It’s another Sunday, 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 the Nuts & Bolts Guide. Every week I try to tackle issues I’ve been asked about. With the help of other campaign workers and notes, we address how to improve and build better campaigns, or explain issues that impact our party.
Every campaign needs things: Money. Volunteers. Support. Skill. You can always raise more money. You can work to find more volunteers. You can garner more support. The one thing no campaign can control, however, is time. Time is a commodity where once it’s gone, it’s just gone. This means how we make effective use of our time matters. Tom Waits once said of time: “And they all pretend they're orphans, and their memory's like a train. You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away. The things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget." Four years. Two years. It may be short in terms of our lifespan, but campaigns have to look at everything they need to succeed and think of themselves not only as the conductors of that train, but also the outside observers who see what the community can never forget.
Last year I wrote about how it’s almost impossible to be too early in a campaign. It affords you time and gives you an opportunity to get established. That was last year. Now we’re months away from Election Day, and you and others in your county or state are looking at unfilled ballot slots and thinking, “We need to find someone to fill this spot.”
Time has now become your enemy. Just because time is your enemy in this race, however, doesn’t mean it can’t also be your friend. The fact is time is not assigned to a political party. The impact of time is the same for Republican and Democratic candidates; even if you start late, making peace with time and befriending it can get your campaign started the right way.
Time as your enemy: how to change that
Have you ever said to yourself, “I want to be part of a campaign, but my day job interferes?” Or,
”I was thinking about an idea for a campaign, but then home life took over?”
I hear comments like these frequently. Let’s rethink the meaning behind them. Why can’t both be true and manageable? You do want to be part of a campaign, and you also recognize that your day job interferes. Okay, that may be a fact today, but is it a fact at all moments of the day and through the weekend? Doubtful. We often get stuck in the trap of seeing time as an enemy who will not yield. If instead we think of it as a partner, we can be much more effective in how we plan our time for a campaign and for our life. The idea you have for a campaign and the time you want to commit isn’t always an immediate need. The decision to do nothing, however, will absolutely make time your enemy.
Let’s change our perspective. If you accept this change, then you might find a different way to accomplish your goal. “I want to be part of a campaign, and I want to do my job well. I can find a way to do both.” So much easier, right?
Instead of focusing on the time you don’t have, focus on how to use your time effectively and enjoy the time you do have to help out with a campaign. Each campaign cycle, better and more effective tools become available that can maximize your impact and lower the time involved. Digital campaigns, virtual town halls, Facebook Live, and more can all offer you a chance to talk to people in a lot of different places while cutting down on the time consumed waiting on people to arrive, set up, and staging.
Time can be your best friend
You can find a lot of sources that tell you why time is your enemy, from philosophical thought to realistic concerns about how to get things done. Not enough is said about how time can be your best friend, and how the passing of time can help you with your campaign.
As we approach the end of filing periods in some states and get nearer to the time of your primary, time can be your friend. Time can help focus those around you. It can cause your opponent to make mistakes. Time can be a comfort to candidates who wonder when will it all be over.
Time can be your best friend when you realize that every day, you’re closer to Election Day. Realize with each passing day you are closer to your goal, and celebrate your successes on each day. If you focus on what you’re not getting done, you’re going to find yourself dwelling on the time slipping by. Take time to do a daily inventory of what’s getting accomplished, and work to build daily and weekly accomplishments into your plan. Doing so can make time your best friend by giving your campaign a consistent feeling of accomplishment. Use time as a friend: How much did we get done this week? How much did we get done today?
Well, we don’t have a candidate, so …
Don’t assume time is your enemy. It may be an obstacle, but if you’re running toward the filing deadline, turn the enemy of time into a persuasive friend so you can encourage others to put their name on the line and run for a local elected office.
This week we have a DNC Rules & Bylaws meeting on Tuesday, which I’ll cover. In Nuts & Bolts next week, I’m going to go through some of the great questions campaigns have had about Daily Kos.