It’s another Saturday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a diary discussing the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic Campaign. If you’ve missed out, you can catch up anytime: Just visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
For those that have followed this year, you know that we have been talking about recruiting candidates for races for your locally elected positions. These include mayors, county officials, school board members, district attorneys, and more.
This week, we’re going to talk about how little can be big. Mayoral races around the country, both in big cities and in small townships, can be major shakers in how we set public policy. Races such as that for mayor of Phoenix can certainly attract attention because of the size of the city, but the race for mayor of a smaller township can also be a major one.
Before we get into races for city and county offices, this week we’re going to talk about how to run a large campaign in what some may think of as a small race.
Building a big campaign in a small race
It is easy to show people that a race for the mayor of New York or Phoenix will be a big-money race with major implications. They don’t always assume the same is true about smaller cities and towns. Whether a city is big or small, though, the implications of who becomes mayor are significant—so recruiting mayoral and county candidates begins by recognizing that the amount of work you may put in, both before and after Election Day, can be significant, and the results can make major differences in the lives of the residents of your community.
Whether you are running for mayor or for president of the United States, your campaign workload is limited by the same factors: There are only so many hours in a day, and you are only one person. In all campaigns, candidates are expected to work hard on their own behalf to reach voters, raise money, and build an effective campaign.
Building a big campaign in a small race, though, isn’t just about the candidate. Outside advocacy groups have to pay a lot more attention to local races, especially when those races can make significant progress on the issues for which they advocate.
Aspirational and practical
You know these races are important. Those who work in government understand they are important. Right-wing funders understand these races are important. Thanks to decades of neglect and of right-wing talking points about reducing the role of government, many voters do not understand that these races are important.
This creates a challenge for campaigns and outside advocacy groups: influencing voters to understand that these races are in fact very important. In order to do that, you have to show voters the two sides to governance at the local level: the aspirational and the practical. Campaigns for these offices are expected to present a plan for how they would govern. It is often the aspirational policies—long-term, and sometimes difficult to accomplish—that can help motivate voters. Practical solutions, though, give your campaign the ability to talk with knowledge about how your candidate will handle the day-to-day operations of the office they are running for, and to offer voters a sign of the core competency that is important to win over a lot of them.
As part of recruiting, organizations should assess goals for their city or county, and decide what is aspirational and what is practical: which policies could be implemented quickly, and which are long-term goals that you can achieve over time with the right elected officials. Identifying these issues helps you recruit candidates who will advance them.
Building our civic outreach
How important are these big small races? In 2014, the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity began getting directly involved in tiny races.
The Wisconsin chapter of the Americans for Prosperity, the group founded by the brothers and chaired by David Koch, distributed flyers to voters in Iron County ahead of next Tuesday’s election for the county board, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The flyers describe the seven candidates challenging incumbents as “anti-mining radicals” and claim the county is “being targeted by wealthy environmental groups from outside Wisconsin,” the newspaper reported. David Fladeboe, director of AFP’s Wisconsin chapter, told the paper that his group sent about 1,000 brochures in the county, which is home to just under 5,000 voting-age residents.
That effort on the part of conservative Republicans has led to a redefinition of local office, even in small communities. This is where Democratic and progressive advocacy organizations must begin taking back the narrative on the importance of local races, and making sure that our voters have been contacted about the importance of these elections.
Conservatives are not spending significant money on small township races out of the goodness of their own hearts. They are doing so because they recognize that these races can make a significant impact in our everyday lives—and on voting rights and access in all races. Local advocacy and activist groups may not have Koch-level resources, but they do have manpower and word of mouth, and building our civic outreach by talking more about our city and county races is a big part of informing our electorate about what matters.
The big steps
Here are the big steps necessary for a big small campaign:
- Local advocacy groups should identify aspirational and practical policy goals for the office.
- Candidate recruitment should focus on fulfilling those aspirational and practical policy goals.
- Local activists should work to increase the profile of and attention paid to city and county races.
- Model local campaigns after successful larger campaigns; apply similar work expectations to every race.
Next week: Public forums