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A year or two ago I was watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and in one particular episode he said something that resonated with me a little bit. The clip was about how the Texas State School Board voted unanimously to alter textbooks so that science would take a backseat to religion or something like that. I could easily be misremembering details, though. When the crowd boo'd the news of this, he quickly reigned the crowd back in to shut them up by yelling, quote:Well then get your asses on the Board of Education! Ever since then, I've sometimes been reminded about the many news stories of corruption (in terms of current events, a Mayor in North Carolina) , hypocrisy (that State Senator in California), complete bullshit (the protests in Albaquerque), et cetera... and I've just thought to myself: why aren't people who are sane and/or not sociopaths in elected office? Soon after, in what Michael E. Gerber would call an "Entrepreneurial seizure", except political stuff instead of business stuff, I get the crazy idea that maybe if I were to try and become a Mayor, Superintendent, or State Legislator then maybe I could help things not suck so much or at least help prevent stupid poo poo that I see in the news all the time from happening. It's easy to feel like it's not possible to make a mark or do anything to prevent poo poo like this from happening... which I can kind of understand for higher level government positions... but I think that a more realistic goal of becoming a mayor, a School Board member or Superintendent, State Legislator, or something else of that nature would at least help to make whatever little corner of the world where I'd be just not suck so much. Maybe I'm just naive and need a reality check. I thought I'd post a thread to ask for information about it since the Search function turned up nothing in this part of the goon forums. Just in case I'm not so dumb here, tell me about getting into elected office (though probably not for higher levels of government). I hope that what I said in the title of the thread and what I said in this post aren't too far off from one another. Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Apr 2, 2014 |
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Apr 2, 2014 01:21
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The lower you go down the levels of government the dumber things get. Local politics is basically High School 2.0.
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Apr 2, 2014 01:24
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Rent-A-Cop posted:The lower you go down the levels of government the dumber things get. Local politics is basically High School 2.0. Can confirm this. My father was on the planning commission and environmental board of our small township (4,000 residents max over a semi-rural area). It was a constant fight against stupidity and attempts at corruption. You'd have some guy come in, win the mayoral position, and then try and pack the councils with his buddies. Who needs an impartial, knowledgeable committee member when you can install the local strip club owner because he's your drinking pal. I mean, yeah you do have a greater chance of fixing stuff if you're in local politics, but you're only fixing local issues. It's worthwhile work, but you're not going to change the world, and it's still going to involve a bunch of bullshit.
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Apr 2, 2014 02:23
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LogisticEarth posted:I mean, yeah you do have a greater chance of fixing stuff if you're in local politics, but you're only fixing local issues. It's worthwhile work, but you're not going to change the world, and it's still going to involve a bunch of bullshit. This is a very good point and tbh I already thought about it. I kind of compare wanting to get into a higher tier of elected office to people who play League of Legends or DotA and dream of being pro. Most people aren't going to make it for whatever reason and so I don't think it'd be worth it to spend my time trying to run for something like Federal Congressman or other top tier office. Sort of like setting your goals lower so that they're more realistic. Besides, even if I were to get to that kind of position, there's still the argument (at least in the USA) that's raged on for centuries about whether the federal government should have more power or whether the individual states should have more power. I would love to do that, of course, but I think maybe if I can at least make whatever town or state I live in a bit more sane then I can at least say that I did my part. Similar to how soldiers go to war, come back, and say that they did their part... except instead of protecting the country it's trying to make it not suck so much. I'm probably just really naive. Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Apr 2, 2014 |
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Apr 2, 2014 04:25
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Love Stole the Day posted:This is a very good point and tbh I already thought about it. I kind of compare wanting to get into a higher tier of elected office to people who play League of Legends or DotA and dream of being pro. Most people aren't going to make it for whatever reason and so I don't think it'd be worth it to spend my time trying to run for something like Federal Congressman or other top tier office. Sort of like setting your goals lower so that they're more realistic. It's not that naive. In Plano, TX they elected an 18 year old as Justice of Peace twenty years ago, and he's been a pretty decent judge by all accounts. http://www.dallasnews.com/news/comm...ted-as-ever.ece
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Apr 2, 2014 07:35
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I just think you need to remember that the types of things that you've highlighted as motivating you to get involved in politics are the rare black and white good versus evil scenarios. If you take office I suspect you won't find yourself voting for a great and glorious increase in your school budget, but instead agnozing over whether to fire five sanitation workers or fund the Middle School's new computer lab. When you add in emotions and the neccessity of political alliances and "gaming the system" to even stay in office, your dreams of making marked improvements in your community are quickly brought down to earth. If you acknowledge this and still have the desire, then go for it. Many local governments are run by complacent old people who could use some stirring up. SnarkyHipster fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Apr 2, 2014 |
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Apr 2, 2014 22:58
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We should start a GoonPAC and start taking elected positions to enforce the values we goons share.
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Apr 3, 2014 01:32
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Run for your state Rep position when it's up. There are forms online for it.
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Apr 3, 2014 01:55
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Love Stole the Day posted:I kind of compare wanting to get into a higher tier of elected office to people who play League of Legends or DotA and dream of being pro. It's not too long before we all use computer games for our 'going pro' analogies instead of Real Sports
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Apr 3, 2014 02:59
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If you don't hate your state rep or Congressperson, stop by their office 6-9 months before an election and ask about volunteering. Campaigns like free labor and you'll learn all sorts of things. More importantly, you'll meet people who can help you.
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May 22, 2014 17:19
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mune posted:It's not too long before we all use computer games for our 'going pro' analogies instead of Real Sports Kids are growing up, man.. FuturePastNow posted:If you don't hate your state rep or Congressperson, stop by their office 6-9 months before an election and ask about volunteering. Campaigns like free labor and you'll learn all sorts of things. More importantly, you'll meet people who can help you. Yeah, this is a good point and idea. Unfortunately, though, I don't live in the USA right now but your suggestion makes a lot of sense for whenever I return there.
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Jun 2, 2014 06:54
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What is your current profession and net worth?
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Jun 2, 2014 07:10
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I'm pretty sure the only useful thing to do at this point is to start a grass roots movement to get money out of politics as much as possible. Which would level the playing field so us plebs could have a say in what goes on. Which would also require a sustained, visible effort over many years, and which is also not as sexy a thing to campaign for as anti-racism-sexism-bigotry.
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Jun 2, 2014 12:50
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Politics counts as a hobby if you stay on the local level. It's a bit like football, for every game there will be lots of rather boring preparation to slog through. It's absolutely a team sport. You can't accomplish anything alone, no matter how right you are. My experience from the building council in a city of about 260 000 inhabitants has also taught me that often your ability to change things are stymied by institutional barriers and lack of jurisdiction. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't try, but you should have a high tolerance against frustration.
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Jun 2, 2014 22:59
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I live in a decently mid-sized city (300,000+) and my boyfriend is the co-owner of a local small business. The guy who owns a business next door to him is also on the city council for our particular city and is probably close to fifty. I remember one day they had a party for all of the businesses on the street and I attended. Said guy was also there, too. I say "party" loosely- it was more like we were all just sitting around outside having beers and eating and shooting the bull. While there, he was saying a lot of really weird poo poo like "Have you and your buddies ever gotten high and jacked off together?" and "Dude. I don't mind homosexuals as long as they're not trying to suck my dick. That always happens to me at clubs and poo poo." Later on in the night, he got so drunk that another person had to let him sleep on the couch inside his shop. I was really bothered by it and still am to this day. Here's a guy in charge of our city which has a myriad of problems and he conducts himself like an absolute shithead in public. I can only wonder how many other people on the council act like that.
Captain Mog fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Jun 4, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 21:15
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Captain Mog posted:Here's a guy in charge of our city which has a myriad of problems and he conducts himself like an absolute shithead in public. I can only wonder how many other people on the council act like that. On the other hand it also attracts a lot of great people with a strong sense of civic duty, but you rarely hear about the them, unless you follow politics really closely, because they don't produce scandalous headlines.
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Jun 9, 2014 23:02
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I'm running for precinct Committeeman in my neighborhood. I think it's a worthwhile experience for anyone who thinks they might be interested in real politics. To use a sports metaphor, everyone likes watching the major league games and they fantasize about being one of the big players. No one realizes that there's a ton of poo poo that they had to slog through on their way to the top. Here's my specific suggestion to anyone interested in getting involved: 1. Figure out what jurisdictions you are in. You can check your voter registration card or maybe the County Recorder's office. 2. Contact your party's state office and ask them for a contact email address with a local party office. It'll probably be like 10 people in a tiny rented room or something. This is local politics. 3. Run for precinct committeeman. 4. Oh poo poo, this sucks and it's totally not worth the effort. Why am I doing this to myself?
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Jun 22, 2014 07:53
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:No one realizes that there's a ton of poo poo that they had to slog through on their way to the top. I'd love to hear more about this, if you're willing to expand on it. Especially in a diary/daily agenda-style format. I realize this isn't LiveJournal, but so often these things are described in generalities it would be interesting and helpful to read what the actual day-in-the-life of a candidate is!
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Jun 22, 2014 20:57
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Local politics can seem foreboding, but it's pretty easy to dive into that if you're willing to just take the plunge. I filed to run for local office (township supervisor) just because a friend visited me and nonchalantly suggested it. The paperwork involved getting a petition filled with the requisite number of signatures, which was fairly easy for here. The township I'm in has a population of around 6000; as a result, I only needed 3-10 signatures to get on the ballot. Campaign finance has also been painless, since this supervisor election is small enough that I felt confident in signing the "This campaign won't raise more than $1000" waiver, which means I don't have to file campaign finance reports at the same frequency as larger campaigns. Support for a race of this size is lackluster from both below and above, but that's still workable. There's just not much volunteering to do, really. I can piggyback on broader Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts at the congressional level for voter turnout (the party's congressional candidate for our district has her office right on the edge of the township where I'm running), and honestly the main two things that need doing are some door-to-door canvassing just to introduce myself, and getting some folks to help with hashing out a bit of campaign literature. Conversely, because this is a midterm election and the state party has to deal with gubernatorial and senatorial races, there's very little support from above to help since all the big resources are being used elsewhere. Essentially, local politics lets you do your own thing without much pressure from above, little paperwork to deal with and relatively little demand for a complex campaign. If you win, great! You're now a politician and can start climbing the ladder. If you lose, oh well! The state party apparatus didn't care that much about the plight of your locality anyways.
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Jun 22, 2014 22:12
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site posted:I'd love to hear more about this, if you're willing to expand on it. Especially in a diary/daily agenda-style format. I realize this isn't LiveJournal, but so often these things are described in generalities it would be interesting and helpful to read what the actual day-in-the-life of a candidate is! The process wasn't too involved. I went to a local meeting for my legislative district with my PC paperwork already filled out with the exception of the 10 required signatures. All 10 had to come from within my precinct which includes two apartment complexes and a small neighborhood. It's not as easy as it sounds because all 10 have to be registered voters who are independent or your party. A representative from the State party was there and let me know that she'd give me a list of addresses to knock if I wanted. A few days later I had an email with about 50 houses of people who were registered to vote and were the right party. Here's the lovely part: Actually going out and getting the signatures. I live in Phoenix so it's like 90-110 degrees out. 80% of houses don't even answer the door. Of the remainder, half will sign and you'll have an awesome conversation.  I ran into a few jerks though. It's okay to say no, it sucks but it's ok. One guy was a straight up liar though. He insisted that someone wearing the same campaign shirt as me had already come by and got a signature. First, I was wearing a T-shirt I got when I was in the Navy that had my ships's Crest on it, not a common shirt. Two, I'm the only person in my campaign. I was polite and said something like "Oh, that must have been a petition for someone else, I'm collecting signatures for my campaign" but the guy wouldn't let go of the lie. I'm guessing he's the kind of guy who complains about how all politicians are liars. They're just representing you, you lying jerk!
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Jun 22, 2014 22:34
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I sat before a county commission board when I ran for county clerk. Was a pretty interesting experience. Typically the position is an elected one, but we had the county clerk retire mid-term which meant the county commission had to approve and appoint the replacement. Trouble was, the Clerk was the ONLY member of one party in the entire county, which meant that the commission was entirely opposition. I didn't get the seat, but it was an interesting process on how it worked out. I felt like I did as well as I could have considering the possibilities. I would say-make sure you read and learn all the bylaws. Its the little bitty bits of information that will have the largest impact on your running. Don't forget to cross your t's and dot your i's. I'm glad I didn't have that problem, but along the way it could have seriously screwed me before I started.
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Jun 23, 2014 01:28
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One thing that can't be understated enough is how important political parties are to the entire system, from the ground up. For the last 200 years, the US has basically been steadily streamlining politics to function almost completely through the two parties, and whoo boy it shows. The number one thing (from my admittedly limited experience) that seems to burn young politicians out is toeing that party line. Once you get outside of the very basic city and county-level positions, unless you're independently wealthy enough to conduct your own campaign against two candidates with several systemic advantages, you're going to get squished. And if you do accept the Republican or the Democratic apple, they are going to want some concessions, or they'll drop you like a hot potato. This being said, you do have some wiggle room depending on the situation. For instance, if you successfully run as a Democrat in a deep, deep red state, they'll let you do whatever the gently caress you want. There's a Democratic senate candidate in Houston right now who's campaign slogan is "Impeach Obama!" The greater risk you're willing to take, the more leeway you'll be allowed if you win, but generally a bigger risk is going to require a bigger investment from you in order to be successful. At the local level, there's generally two kinds of positions: County, and City. City positions are things like City Council Member, School Board, Planning and Zoning Committee, etc. Some are elected, some are appointed by the council, and most are low-key affairs. I think that only in the bigger cities will you see city positions becoming extremely politicized, and to the best of my knowledge most don't even have primaries. County positions, on the other hand, are different. Since the county level is the most basic building block of politics, (County conventions send delegates to state conventions, which send delegates to the national convention.) it's also generally where the party starts creeping in. Almost all county positions will hold a primary election, to determine the parties' candidates for the general election in November. Unless there's already an established Independent movement in your area, this usually means that the one or two people who already have an intrinsic advantage will get a few months head start on independents, who will have to sign up halfway through the year as write-in candidates. County positions include everything from County Judge, to Justices of the Peace, to County Commissioners. Again, this is all based on my limited experience in the few places I've lived, so feel free to correct me on this, but it seems to be the pattern I've observed.
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Jun 23, 2014 05:02
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Captain Bravo posted:And if you do accept the Republican or the Democratic apple, they are going to want some concessions, or they'll drop you like a hot potato. Eh, I mean it's not like at the lower levels there's some sort of doctrinal certification exam. If you're running for school board or even State Attorney General or whatever nobody gives a poo poo about your opinions on foreign policy (so long as you're not openly racist) and it's not like it'd come up anyhow. But yeah, I think there's a realistic expectation from the guys who campaigned for you and fundraised for you and voted for you that you're going to vote generally in line with their values. But on the flip side, once you're in like a state legislative seat, you're fairly high up in the state party itself. So for something that's not a canonical issue like abortion or whatever, you can help decide the party's policy - there are a lot of issues where you as like one of the few guys in your caucus who cares about it can have a huge impact, especially if you can get other legislators to generally agree it's a good idea. Get a few guys from across the aisle to see it your way and suddenly it's a bipartisan effort and you're one or two newspaper editorials away from getting it done. This even scales up to the Congressional level. I mean there's only like 19 folks out of 435 on the House subcommittee for scientific research, probably half of whom skip most of the meetings. So you get 9 of those guys to generally agree with your reform on how grants are allocated or how psychology ethics boards or whatever work and it'll probably be in the bill when it winds up on the House floor. Get on the conference committee (or convince someone on the conference committee) and the change will probably become law. Won't make the news, but you'll have made the world a marginally better place. Captain Bravo posted:Since the county level is the most basic building block of politics, (County conventions send delegates to state conventions, which send delegates to the national convention.) it's also generally where the party starts creeping in. Almost all county positions will hold a primary election, to determine the parties' candidates for the general election in November. Unless there's already an established Independent movement in your area, this usually means that the one or two people who already have an intrinsic advantage will get a few months head start on independents, who will have to sign up halfway through the year as write-in candidates. County positions include everything from County Judge, to Justices of the Peace, to County Commissioners. Primaries are not a large advantage. There's usually nothing stopping independent candidates from starting their campaign around when the primaries start. Heck, there's usually nothing stopping you from starting the year before the election. Also the presence or absence of primaries depends on the area and how safe the seat is in the general election - if it's a deep-blue seat with a full-time job and salary there will be a half-a-dozen Democrats fighting for it in a primary while the local Republicans will be looking anywhere and everywhere to find a non-crazy candidate. And vice-versa obviously. For instance, in my home state of VA, there were about a dozen people running for VA-8 in the primary because it's D+15 so the general election's a cakewalk and they're there for life while down in VA-7 they spent months casting around and finally got a professor at a third-tier school who writes erotic vampire fiction or whatever as their candidate, and he was less crazy than the alternatives, because the seat is R+10 or something so victory is unlikely and any winner would be crushed in the next Republican-trending year. This scales all the way down to County Board - you'll get a primary in a winnable seat against a weak opponent, but you'll struggle to recruit for a race in a really tough seat. Primaries are also often less about ideological purity (Cantor vs. Brat) than they are about campaigning and organizing skill (VA-8). Don Beyer won in VA-8 despite being one of the more conservative Democrats because he was a previous Lt. Governor and owned the local car dealerships. He beat out the real liberal state senators for the seat because he could raise more money and recruit more volunteers and get more endorsements. Even in the case of Cantor vs. Brat, Cantor basically didn't campaign. The real advantages of political parties in my mind are
Ofaloaf posted:Local politics can seem foreboding, but it's pretty easy to dive into that if you're willing to just take the plunge. I filed to run for local office (township supervisor) just because a friend visited me and nonchalantly suggested it. If you have the endorsement of your party (and it sounds like you do), make sure that you're invited to every event that Congressional/Senate/whatever candidate does in or near your locality, those other campaigns are carrying your literature (even if it's just a quarter-sheet with your headshot and "Ofaloaf for Township Supervisor" and nothing else on it), and that you wind up on the sample ballot. Obviously still campaign on your own because you need to win on your own merits, but any coat-tails you can get from those guys really helps, especially if their race is winnable. Jackson Taus fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Jun 26, 2014 04:35
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Jackson Taus posted:If you have the endorsement of your party (and it sounds like you do), make sure that you're invited to every event that Congressional/Senate/whatever candidate does in or near your locality, those other campaigns are carrying your literature (even if it's just a quarter-sheet with your headshot and "Ofaloaf for Township Supervisor" and nothing else on it), and that you wind up on the sample ballot. Obviously still campaign on your own because you need to win on your own merits, but any coat-tails you can get from those guys really helps, especially if their race is winnable. The local party apparatus is a bit fractured, and although I'm familiar with the local group I'm not entirely sure how official that group is now that I think about it. See, smack in the center of the county is a major university, the biggest city in the county, and the most liberal part of the county. The county party organization is based out of that city, focuses its efforts on that city and may not actually know the part of the county I live in exists. Ten or fifteen years ago, a state congresswoman representing part of the district established an organization solely and explicitly for the western part of the county, and it's that organization I'm most familiar with, know people in, and have dealt with up to this point. On the other hand, the state congresswoman who established that group a decade or so ago is now the candidate running for a seat in the House at the federal level who has her offices right at the edge of the township, and I've volunteered for her in the past, so that might still work out. Sometimes in politics you just forget which groups are legit, formal affairs and which are just informal with a lot of clout.
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Jun 26, 2014 05:37
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Jackson Taus posted:Eh, I mean it's not like at the lower levels there's some sort of doctrinal certification exam. If you're running for school board or even State Attorney General or whatever nobody gives a poo poo about your opinions on foreign policy (so long as you're not openly racist) and it's not like it'd come up anyhow. The Cantor vs. Brat campaign is a pretty good example of how all politics is local. Ignoring tea party vs establishment divides. Brat was decent campaigner who went out and knocked on doors, shook hands, and kissed babies. He told potential voters that Cantor was more interested K street and Wall Street than main street. Once Cantor realized he had a fight on his hand, he started pushing out negative against ads against Brat, which raised Brat's profile, but it didn't make Cantor look any better. If you want to know why Texas hasn't gone blue, most of the Republican candidates in heavily hispanic districts speak enough Spanish to kiss rear end in two languages. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Jun 26, 2014 08:43
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Ofaloaf posted:I don't have the formal endorsement of the party, I was just the only party member to file. It's a special election for a two-year term, and the township board's been a shitshow lately, so no-one's wanted to touch that. The opposing party has two candidates in a primary before the general, and they both filed so close to the last moment that I genuinely thought I was going to run unopposed, since the county clerk's website didn't process their paperwork and update until an hour and a half after the filing deadline. Call or Email your state or CD-level party and try to get some clarification as to which group has the official endorsing power in your race (or maybe several of them, depending on how territory is actually split). Call up the local chairs for those official groups and introduce yourself or have a 1-on-1 with them. Go to basically all the meetings anyways. Show up early with snacks. Shake a lot of hands and get to know folks, and try to get them to put voting to endorse you on their agenda next month. Ask them to consider helping you knock doors or phone bank (promise pizza, they'll show up). Pay special attention to (1) actual officers, (2) party members who speak or present during the meeting, and (3) anyone who looks or sounds influential or important. This can be hard to judge because everybody has a puffed-up sense of self-importance. Honestly you shouldn't have a hard time getting folks to endorse you, because their leadership is probably feeling some pressure from on-high to actually have a freaking candidate. Show up at the next month's meeting and they'll vote on endorsing you. You'll win because duh. To subsequent meetings send your brother/wife/cousin/buddy/campaign manager to speak on your behalf and talk about how your campaign's going great and folks should come out and help. Once you have that endorsement, work with your other local candidates to make sure you're carrying their lit and they're carrying yours and that you end up on the sample ballot. If the Senate/House candidate is coming to your area, try to show up at his events and either be able to speak quickly as an opener or get name dropped by him from the podium ("when you're out voting for him, don't forget to also vote for Ofaloaf if you live in TOWN"). The best way to get other campaigns to like you is to also campaign for them. So literally walk some of their packets in your town when you go out, and hand out both your lit and their lit. After a few weeks of this, you'll be their favorite person. You should also seek the endorsement of the unofficial groups you're talking about as well because you don't want them to feel snubbed and every little bit helps, but that's less crucial than getting the other candidates coordinating with you and carrying your lit.
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Jun 26, 2014 17:37
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Will do on the further clarification with the party. I've tried going to what meetings I can, but scheduling for everything's an awful mess. How key are things like candidate mixers, invitations from X Chamber of Commerce and questionnaires from the Organization-For-X-And-I've-Never-Heard-Of-These-People? I've already committed to a mixer this afternoon, which is primarily for the mayoral candidates in the county's big city but other political hopefuls like myself have been invited. I'll bring along business cards to pass out as befits the situation, but no brochures or bigger bits of literature.
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Jun 26, 2014 18:17
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Ofaloaf posted:Will do on the further clarification with the party. I've tried going to what meetings I can, but scheduling for everything's an awful mess. It's hard to say. It can't hurt to go to as much as possible, but prioritize the groups where you're going to be saying things they want to hear - if you're a "pro-business" Democrat (based on your previous posts you're also a Dem, right?) and can make the right sort of noises then the Chamber of Commerce is well worth it (doubly so if you're raising money), but anti-immigration or pro-theocracy groups are probably not worth your time. Really who the movers and shakers in a given area are varies by the area, so talk to folks who have run for local positions in your area before.
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Jun 26, 2014 19:06
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Yeah, I'm a Democrat. Of course I'm pro-business, I only wish the best for our community's economy, respect the role job creators have played in stabilizing things during the worst of the recession and etc. & so forth. Mainly I just want to get the township's emergency systems re-integrated with the county*, prevent the board from voting another round of raises for themselves** and expand the new practice of livestreaming all board meetings and saving the recordings online. If everything worked out it'd be great if a previous supervisor's efforts at consolidating our township's fire services with a neighboring township's services could be worked on and approved, but that's unlikely even in the best scenario. *An EF3 tornado tore through the township back in 2012 and damaged something like a hundred homes, although there were no casualties. Afterwards, the township spared no expense in purchasing new sirens and equipment for another such emergency, but in the process they disconnected the sirens from the county-level emergency management system. I volunteer with the county and was in fact the first to spot that tornado in 2012; since the equipment overhaul, I know that from county management's point of view the township has become a black hole where no information comes in or out. This is dumb and dangerous. **The township board voted for a round of raises for all board members just this spring, despite a huge public outcry. If I could get the raise outright rescinded and bring pay back to 2006 levels until other township employees get a raise, that'd be great, but at the very least I'd want to make a public show of donating the difference between the 2006 pay rate and the current rate if the board's stubborn about it all.
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Jun 26, 2014 19:41
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Ofaloaf posted:Yeah, I'm a Democrat. Of course I'm pro-business, I only wish the best for our community's economy, respect the role job creators have played in stabilizing things during the worst of the recession and etc. & so forth. Yeah, I kinda put that in scare-quotes because obviously folks that are relatively pro-regulation like myself still think private businesses play a crucial role in the economy. I just meant only go to the Chamber of Commerce if you think they'll generally clap at what you have to say. Ofaloaf posted:Mainly I just want to get the township's emergency systems re-integrated with the county*, prevent the board from voting another round of raises for themselves** and expand the new practice of livestreaming all board meetings and saving the recordings online. If everything worked out it'd be great if a previous supervisor's efforts at consolidating our township's fire services with a neighboring township's services could be worked on and approved, but that's unlikely even in the best scenario. Then go everywhere and talk about that. To the Chamber of Commerce, remind them that properly coordinated emergency services can get the best bang for the tax-buck and also help with insurance appraisals. Play up the safety issue with everyone else too, just vary the pitch a little bit depending on audience. See if you can convince the firefighters or whoever to either (a) publicly agree with you or (b) offer relevant info on background to the local reporters. I'd imagine (a) is a no go because that's them really sticking their neck out, but if you've got the right guy in emergency services you could maybe swing (b). Seek the endorsement of your local firefighter's union on the basis of (a) your EM proposals they probably back and (b) you're a Dem so you're pro-labor anyhow. Grab a third thing from the police union as to what the town council can do - something cheap or free that sounds good. If you can have 3 good ideas that (1) make everyone safer, (2) are effectively free or save money, and (3) are easy to pitch then you've got a lot of supporting arguments for when you're talking about yourself as a "commonsense reformer" who "wants to get things done" and "isn't a politician". I honestly feel like the raises thing is probably kinda hit-or-miss. Unless the raise was huge, it's probably defensible as COLA if it hadn't changed in 8 years. And folks may well not remember it by November. Since you're not running against an incumbent, those sorts of negative attacks won't work well because your opponent can just be like "hey, wasn't me, I wasn't there". But you can maybe tie that and the webstreaming thing together as more transparency and accountability. Hell, the dog kennels around here have web cameras so you can check up on them (though I live in a rich county, so YMMV on that), why shouldn't the town board? Maybe grab a third example here too? The reality, however, is that people don't really care about process issues. But it can be useful to "elites" in getting endorsements, so don't drop it, but don't open with it when you knock on someone's door. EDIT: I feel like I should add a disclaimer that while I am fairly involved in politics, I'm not and have never been paid staff, so it's not like I'm a professional at campaign managing or whatever.
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Jun 26, 2014 20:08
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Jackson Taus posted:I honestly feel like the raises thing is probably kinda hit-or-miss. Unless the raise was huge, it's probably defensible as COLA if it hadn't changed in 8 years. And folks may well not remember it by November. Since you're not running against an incumbent, those sorts of negative attacks won't work well because your opponent can just be like "hey, wasn't me, I wasn't there".
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Jun 26, 2014 20:17
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Also, play up the angle of other town employees not getting raises. Giving yourself a COLA and not your employees is a dick move Also, the reporter angle is such good advice, I can't suggest it enough. As a journalist, the thing that will have me salivating quicker than anything else is free content. Especially in small towns, reporters love it when their stories knock on the door and don't have to be tracked down. Be a little wary what you say, most good journos won't let themselves just be a microphone for your statements, but if you can give them a lead, plus phone numbers, dates of incidents, and guaranteed interviews with people who know what's up? That's a small-town reporter's wet dream.
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Jun 26, 2014 20:39
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This thread has gotten me into looking into how to egg into Australian politics. Thank you
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Jun 27, 2014 15:50
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So after following the latest American elections from living overseas, and from watching the Last Week Tonight bit this past weekend about how almost 1 in 4 state legislators around the country are running unopposed... What books can I read about how to be not terrible at this stuff myself? Given that I'm old enough to run for these offices, what can I do to get more involved in the political process once I return home to the States? I want to be one of those people who can stop people like that guy in New York with the 20-some-odd number of federal indictments and then still won from ever getting on the ballot in the first place. Because I'm starting to feel that from now on that my voting will likely just go for third parties on the federal level and pay more attention to the state level things. Love Stole the Day fucked around with this message at 09:53 on Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 09:49
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Love Stole the Day posted:So after following the latest American elections from living overseas, and from watching the Last Week Tonight bit this past weekend about how almost 1 in 4 state legislators around the country are running unopposed... Many state legislators run unopposed because (a) many state legislative districts are pretty heavily red/blue - gerrymandered or not, you can't draw 100 legislative districts in Virginia without having a bunch in deep-blue Arlington and a bunch in deep-red Southwest, and (b) being a state legislator is kinda lovely. There's not necessarily a whole lot of respect like there is as a Congressperson and the jobs are usually low-paying and part-time. For instance, in my state, your job as a state legislator is 6-8 weeks in January-March where you're full-time down in Richmond, and then you spend the rest of the year back home. You make $17-18K for those couple months, but most jobs can't accommodate that schedule. Plus it's hard to run - a friend of mine ran in 2011 and he had to raise like $50K from friends and family in order to retain staff and be taken seriously enough that he could get further help. So basically nobody runs in these deep-red/deep-blue seats because campaigning for state office is somewhere between a part-time and a full-time job that requires you to come up with tens of thousands of dollars from your family/friends just to even have the tiniest shot. Plus even if your opponent winds up getting busted sleeping with his staffer or indicted or whatever, you're up for re-election 2-4 years later. Let's say you're a Republican running in a D+20 seat (a seat Obama won 60-40 twice), and your incumbent opponent gets indicted or whatever and you win. Congratulations! Two years from now you'll be running against some good-looking Assistant DA who can keep his fly zipped, and you'll get creamed because (1) 60% of the voters are normally Dems anyhow, (2) when a Dem wins it it's a safe seat for life, so any Dem with a chance threw his hat in the ring and the best man won the primary, and (3) outsiders are happy to help fund an easy race so the new state legislator will owe them one. So now you get to raise another $50K from friends/family, tap out every connection you made over the last 2 years, and spend 20-40 hours a week for 4 months campaigning, only to lose 57-43. Plus now that you got pantsed so effectively good luck running for anything else. I alluded to it in the previous sentence, but there's also a large opportunity cost to a politician in seeking a seat. If you're a Town Councilman or County Supervisor, running for state/federal office means (1) tapping any financial contacts/favors you could be using for re-election or a different race, (2) putting your reputation on the line, and (3) potentially not running for re-election if both races are the same year.
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Nov 10, 2014 01:10
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Something that might be applicable in this thread, but have there been any crowdsourced/funded candidates yet? I've thought for a while now there's probably the potential in some of these states with low voter turn out for someone to look through polling data on certain issues and run off a platform of funded by the people (rather than an interest group) to govern or represent the people. In this day and age where there's growing knowledge of just where the money comes from to get people elected I think there's an avenue for crowdsourced political movements and candidates. Has this been tried / explored in the internet age where crowdfunding is growing?
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Nov 10, 2014 07:33
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BlindSite posted:Something that might be applicable in this thread, but have there been any crowdsourced/funded candidates yet? I've thought for a while now there's probably the potential in some of these states with low voter turn out for someone to look through polling data on certain issues and run off a platform of funded by the people (rather than an interest group) to govern or represent the people. Crowdfunding a politician is a dumb idea
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Nov 10, 2014 07:52
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I think there's some potential for designing systems to help candidates get public funding. In Arizona there's a system where if you get a certain number of $5 donations, you get a small amount of money to run a campaign. It's not enough to win a competitive race but there were quite a few races that were unopposed. Those might be places that you could use that funding to force the other candidate to spend more than they would have otherwise which could add up if done statewide. I've got an IT related project that I think might be useful. A volunteer during the last election ended up getting the police called on him. He had set up a computer and a printer and was helping people print out proof of address outside the polling station. I think that's a great idea and I've been wondering if there's a way to make an extremely low profile setup at a low cost. Something like a tablet PC and a portable receipt printer. Edit: Boyko is dumb as hell.
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Nov 11, 2014 07:08
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