older, and you must have lived in the country for at least 14 years.

Senate: Must be at least 30, have at least nine years of U.S. citizenship and be an inhabitant of the state they represent at the time of the election.

Congress: No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.

The Campaign

The Basic elements of a campaign are:

* Candidate: Person running for Office/Position.
* Treasurer: Manager of Campaign finances and responsible for FEC reporting.
* Campaign Manager: Overall management of campaign, candidate and activities.
* Campaign Plan: Your "Plan of Attack" that defines your message, your campaign and your goals.

It isn't uncommon to have a core campaign manager and a committee of people who help manage activities and ideas.

Netroots: Using the internet networking and community building to build an online presence of campaign supporters. No geographical importance necessary.

Grassroots: A focus on person to person networking focused on efforts based around individuals and participation of constituents in campaign. Usually geographically local to candidate or election. During large elections it isn’t uncommon for supporters & volunteers of grassroots organizations to be bussed around to the areas in need of support.

“Roots” based campaigning is truly gathering of the community spirit and support to help your efforts.

Strategy

Key elements to any campaign are to develop a strategy that connects you with the voters on what is important to you and your bid for office. Many times candidates focus entirely on the issues as they think others view them and are such labeled as "flip floppers" or "opportunists".

Campaign Plan

Writing a plan is one of the most important parts of a successful campaign. "Unless it is in your plan, it doesn't exist". Campaign plans are a living document, but do be concerned with a solid document that is the foundation of your campaign.

The core elements of a Campaign plan are:

* Budget
* Fundraising
* Message Development
* Research
* Targeting
* Paid Media
* Earned Media
* Scheduling
* Direct contact with public
* Volunteer Organization
* Visibility
* GOTV
* Structure & Responsibilities
* Timeline

Don't over-stretch yourself or your plan. Be sure to focus on your audience, focus on your message and be consistent.

Speeches:

Let's face it, you are putting yourself into the limelight as a candidate and will undoubtedly need to make speeches. Often times this can create a sense of anxiety or fear for many but with a little help, practice and experiences you can give speeches that will win people over.

A good speech and way to speak you message will contain the following elements:

Characters & Conflict - Describe characters, the conflict(s) they must deal with and triumph as related to your message.
Obstacle - Show how the characters approached whatever obstacle they were facing in an effort to overcome it.
Resolution - Tell your listeners how it turns out.
Ending - Tie the resolution back to the main point, idea of objective of your message.

Remember these elements as "CORE".

This concept translates well from Business to Pleasure and all the way through politics and stump speeches. You get your message across by being sincere, telling the story,the WHOLE story and how everything turns out. You give your speeches with the idea you represent something that has a relationship to those you speak to. Win people over with some sincerity and relevance to the office you are running for by telling stories and speeches with these CORE elements.

Other Speech Tips:

* Relate personal stories to your message.
* Learn to flow with the listeners. Be creative, funny and witty within constraints of being yourself.
* Be yourself!

Fundraising

The hardest thing for any candidate to do is to ask for money. Don't let this scare you away from running for office. In all honesty there are a lot of people who are more than willing to contribute, even money they don't have, to your campaign if they believe in the message that you are sending.

Campaign fundraising limits:

contriblimits.jpg

Tips & Ideas

While there are as many methods and strategies for running as there are candidates, here are some external sources that can help.

Wellstone Action (http://wellstone.org), and Camp Wellstone. Named after the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN).

The Center for American Progress (http://www.americanprogress.org)

Move On (http://www.moveon.org/front/); their book 50 Ways to Love Your Country is a must anyways, whether you're running for office or not.

Progressive Majority (http://progressivemajority.org/)

The Creative America Project (http://creativeamerica.us) is about inspiring and training artists and creative professionals to assume leadership positions in civic life, including running for local office.

How to Win a Local Election (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0871317664/104-3199721-5596700?v=glance), a book by Lawrence Grey. A step-by-step guide, with checklists, calendars, and plenty of good information.

Local Elections

Local Elections can be anything from municipal, school board, county and state elections. These are considered the grass roots campaigns that set precedence for the groundwork of the Democratic platform.

Registration for local elections varies greatly upon your district, municipality and state laws.

Federal Elections

Federal elections are held on even number years during the first thursday of november.

How do I register as a candidate?

If you are running for the U.S. House, Senate or the Presidency, you must register with the FEC once you (or persons acting on your behalf) receive contributions or make expenditures in excess of $5,000. Within 15 days of reaching that $5,000 threshold, you must file a Statement of Candidacy FEC Form 2 (http://www.fec.gov/pdf/forms/fecfrm2.pdf) authorizing a principal campaign committee to raise and spend funds on your behalf. Within 10 days of that filing, your principal campaign committee must submit a Statement of Organization FEC Form 1 (http://www.fec.gov/pdf/forms/fecfrm1.pdf). Your campaign will thereafter report its receipts and disbursements on a regular basis. Campaigns should download the Campaign Guide for Congressional Candidates (http://www.fec.gov/pdf/candgui.pdf) for more information on the laws that apply to them.

FEC (http://www.fec.gov) : Federel Election Commission - Campaign finance laws.

State Specific Elections

These guides are geared towards state issues and specific election laws. These will be moved to the individual state pages unless there is something that sets precedence across the board.

California Offices

Illinois Offices

Pennsylvania: Running for Office

South Carolina Offices

Florida Offices

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This page was last modified 10:30, 31 Aug 2005. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.