Do we have any public servants amongst us? Or wannabe public servants? Mayors? School Board trustees? City council persons? County executives?
If so, what was your (most recent) campaign like? Why did you run? Any aspiration for higher office? Do you consider yourself a “politician,” or just someone who wanted to make a difference because of some specific issue?
More questions to come if there prove to be any politicians amongst us…
Happy
matt_mcl has run, and will again, I suspect. He’s in Montreal and way left of me. Decent chap in person, though.
I served 9 years on my local school board, including 1 term as Board president.
So there. 
I served 9 years on my local school board, including 1 term as Board president.
I ran in order to help control spending. In N.J., most of the cost of schools is paid by local property tax, and my town’s taxes were going through the roof, creating a severe problem for those on limited incomes.
I also worked to advance programs for the intellectually gifted, although heaven knows there will never be as much spent on them as on the athletically gifted or the intellectually challenged.
Received the help of a good many of the local Republican party members, but the SB elections themselves are non-partisan (no party affiliation on the ballot, and run at a completely different time than all other elections.
No, I didn’t – and don’t – consider myself a politician. I’d be a rather poor one if it came to that.
I served 9 years on my local school board, including 1 term as Board president.
I ran in order to help control spending. In N.J., most of the cost of schools is paid by local property tax, and my town’s taxes were going through the roof, creating a severe problem for those on limited incomes.
I also worked to advance programs for the intellectually gifted, although heaven knows there will never be as much spent on them as on the athletically gifted or the intellectually challenged.
Received the help of a good many of the local Republican party members, but the SB elections themselves are non-partisan (no party affiliation on the ballot, and run at a completely different time than all other elections.
No, I didn’t – and don’t – consider myself a politician. I’d be a rather poor one if it came to that.
Only two??
Anyone else? Beuller? Beuller?
This is my first term on the town council in my area. As the youngest member at 33, I am heavily involved with education and school building readiness. As an instructor at a local school, I am well equipped to gripe to the mayor about increased education spending and lower property tax’s. With the Advent of Proposition 13 in California, my little state may yet have a chance!
And Happy - thats [Ben Stein Voice] Bueller…Bueller[/Ben Stein Voice].
Oh and no, I do not consider myself a politician, and no I do want want to seek higer office, waaay too busy. So in a year I will either say it was fun and leave the seat, or continue… This year is pretty tough. Especially because there is a defense plant in my town…
I ran for president of my class in high school once, but that’s about it. My signs said “For a good time, call 1-800-VoteB____.” I know, I know, it’s not real politics, but I’m amused by my signs, anyway.
I dated someone who was a State Representative. Does that count?
I’m the campaign manager for Henry Lane. MLS sounds like he ran for the same reason Henry is - our property taxes are going through the roof and our current school administration refuses to monitor their spending.
In odd years, they need a simple majority of voters to approve a raise of the property tax rate (don’t know off the top of my head what they need in even years, but its more than a simple majority). In even years, they need a simple majority to pass a bond issue. Every year since 1992 (except for the reassessment year - 1999) they’ve had either a property tax rate increase or a bond issue on the ballot. They have a 19-cent property tax rate increase on the ballot again this year when everyone else is cutting - its outrageous!
The reason I’m working with Henry on his campaign is because I feel they have enough money and they need to manage their spending better. Spending has increased 48% in the past few years but enrollment has only increased 3% during that same period of time. That’s just crazy.
MLS, any words of wisdom you could provide campaign-wise would be greatly appreciated as we go into crunch-time. Election day is April 8th.
I ran for student council president in High School, does that count? (It wasn’t a very serious campaign, and I ended up disqualified.)
sperfur,
I’ll try to give you some thoughts, but bear in mind that my experience was a couple of decades ago!
First, the folks most likely to be hurt by the tax increases are senior citizens on fixed incomes. If there is a retirement community or a senior citizens’ club, try to see if the candidate can visit them at a meeting and talk about the election, pointing out, of course, that he is in favor of holding down costs. If any of your backers are members of a political organization that supports your point of view, try to get a chance for the candidate to speak to them, to, or have your supporters talk up the candidate among them.
Very few people turn out for things like school board and local council elections. Most of the voters in s.b. elections will be PTA members who care most – understandably – that the programs and so on that they want be provided. A rather small number of people can make a big difference.
Don’t know how it is in your state, but here, although the administration proposes a spending plan, the s.b. has to approve or disapprove it, so the s.b. has to be accountable for that unless they are just a rubber stamp group. Same goes for local council members. You could check whether the superintendent or other administrator has a real juicy fat salary or other goodies, and if so, the candidate can point out that HE/SHE would NEVER have voted for that.
We did a lot of personal contact. Had flyers printed up and we distributed them door to door on the Sunday and Monday right before the election. (But don’t put them IN rural delivery mailboxes. If somebody reports you to the USPS they will make you pay first class mail postage on them all.)
The PTA or some such organization may have a candidates’ night. You have to go or you will get slammed. But don’t count on picking up many votes; most people in attendance will be the candidates’ friends, family, and other supporters, and already know who they want to vote for. Get your guy’s friends and supporters to turn out, too, and plant the right questions; if there’s a newspaper reporter there it may get in the paper.
Get people that you know to write letters of support to the local newspaper.
You are probably entitled to a copy of the official list of registered voters. Pick out the neighborhoods where you believe you have strength, and on election day have people personally telephone voters in those neighborhoods to remind them to vote for your candidate. Offer to give them a lift to the polling place.
We were fortunate in that the local Senior Citizens’ club met on Tuesdays, which was the day of the election. So supporters would go to the club meeting and offer a ride to the polls for anyone who needed one.
In my case, the town is separated into several voting districts. We got copies of the election results by district for previous years and found out from that where the people were who tended to vote against spending or for candidates that ran on that kind of platform. Then we targeted those neighborhoods to get out the vote. We found that apartment complexes were usually not worth the trouble. Most apartment dwellers don’t recognize that higher taxes push their rents up, and besides, many of them don’t care a lot about local issues. Some, but not many.
Don’t know if you still have time, but if any of the opposition is known to have supported anything that’s especially costly, one can appeal to those on limited budgets by pointing out that they are clipping coupons and eating tuna out of cans while these kids are getting a new swimming pool or whatever because so-and-so voted for it. That kind of thing. Find specific examples of overspending if you can.
Hope this helps!
Perfect timing. I’m participating in this year’s school board election process, and I have been seriously thinking about running in 2005. I’ll keep popping in here for advice
A few questions for those who have run:
Thanks,
Happy
I think this is absolutely wonderful. Kudos to those of you who have served or are serving now.
I confess that I used to think local and state politics were just trivial, and that if anything such positions were like the Minor Leagues for the real stuff at the national level. I came to realize how moronic and ill-informed that viewpoint that was.
If you want to have a real opportunity to personally make positive changes and improve the quality of life for your neighbors–and see the results firsthand–local and state politics is where it is at. It might be poorly paid and have few perks, but it is true service and I admire you.
CrankyAsAnOldMan:
Absolutely. In NJ, for example, the school budget makes up the majority of the local property tax burden, and almost no one votes on the budget or the school board members.
In response to Happy Lendervedder:
It is really important to check on campaign financing rules. I used to know what they were for my situation, but I am sure they have changed. They are going to be different everywhere anyhow.
Don’t know about a campaign manager per se, but it is very important to have a group of people to help. You really can’t do it by yourself.
I ran 3 times, each for a 3-year term and won each time, but every time it was by a smaller number! The last time I think I won by 6 votes, so I stopped. Besides which, I was going back to full-time employment and no longer had time. I think average number of votes for any one candidate then in my town was about 1000. I don’t remember any more what the population of the town was, but we had something like 5 or 6 elementary schools, one junior high/middle school and a fairly large high school. Like I said, an awful lot of money was controlled by very few people.
I don’t know of any books, websites, etc. The best resource for me was the experience of others who had done this before, who also happened to be the ones encouraging me to be involved. At the time it was very difficult to even get willing candidates.
I was glad to have had the experience and I like to think I made at least a small difference. But it WAS a LOT of time, and no pay, and the school board is one place where there is little or no opportunity for graft 
since every contract was awarded via sealed bid.
As long as Gray Davis is on office, we don’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell. Why the hell does he think it’s a SMART thing to cut community college funding, yet increase funding for UC and CSU students? The rich get richer, the poor get poorer in CA.
Recall Davis!
[/rant]
Thank you MLS for your helpful suggestions. Many of the things you’ve suggested we are already doing (analyzing voting districts/voter statistics, showing up at every candidate forum and lining up other opportunities for Henry to speak at meetings and before groups, etc.) A reporter from the local newspaper is assigned to each candidate throughout the election season (MU has a large communication program here, so there’s lots of reporters), so Henry has had many newspaper articles written about him and his campaign.
This is the fifth year in a row Henry has run (the last four elections, he’s lost - by a lesser margin each year, but still…). This is my first year on his campaign and I’m hoping to change many of those negatives he’s encountered into positives. We’ve changed our focus in several areas because what he’s been doing just hasn’t been working for him.
Also on the ballot this year is the decriminalization of marijuana, which we are expecting to bring record number of people to the polls (both for and against) that don’t ususally vote. Those markets I’m targeting with heavy radio advertising. (Of course, we’re not mentioning the marijuana initiative in our ads - I don’t even know how Henry feels about it, frankly.)
Happy Lendervedder, Henry has been his own campaign manager in past elections. He still does much of the work. He also made mistakes in the beginning that have hurt him but I think those same mistakes made in good financial times may actually help him now that people are getting fed up with a tax increase every year, worried about layoffs and seeing cuts to all other forms of government.
I’ve gotten his website up and running, talked him out of buying cheap ads on cheap radio stations and running ads in the paper - those are the voters he’s been advertising to for the past four years and their minds are (IMO) already made up. He needs to reach new markets.
On my suggestion, we had our first ever fundraiser (I keep saying ‘our first’ even though this is my first year working with Henry) on January 23rd. A long time supporter catered and excellent meal, Henry sang and danced :eek: (he was great - I worried about it for nothing) and we performed a few comedy skits for the audience. It was a huge success and Henry met his girlfriend there. (Wow!)
I’ve changed the tone of the campaign (not single-handedly, of course, but I helped get the ball rolling) from what we can’t do and what was done wrong in the past to what we can do and what we will accomplish. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, my attitude and involvement have caused a few long time supporters to drop out of active participation in Henry’s campaign. Some details after the election if you want them - but I feel the loss might have been a good thing. Sometimes people can bring you down and you don’t even know it - and sometimes a ‘we’ll take anybody that wants to participate (and let them stay no matter how negative/controlling/hateful/etc they are)’ policy is not the best idea.
So, the short answer to your question is: campaign managers can be helpful (once again, IMO), especially if you’re struggling, but they are not an absolute necessity. A campaign manager can bring a new perspective to your campaign as well as take care of the little details (websites, fundraisers, discouraging the participation of people who are hurting you rather than helping you) that can really help your campaign.