Greetings fellow liberals and democrats. I wanted to share my experience of interviewing and being appointed to the Lansing City Council last week! Needless to say, I was inspired by the very grass roots chatter you read here every day, and want to contribute to our local government by advancing the liberal and democratic agenda, even at a low level post. Hey it's a start! The appointment is through the end of the year, so I will be running in a primary in August, and hopefully a general in November. I need your advice.
First a little background. Married, father of 3 boys ages 9, 6, and 2. Posting here since 2003. Served on the Ingham County Parks Commission for 4 years. I work in a union and am helping to represent 1,000 employees in contract talks this year. Work closely through Michigan State with East Lansing City Government producing the award winning Great Lakes Folk Festival. So I knew two local government block leaders, but was really an unknown stealth candidate for the position in Lansing.
Our 3rd ward councilmember unexpectedly and suddenly resigned. He was from my same neighborhood, so I was familiar with him and certainly followed the local politics. I met with a sitting councilmember and we sat on her porch until midnight one night talking local issues. I made an effort to attend a city budget hearing, spoke out, introduced myself and contacted all of the other councilmembers. During the interview process, I don't want to brag here, but I answered every question with intelligent and comprehensive answers. I, seriously, hardly prepared. Like all of you, I follow the issues and speak my mind. Doesn't everybody? Well, apparently not. So I made it past the first round of interviews onMonday when the went from 10 to 4. On Wednesday the 4 of us were interviewed again and they voted that night, 4-3, to appoint me.
So I swore in last Monday and hit the ground running. I had about 15 meetings last week with city department heads, meeting staff and learning about their work. We are in the middle of three weeks of budget hearings and that added to the work load. We have a budget of about 180 million, of which 110 million is in the General Fund. I took a week off for vacation from my day job, and then busted my ass all week at city hall. One day I was gone from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 PM. Needless to say, my wife is not amused.
As a representative of the public, I really look at everything diferently now. That parking lot. Safety hazard. The abandoned and painted bench. Let's get rid of it. My world view has narrowed and grown at the same time! My head is spinning with information, political land mines dot the horizon, and I am as green as a cucumber. I need to get up to speed and start a never-run-before-no-money-no-manager-know-nothing-campaign. I would really like to run the anti-campaign campaign, but I also want to win. I don't want to sell myself off to the highest bidders, and owe anyone anything when I get into office. Special Interests need not apply. I want to be the peoples candidate. Since I am sitting in the office for the next 7.5 months, I have a slight advantage. Still, time is short and I've got things to do!
Please send me your advice on fund raising, spending, strategies, how to avoid messing up the campaign finace requirements. Know any good campaign managers in Michigan?