Three Rules for Local Campaigns

This is the year that Ohio elects city, village, and township officials across the state. There are a lot of Democrats running for local office. MCDAC members have a lot of experience running in local elections. Here are three rules to keep in mind when you are organizing your campaign:

1. Not all voters are equal. By that we mean that voters who won't vote in this year's elections are not equal to those voters who will vote. Voter turn-out will be about 50% of the electorate, and in some areas, less. You need to figure out the voting history of voters in your area and concentrate on those voters who will vote in this year's elections.

2. There is never enough time or enough money. Campaigns are captive of things that are finite. Those are money and time. You need to focus on fund-raising and you need to budget your time. Keep in mind that people can only get done about half of what they think they can get done; things will probably cost around twice as much as you think they will; and things will take about twice as long to accomplish as you think they will take. This means that you have to budget both your time and your campaign money.

3. The most valuable resource in any campaign is the candidate's time. Since time is finite, and since the candidate is the person that you want voters who are going to vote in off-year elections to be talking to, you need to make sure that you both protect and maximize the candidate's time. Here's an example: Let's say that a candidate and volunteers are going to do a door-to-door canvas on a street. The candidate should only be hitting homes with voters who are pretty certain to vote. Households with voters who may vote in an off-year election should be covered by other volunteers.

Those are the three rules. Thanks for taking the time to participate in local campaigns and good luck!