SURE-FIRE TIPS FOR A LOCAL CANDIDATE

Recently, I was visiting with a county quorum court candidate between sessions during one of our trainings here in Arkansas.  He had recently been victorious during a tough primary battle against an opponent from a well known family in the county.  After months of strictly out-working his competitor, he was telling me about the challenge he has in winning the general election against yet another, well known individual in the area with strong family ties in the local political arena.

Work hard, but work SMART!

This neophyte candidate was SO excited about reaching every single solitary person in his district.  Since it is a local election, his district is only about 4,000 registered voters strong.  He initially thought that the size would be easy to manage and that with a few months of hard work, he would have reached every single voter.  Therefore, he spent every waking hour when he wasn’t at work running his business, knocking on doors, blanketing neighborhoods with homemade flyers and being sure to place his yard sign wherever his opponent had one staked in the ground. 

As you can guess, he completely wore himself out hitting every house on every block, not knowing who was a regular voter or even if there was a registered voter behind the door he was knocking.  Here are some things you should do to help you work smart!

1.  Get a list of registered voters from your county clerk’s office, that way you know exactly who the voters are in your district
2. Sort them by address and party affiliation so you can easily determine whose house you need to stop by as you are in their neighborhood
3. Remember, no need to encourage folks to vote that aren’t going to be voting for you! If they have your opponents sign in their yard….KEEP WALKING!
4. Deploy those supporters of yours that want to help your campaign! Have them knock on doors in their neighborhood as well.  Volunteers are KEY to success!
5. Arm your volunteers with absentee request forms in case folks are interested in having a ballot mailed to their home.  Be sure to keep a tally of those individuals who were given request forms.  This will be helpful during the last couple weeks of the campaign.

Chase those votes down!

What does it take to win an election?  Well, that is quite simple…all it takes is one more vote than your opponent.  Here are a few tasks to make it all that much easier.

1.  Take a look at the last election cycle’s voter history.  That will give you a decent place to start when determining how many votes you need to be victorious.  Now, once that goal number is decided, you should devise a plan to chase those votes down to the finish line. 
2. Assign someone the task of picking up the voter list for your district every day during early voting.  That way, you can keep track of your voters and determine if they have made it to the polls yet.  This will help you “scrub” your list and keep you from wasting time reminding folks to vote that have already cast their ballot. 

 Election Veterans Provide Useful Information

As we were visiting, I immediately thought about another American Majority candidate alum that has been quite successful.  This particular candidate was baptized by fire a couple of years ago while running for office and has taken our training tips and adapted them quite nicely to work for him for the long term.  Here is one of my favorites that can work like magic when employed correctly.

Mamma’s love those who love their kids…..

We have a local newspaper that reports everything in the county, and I mean everything.  From the Bible Study group that meets at Mrs. Smith’s bakery to the local spelling bee winners to the announcement of the new elementary school principal; everything is in this periodical.  So, why not send a little note congratulating that young couple on the arrival of their new bouncing baby boy? Maybe include a clipping of the article in your correspondence so the proud parents can add that to their scrapbook, memorializing their growing family.  Or the young high school graduate who recently received an academic scholarship to a prestigious college?  Don’t you think she and her parents will be appreciative of someone from her community recognizing her hard work with a handwritten note of commendation?  Of course they will!  In fact, if you send out enough of these small gestures of kindness, every grandmother and parent in the tri-county area will recall your name with praise to every person they know. 

Here’s a suggestion, purchase some nice note cards with your name across the top and a roll of stamps, and you are ready to spread your words of encouragement to your possible constituents at a moment’s notice.

Stay tuned for a few more tips from election veterans in the future.  We all realize that politics is a contact sport and to win, you have to play hard.  However, true campaigners understand the importance of playing smart. 

Check out recent American Majority blogs such as Winning: The Art of Getting It Right and For Candidates, Effort is Everything.  Put all of this together and you will have one heck of a strategy!