And then I lost, and it was crushing. On election night when I stood in the election office and heard the precinct numbers come in one by one, I realized I'd never failed at anything significant before. But I'd do it all again - I will once my kids are older - it was one of the best experiences of my life.
Why? You've got no idea what his policies were! They could have been absolutely appalling, oppressive dystopian ideas, standing for everything you're against (I'm sure they weren't, exhilaration).
Everyone should run for office at least once.
They should also lobby (try to get a law changed) too. Ideally, before running for office.
what info is on those lists that you can use to identify supporters?
The voter lists I've seen in NJ and PA tell you what elections voters have voted in, so you can eliminate registered voters that don't bother to vote. Additionally, in NJ, the school board elections were on a different date (in the spring) than the general election, so you could really target the 3-4% of voters who actually bothered to vote for school board.
Party registration is provided and be helpful if you want to position yourself as the democrat or republican, even if the race is technically nonpartisan.
If you want to target particular ethnic groups (latino, south asian, korean, chinese) you can do searches for common first or last names. Grouping by address can help you figure if there's a family living here - you also get date of birth - and maybe they've got a kid that just graduated from high school and might be more interested in a particular school issue. Some basic SQL skills can go a long way here.
Some exemptions (not listed) for judges, victims, witness protection. YMMV depending on jurisdiction.
Edit: I only mention this because "get 31% of the vote" is part of the headline. Part of it may be running in a race unopposed by the other major party.
Edit 2: My mistake, the percentage was part of the thread's original title, not the author's chosen title.
Watching my cousin go over the ins and outs of moving from city to county was more than enlightening for me, as in frustrating and aggravating. For the most part who gets the seat is all about connections or worse, to get someone out of the way to a place many will think them harmless. There is also "owed a seat" mentality.
tl;dr two party politics has got to go. the level of manipulation at the local level is shocking and more widespread than many understand. there are break out candidates but even some of them are engineered
Sure, there's the rural Republican areas, the urban Democratic areas, conservative retired communities, and the liberal immigrant neighborhoods, but I still doubt there's much of what you describe.
EDIT: Honestly thought Shea was a female name. Oops.
Assuming the local/regional party machine backs him and provides campaign funds, he'll likely be required to at least call some major donors soliciting support for other campaigns that the relevant leadership is interested in or for the party organization itself. Congressmen at the state and federal level spend an absurd amount of time doing these calls on behalf of their own and others' campaigns because those elections are expensive to fight but at the local level, the elections are far cheaper and the allegiances to parties are looser. He would have to cater to his supporters in order to get their support for the next election but he wouldn't be obligated to do anything.
I do like the idea of always running opposition candidates though, to force the other person to raise & spend campaign funds.
Needing to raise campaign funds is a big issue. Some congressman feel that it's almost a full time job calling donors. I rather not have that scenario and have them actually reading and considering legislation.
Another alternative would be longer terms. Like 10-year, 20-year, or life-long terms?
I'm trying to think of an honest solution to the problem you've raised and I haven't found one that seems better. Maybe donors should be more humble, and be okay with an aid-to-the-legislator calling them for money?
See my other comment somewhere in this thread: IMO, the author got their arse kicked. I received 39%, didn't do nearly as much as the author, and I consider that a pretty solid defeat (but conveniently just shy of what I consider an arse kicking <g>). Somewhere there must be a study with hard numbers, but I figure X% just because I wasn't the other guy, Y% from voters who just randomly chose because they didn't really pay attention to the race, and 0.Z% from those that just screwed up the ballot. Leaving me with, I dunno, 20-25% who actually thought I was the better choice based on what they knew of me and the conversations we had. That's not a very good number. :-)
Not to take away from the main point, though. You want to run for office? You think you can do a better job? Then go do it. The barriers can be quite low for local offices, a bit higher for state offices. You'll get your arse kicked the first time around most likely. That's called "experience" and if you truly want to hold office, you'll be worlds ahead for next time. Most importantly, the vote is not a mandate on you as a person. I was soundly defeated, and that's fine: the people have spoken, and they said "come back in a few years when your better at this". Or they said, "the incumbent is doing a fine job, we see no reason to take a chance on someone new." But I never took it to be, "we just don't like you personally, mikestew."
In two-candidate races without write-ins, the minimum that any candidate got was 18.22%, and from scanning the numbers it feels like the median is in mid-30%s.
//edit also if someone at a PAC is reading, what they should really do is an analysis comparing campaign funding vs. votes received. Find the candidates that are making the most impact with the least amount of money. The candidates you agree with are the people who need support next election, and the candidates you disagree with are the dark horses you need to watch out for.
mix socially, especially with those of higher social status.
synonyms: associate, mix, fraternize, socialize, keep company, spend time, go around, mingle, consort, network, rub shoulders, rub elbows;I do wonder how much you get for just having your name on the ballot. Here's what I told my wife during the campaign: "meh, I'm only running so that my opponent doesn't run unopposed. But if I weren't running against him, I'd vote for him." IOW, my opponent was a decent guy who held office for mostly the right reasons. And I still got 39%.
Anyone can run for office, fill out the form, pay the fee. How much you want to do after that is up to you. But if you don't have a track record (volunteer for the Parks board, head up the local trail improvement group, etc.), you won't get an endorsement. No one in the local political "machine" knows you. So go buy some signs, put on your walking shoes, and start knocking on doors. Have a few platform items that you think are important, and stick to those without getting distracted by things like "are you an R or a D?" for a non-partisan office. Ask questions of those you meet. What do they think is important? Do you think it's important enough to have a response?
Mainly, have fun. If you don't like meeting new people (which I don't), aren't able to think on your feet (I am), politics might not be for you. But despite my aversion to people, I found it fascinating and kind of fun, interspersed with large periods of boredom.
Easy way to test this is to have another friend run for the same office, and do zero campaigning.
Well, "easy"; at the very least, you'd know which paperwork to fill out given that you're doing it as well.
I could be wrong, but I highly suspect that the curve connecting those two points isn't linear, and going from 30->40% is a lot harder than going from 10->30%.
https://ballotpedia.org/Florida%27s_23rd_Congressional_Distr...