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Running for political office is the very essence of being an American.

You don't have to be the smartest man in town, or the richest. 

In smaller communities, many positions go empty because nobody filed.  NOBODY CARED.  In fact, we are often amazed at seeing offices on the ballot that NOBODY HEARD OF. While such offices probably should be eliminated, the fact is that YOU could have taken that position and started your "political career".

Other offices (such as judgeships) are filled, no matter how greatly we would like to see the position eliminated.

But for general purposes, the positions within the reach of most citizens are the town council positions.  They are a great place to start sharpening your teeth.  You quickly learn that your "pronouncement" doesn't immediately become "law" and people don't fall all over themselves just because you say something.  You might be surprised at your otherwise "friends" opposing your idea.  If you take it personally and "get your feelings hurt", your career in politics will be a short one.

Starting out on a town council is where you start building your reputation and people start paying attention if you are demonstrating the ability to accept leadership.  I did not say demonstrate leadership.  There are plenty of Boss Hawg wanna-be's.  This is one area where respect has to be EARNED.

If you think you want to run for political office, you need to do some honest self-evaluation and soul-searching.

Why do I want to run for political office?

What do I hope to accomplish if I get the job?

Can I handle the job if I get it?

Am I interested in the whole job, or am I only going after the job to further my single-issue agenda?

Qualifications: 

It really helps if you can read and write.  You need to be able to read contracts and plan submissions and comprehend what the point is.

You need to be able to express yourself verbally.  You need to be able to construct a sentence "on the fly", have most of the words come out in the right order.  You don't need to be a great orator.  You just need to be able to communicate effectively.

You need to be a LISTENER.  By the very nature of the job, you are the REPRESENTATIVE of your peers who elected you.  You are not a "puppet".  Your peers elected you over the other choices because they perceived your stances to be generally closest to theirs. 

So don't be a "politician" and misrepresent WHAT YOU STAND FOR.  If the people want to elect an EVIL son-of-a-bitch, they will elect an evil son-of-a-bitch.  You don't represent yourself as as a great fella to get elected and then "surprise" the people who elected you.  Of course we all know that's exactly what's been going on.

You have to have a long attention span.  These meetings can be really boring.  Yes, a lot of the business at hand is stuff that absolutely nobody really cares about or wants to do.  That's the "taking care of business" part of the job.

YOU ARE NOT IN THIS FOR SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT.  Being in politics is not that big a deal.  Never get a swollen head over how "important" you are.  Your peers can turn you out quickly.

So have you answered your own questions? 

Do you still want to run?  Or would you rather throw your support behind somebody else?

FILING

Every elected position has a filing period.  You can't file before a certain date and you certainly can't file AFTER the deadline.  Depending on whether it is a city or a county position, you would check with the city or the county clerk's office for the dates.  Don't dally on this point.  If the filing date has passed, you had best spend your efforts helping somebody with close views get elected.

The exception is the write-in candidate.  But write-in candidates seldom garner much support.  Generally, don't waste the effort on a write-in campaign.  Go help someone else's campaign.

PARTY AFFILIATION

It is really handy to have joined a party BEFORE you try to file as a candidate under that party label.  We are recommending Libertarian, Constitution, American, Christian, or several others.  If a viable third party candidate has already thrown his hat in the ring, and if he has a better chance of winning than you do, SUPPORT HIM.  Don't run against him.  He's already your pal.  If there's anything third parties don't need- is more splintering.

It is a popular campaign theme to help people register to vote.  Recommend third parties.  We are tired of being lied to and deceived by the Democrats and Republican.

FILING FEES

There may or may not be a filing fee for the office.

ALTERNATIVE to FILING FEES

You may be able to circulate a nominating petition, and should you gather enough signatures, the filing fee may be waived.

RUNNING FOR OFFICE

Depending on your stature in the community, running for office in a small community may be as simple as putting a few ads in the newspaper and just let all your friends know you are running.  This is especially easy when you are running unopposed.

Running on Character

Gets you as far as it gets you.  Being moral, honest and upright is the object.  If you aren't, run as a Democrat.  Pretending doesn't get you far.

Running on Issues

That's the heartbeat of politics.  If there weren't "issues" we wouldn't need politicians to "fix" them, would we?  There is a fine, almost imperceptible difference between "issues" and "propaganda"

Typical "hotbutton" issues are "services".  Somebody or something is going to "cut" services.  The topic is NEVER some huge stinking pork barrel project that nobody wanted in the first place.  No, it's about the fire department, or the schools.  It is becoming less popular to whine about possible cuts to the police, because everybody is pretty sick of living in a police state.

The truth is, in every government budget, there are some items that the people greatly would like to be eliminated.  You propose to cut that.  The people most opposed to that are the bureaucrats who are making their living from it.  Never underestimate how bureaucrats can effect some sympathy.  Always be on the lookout for "Citizen's Committees for such and such" that are nothing but mouth-pieces for that particular bureaucracy.  Be ready to expose who is behind it and their agenda spin.

What's YOUR Issues?


What message does this image convey to you?

Choose your imagery carefully.

Can you articulate your issues in a manner that will be easily understood?  Keep it Simple Stupid-  KISS.

Too many people want to sound like scholars.  You job is to boil it down to a few, easily understood concepts, images, or phrases.

MASS MAN DOES NOT READ.  You had better make your point in a few well-chosen simple words.  The Demoncrats boiled it down to- "Pro-Choice" or later, just "Choice".  The genius of that is, opposition was automatically "Anti-Choice".

Mass man does not have a long attention span.  You had better make your point in ten seconds or less.

There are a few thinkers who DO read, and DO have long attention spans, so you better have your actual proposal prepared, logically and persuasively.

It helps if you have a trusted advisor to bounce ideas and concepts off of and get his input and perspective.

THE #1 ISSUES-

EDUCATE YOURSELF

Foremost, you have to UNDERSTAND that the entire nation has been deliberately miseducated in government schools.  

Yes, you were too.  So was I.

 

 

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Volunteers

If your campaign for office encompasses a larger area and a larger number of people, you are hardly likely to make much of a showing at the ballot box without Volunteers.  This single subject will make "make or break" your campaign.

Print up yard signs, brochures, bumper stickers, perhaps some lapel buttons and send your volunteers out to place the items.  Your volunteers need to be able to minimally articulate some of the issues, because they ARE the "front line".  If your "representative", and that's what your volunteers really are, cannot relate with people and answer their questions, the potential voter is hugely unlikely to vote for you, let alone allow your yard sign to be put in their lawn.

So you need to spend a great deal of time with your volunteers, so they really DO know you, what you stand for, and can articulate the issues with the public.

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Well-financed campaigns have campaigning down to a science, if you can call it that.  Television advertising.  Lots of it.  You can sell skunks to society ladies with television advertising.  The Democrats sell skunks all the time that way.

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INCOMPLETE!  THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. 

We will be adding to, and editing this page as time goes on.  YOUR CONTRIBUTION to this essay is highly invited.

Send it to the webguy@revoltution2.us