Political Office

I've been throwing the idea of running for office around since I was old enough to vote. I just don't know where to start. I live in a small town, so Mayor might not even be out of the question, I just don't think I hit the bars hard enough to out the standing Mayor. LOL

Seriously, Does anyone have any experience with running for an office, successfully or otherwise? I was thinking if I went local I might launch a myspace campaign and try to get the young kids not only voting in my town, but voting for ME! LOL (again)

I know of one good website, Fred, if you leave the radio on after Rush Limbaugh, you might know it too. http://www.askheritage.org/ Sean Hannity talks about it a lot. I just don't know how to campaign properly, and wouldn't be very successful just throwing up yard signs and making it a popularity thing.

Any ideas? :major

 

First thing to do is determine exactly which office you want, why you want it, and why you would be better at it than the person currently holding it or anyone else who might run for the same office. Think of it as a massive job interview, but instead of 1-5 people deciding if you get it, several thousand must be convinced.

Second is to check into laws governing advertising and determine exactly how they must be paid for and how the money is to be tracked. Even for something as simple as a seat on the local school board or township board has a ton of rules to go along with it. When I was a high school senior my best friend and I made a yard sign using poster board, markers and a snow fence slat for our government teacher (who was running for the township board), and jokingly put on it "Paid for by friends of D*** W***". He thanked us, and kept it as a memento, but legally he wasn't allowed to display it.

Myspace or Facebook would be a great place to let people know what you're about, but be careful. As many people have discovered (myself included), other people on Facebook can post anything about you and tag it to your page. If there are pictures you'd rather people didn't see from whenever, be aware that anyone at any time could tag you and all your potential supporters could see you smoking a joint at a college party (for instance...I don't know or care if you ever did, I'm just saying).

Since you're in a small town, I would set up appointments to speak at Chamber of Commerce meetings, any public events your town has (concerts in the park or whatever), and anywhere else a bunch of people will be gathered so you can get your message across. If they don't see you, they won't know to vote for you. Public television is always a possibility as well, and if you've got a local newspaper and/or radio station they're usually willing to interview you (which is essentially free advertising).

The most important thing is knowing which office you want, why you want it, and why you think you'd be better than anyone else at it, though. I've won three elections so far in a microcosm rather than a town (my union local), but it works basically the same way.