Your answers to the Concerned Citizens Survey are pouring in…

And the results are not favorable to the Democrat agenda in Raleigh.

Here are a few highlights from the survey responses so far:

>> “Do you think North Carolina’s economy is improving or getting worse?”

• Getting worse - 90.8%
• About the same - 9.2%
• Improving - 0.0%

>> “What economic issue concerns you the most in North Carolina?”

• Government spending - 60.0%
• Taxes - 24.2%
• Immigration - 10.8%
• Annexation - 3.3%
• Education - 0.8%
• Cost of Health Care - 0.8%

>> “Do you think the budget crisis in North Carolina is due to a slow economy or from too much wasteful government spending?”

• Wasteful spending - 91.7%
• Slow economy - 5.8%
• Other - 2.7%

>> And a few of our favorite responses to the question, “If you could have a conversation with your local elected officials, what would you like to tell them?”

• “Stop wasting our money!” (About 70 of you said this!)
• “We as citizens tighten our belts…why doesn’t the government?”
• “What is REALLY happening with the ‘education’ lottery money?”
• “Stop spending. Listen to your constituents.”
• “Taxed. Enough. Already.”
• “Spending, not revenue, is the problem.”
• “I’m embarrassed by the state government of North Carolina.”
• “Listen to the people.”
• “STOP SPENDING!!!”

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Today’s tip is a two-for-one special involving GOTV (Get Out the Vote) strategy and the popular social networking site Twitter:

1. Every campaign should dispatch volunteer poll watchers to as many voting locations as possible (especially strategic ones). The poll watcher should note how long the lines are, writing down the names of voters and reporting back to campaign headquarters throughout Election Day. Campaign HQ monitors the reports from the poll watchers to see if turnout is high or low in the various precincts, checking off supporters’ names in the campaign database along the way. In this way, the GOTV operations director (whether he or she is the official campaign manager or someone else) has a 30,000 foot view of Election Day turnout and knows when and where to dispatch other volunteers helping with GOTV efforts. The traditional way of doing this is by phone at regular intervals during the day: morning, mid-day, and afternoon reports. This is where Part 2 of the tip comes in…

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Thanks to the 2008 election, “social networking” is the buzzword of political campaigns today. Consider this your crash course on getting started, doing it right, and—eventually—reaping the rewards for your campaign.

Lesson #1: Specialize. It makes sense in economics and it makes sense in politics. Aside from the major social networks, there are a rapidly growing number of niche networks. You cannot be part of them all and, if you were, you would never have time to keep up with all of your profiles. So, unless you are running a statewide race, pick two or three social networks and do them well. “Doing them well” means that you should fill out your profile completely, log in and participate daily, and always, always, always respond to your supporters and reach out to new ones. If you aren’t sure which to select, Facebook and Twitter will give you a sound foundation.

Lesson #2: Do it yourself. You wouldn’t send a stand-in to give a speech, so don’t use a proxy to be you online. A social networking profile is your chance to create a personal connection with another person using the internet. But you cannot make a personal connection if it’s your staff or a volunteer doing the connecting. So make a commitment to spend at least 15 minutes each day logging into your social networking profiles. People will notice the difference, and the advantage to your campaign will grow as a result. If you don’t believe me, compare the Twitter profiles of Marco Rubio, a Republican who manages his own profile, and Arlen Specter, whose profile is manned by his staff.

Lesson #3: Be genuine. The temptation to use your social networking profile as a soapbox is nearly irresistible. But you must behave online as you would at a neighborhood party. You would share interesting information about yourself, but you wouldn’t monopolize the conversation. You might ask a friend (or, as a politician, a supporter) for a favor, but you would do so graciously, and you would listen to feedback when it was offered to you. Participating in a social network is your chance to have a one-on-one interaction with a supporter—many times over. So be genuine, affable, and interested in other people, just like you would away from the computer.

Lesson #4: Connect your social network profiles to your campaign. Your social networking profile should drive supporters to your campaign site, and your campaign site should drive supporters to your social networking profile. So connect the two pieces of your online campaign, so visitors can find you in both places.

Lesson #5: Use your social network communities. Generating a mass of followers on Twitter or a slew of friends on Facebook may look great on paper, but it’s useless on Election Day if you cannot mobilize these people to work on your behalf. So set goals for your communities on different social networks, and see how they respond. You may ask Twitter followers to pass on a link to an important news story or Facebook supporters to “donate” their profile picture to display your campaign sign. But asking people to take easy, in-network action before Election Day will help you identify the most motivated supporters, who will be your go-to group for GOTV efforts.

Today we’re wrapping up a series of posts on The 15 Questions You Must Answer Before Running for Office. This is in response to the top vote-getter on our poll question, “What is the biggest obstacle to running for local office…and winning?“ That answer was: “Where do I start?!?!”

Questions 1-5 were:

• 1.) Have I done anything to distinguish myself?
• 2.) Do I want this job?
• 3.) Can I win?
• 4.) Do I legally qualify to run?
• 5.) Can my ticker take it?

And Questions 6-10:

• 6.) Can I devote the time needed to win?
• 7.) Am I ready for bloodsport?
• 8.) Do I want to put my family through this?
• 9.) Would the outcome of the election, win or lose, box me into a corner?
  
• 10.) Am I willing to ask people for money (repeatedly)?

If you are still with us at this point, answering in the affirmative to each of these ten questions, you’re ready to move on to the last five questions in our list. But these questions are not “simple” Yes/No determinations; they’re short-answer to essay:

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Gov. Beverly Perdue has asked the General Assembly to raise up to $1.5 billion in new taxes next year for public education and other government services. “The General Assembly has to protect education fundamentally,” Perdue said in the House chamber in the old Capitol building. “We cannot increase class size. We cannot lay off teachers. We will not sacrifice North Carolina’s economic future.”

But if she’s serious about keeping the teachers in the classrooms, she would start cutting the fat at the notorious “Pink Palace” (also known as the Dept. of Public Instruction).

This is where the bureaucracy in our educational system starts. With over 800 government employees — with annual salaries of over $66,000.00 per year — the Pink Palace would be an ideal place to start cutting overhead in order to keep the classrooms safe. These workers are not teachers; they are high-priced bureaucrats and consultants.

Ask Gov. Perdue: “Instead of raising my taxes, why can’t you trim the exorbitant salaries at the Pink Palace?”

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We’re continuing a running theme on RunSmart2Win: pointing out the hyperbole, histrionics, and hypocrisy of the Democrats in Raleigh. First, we told you about the Carolina Strategy Group’s survey, which concluded that “North Carolina voters see the state economy getting worse, and don’t trust the General Assembly to solve [the state's economic] problems.” Then we reported on the new government watchdog group, Report Public Corruption, with state politicians and bureaucrats in its cross-hairs. Today we’re going to link to three stories sure to make your blood boil on this otherwise happy Friday:

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On Tuesday we looked at Questions 1-5 of The 15 Questions You Must Answer Before Running for Office. Quickly recapping our list, here are Questions 1-5:

• 1.) Have I done anything to distinguish myself?
• 2.) Do I want this job?
• 3.) Can I win?
• 4.) Do I legally qualify to run?
• 5.) Can my ticker take it?

If you can honestly answer “Yes” to each of these five questions, you’re ready to move on to 6-10 in our list:

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Recently, we posted a mash-up of articles on the upset win by Creigh Deeds, candidate for Governor of Virginia, in the Democratic primary called, “The Google Blast: A Secret Weapon for Savvy Campaigns?” Many of the articles on the race mentioned the sizable chunk of the campaign’s advertising budget used for their Google ad buy. Now there are more indications that online advertising could become a critically important weapon in the political campaign arsenal.

Joe Mandese of the Media Post News writes in “Online Ad Spending Rises at Double-Digit Rates, Gains Share Vs. All Other Media”:

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Last week I announced a new feature on RunSmart2Win.com: Tuesday and Thursday Campaign Tips. Today’s tip comes from the current leading answer in our poll question, “What is the biggest obstacle to running for local office…and winning?“ And that answer is: “Where do I begin?!?!”

This is a huge topic — especially for first-time candidates.  It’s so important, in fact, that today’s tip will be the first of three posts on getting started in politics. Here are questions 1-5 of The 15 Questions You Must Answer Before Running for Office…

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There’s a new sheriff in town: Report Public Corruption, a watchdog group with its eye on politicians and bureaucrats in the Old North State and elsewhere. (Thank you to ConservativeNC.com and my partner in crime at RunSmart2Win’s for bringing this new organization to my attention.) Report Public Corruption’s purpose is…

…to bring a new level of transparency, accountability and integrity to all levels of American government. The Foundation will accomplish its mission by receiving and independently investigating allegations of corruption in government, providing reports of corruption to investigative journalists, and pro-actively educating government leaders and the general public on the true nature of ethics in government as well as the causes and remedies of public corruption.

Speaking of government transparency and accountabiliy, RunSmart2Win will post exclusive reports of outlandish, wasteful spending in North Carolina and around the country this week. These reports will be available as downloads. I promise you, if you’re not fed up with our tax and spend and spend and spend government, you will be. Stay tuned…