Joe Garecht wrote a fantastic blog entry titled “The 3 Keys to Winning Any Local Election” on his Local Victory website.  If you’re thinking about running for local office — from school board to city council to mayor — read this before you do anything else:

(more…)

If you are interested in politics as a career, the article below from Politics Magazine has some sobering suggestions.

If this article ties your stomach up in knots, you’re probably not meant to be a political operative. But if you’re like me — and just reading about the six months of manic, caffeine-aided insanity we call campaigning makes you want to start canvassing your neighborhood right now — maybe it’s time for you to consider a career in politicking!

(more…)

Patrick Ruffini wrote a fantastic blog entry at The Next Right a few weeks ago that I want to repost here. He writes about the subject that is the heart of RunSmart2Win — recruiting talented, passionate conservatives to run smart and win in 2010…and beyond!

I am a strong proponent of the idea that candidate recruitment is the ultimate futures market of elections. Collectively, the decisions made by candidates on both sides tell a lot about where politicos on the ground see the political environment headed in the next year to 18 months. It was not surprising that in 2006 and especially in 2008, candidate recruitment on our side sucked wind. Only one Senate race — Louisiana — was even remotely considered a Republican pickup opportunity in ‘08.

For 2010, the story is different. We are by and large getting our top-tier recruits in Senate races, and in more and more House races. And the White House is not getting theirs. The bumper crop of good candidates we had in the 2002 and 2004 cycles appears to have returned.

Though it’s early — I don’t think people thought 1994 could be a really big year until at least February of that year — I do think we have to prepare for the idea that 2010 could be a big, big year that could put us back within striking distance in both the Senate and the House. Normally, I wouldn’t want to raise expectations — but going back to that candidate recruitment futures thing: if you are remotely thinking of running for office in the next few years, 2010 could be your best shot, and here’s why:

• The horrendous 2006 and 2008 cycles have depressed Republican totals in Congress to far below the historical mean. Though the fact that there were two successive 20+ seat losses in the House and 5+ seat losses in the Senate in the House is historically unique,  collectively they equal one 1980 or 1994-style wipeout — after which Democrats finally began to recover.
• The unique confluence of youth and African American turnout for Obama padded vote totals for Congressional Democrats by about 4 points — and in a midterm — I’m sorry — those votes won’t be there. We saw this pretty clearly in the Georgia Senate runoff. In 2012, however, those voters might be back — making 2010 an opportune moment for a promising Congressional challenger to gain a foothold.
• The Democrats are now clearly responsible for everything, and trying to blame Bush and the GOP wears thinner and thinner by the day. Even if the economy recovers somewhat, and with massive job losses still on the horizon, I don’t see people feeling that recovery, let’s remember that the economy was in a clear recovery by 1994 but that didn’t help Clinton and Democrats.

On a micro-tactical level, Obama may be taking great pains to avoid Clinton’s fate on health care, as Ezra Klein details in Sunday’s Washington Post, but the broader optics are starting to converge for Obama and Clinton: young, energetic change agents who are being proven ineffective, overexposed, and prone to ADD (Clinton held 38 press conferences his first year, drawing this comparison to Obama’s first few days in office).

In many ways, the proving ground for this hypothesis won’t be Congress, but the states. There we have 50 distinct political cultures than run in parallel to Washington. And, as Michael Barone notes, the mood there seems to point in the direction of belt-tightening and more humble government, not grandiose new infrastructure or health care schemes.

Several weeks ago I went through “15 Questions You Must Answer Before Running for Office” (here, here, and here). Kimberly Scott, writing in Politics Magazine, gives another perspective on “25 questions that need answers before you can begin a campaign…”

(more…)

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:

(more…)

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:

(more…)

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…

(more…)