Determining Which Office to Run For!!

You always hope your volunteers and staff will do more than they do and some will drop out, unavoidably. You can only ask and be grateful for whatever they do. On the other hand, the efforts of others may overwhelm you. Even though you need all the help you can get, resist the temptation to accept the help of the eager, rabble-rouser type person, or you will suffer for it later.

You should begin each campaign with clear-cut rules and philosophies about organizational principles and teamwork. This is not easy with those who are not being paid and unless it is a national level campaign, no one gets paid . . . not even you. Even harder is balancing relationships between the professional staff, the volunteers and the party. They must stay focused to the task at hand, which is getting you the party's endorsement and if successful at obtaining that, on to winning the seat you are aiming for.

To run for a mayoral or city commission seat, all you need to do is obtain a petition from the city auditor and get a certain specified number of people sign your petition. You can also just pay a specific fee amount and get on the ballot without having to do the work of getting the petition signed. Those are relatively easy ways of getting your name on the ballot.

In district, state and national level races, you must win the endorsement of the party. Running as an independent in a primary to attain a spot on the ballot is most of the time an impossible task. This means that you must lay the groundwork with your party people. In essence, before you can run for office you must run for the endorsement. You must sell yourself to the party and the people who will be your greatest support. If you lose this part of the campaign, your endorsement, you will not be running in a campaign for public office.

Next week — Once you're endorsed, the work really begins!

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