WI Victor: “I ran my campaign without a single yard sign. Not one.”

When Jim Moldenhauer was approached to run for office in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, he didn’t shrink from a fight. Jim chose to challenge the progressive-leaning, hand-picked successor to the retiring incumbent in an Alderman’s race, in a district won by JoAnne Kloppenburg in her attempted defeat of Justice David Prosser.
To make matters worse, Jim became the target of a local progressive organization called Grassroots Tosa.  Every candidate they targeted with their last minute attacks lost, except for one: Jim Moldenhauer.  He overcame direct opposition by applying the lessons he learned from Matt Batzel and Matt Robbins at an American Majority training session in 2011.

“Yard signs don’t get you elected,” Jim says. “I ran my campaign without a single yard sign. Not one.”  AM training showed him where to focus his campaign’s efforts to be the most effective at reaching voters: fundamental door-to-door outreach, trying to win the votes of Democrats and Republicans alike with a common-sense message.

“I want to be a good representative of the people while holding true to the conservative vision that I laid out at the beginning of my campaign,” Jim says.  The most pressing problems Jim’s neighbors faced were high personal property taxes and a nearly 100 year-old sewer system in need of a serious overhaul. Jim says he plans to tackle these problems in a fiscally responsible way.

Jim’s advice to future grassroots activists who want to take the next step and become candidates? ”Be committed. Come up with a compelling vision, and be ready to verbalize it succinctly.”  In addition, Jim says, having handy literature is a big help.  Learn what you need to do to win, and then do it.