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| "Shark-fin" Billboard on the campaign mobile |
Running for office is an unusual experience—that’s probably
why more people don’t do it. It has its
ups and downs, and it takes a lot of effort to be successful. It takes a lot of effort even for those who
are not successful. It is a huge
sacrifice for a candidate and his/her family.
Suddenly everything revolves around the race once one is an announced
candidate. It is stressful, it is lonely
at times, and it is all-consuming.
But there are a lot of things to like as well.
One of the things I like about campaigning for office is the
fact that it takes creative thinking. It
takes intelligent strategy combined with experience, a message, and hopefully a
good bit of money. And creativity is
important. Designing a mailer, designing
a palm card, deciding what to put on a
campaign website, deciding which
pictures to use in which media. Much of
the campaign requires creativity—and I think this is one of the things I like
most about running for office in general and this race in particular.
For the last fourteen months I have been running for the
position of County Commissioner in District 1.
I know this district well, as I have represented this district as their
school board member for nearly a decade.
Some might perceive this school board experience as a plus, while others
look at me like I’m some sort of “career politician.” I can assure you-I’m not that.
But I do know the district well, so when I decided to put my
name in the hat and run for county commissioner, I knew which neighborhoods I
wanted to walk first, and I knew I had to raise a lot of money in addition to
pounding the pavement to meet voters.
Within the first several months of this campaign, I managed
to amass about $35,000 dollars in contributions—which surprised even me. In previous elections, I never had to raise
even half of this amount. By November,
four months removed from my announcement that I would be a candidate for the
race, not only had I amassed a sizable campaign account—but I had also
personally visited over 2,000 houses door to door.
Part of the creative strategy I used for this race involved
working with a team. I teamed up with
fellow candidates that were running for different offices in District 1 and we
worked together. We campaigned together,
we worked neighborhoods together, we placed signs together, and we created a
force multiplier by working as a team.
This strategy was powerful: by
mid-December, we had 50 large signs placed throughout district 1 and I had
nearly 500 yard signs planted at district 1 houses. For
our large signs, we developed large signs that would have the campaign signs
for all three candidates on both sides of the sign.
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| Trifecta sign |
We named this design the “trifecta.” When we drove through neighborhoods and
around district 1, we used a SUV that had a billboard type sign on the
top. We called this the “Shark
fin.” It is and was an unusual way to
campaign. I had many people tell me I was
crazy to campaign along with other candidates.
I had professional political types tell me it would cost me my election. “What if they don’t like the people you’re
teaming up with—you will lose votes!” several people said. I believed then, and I’m more convinced now,
that the benefits of working together with other candidates outweighed the
negatives for me in this election. I
suppose I’ll know for sure on November 8th.
But I know this: There is no way I would have been able to
place so many signs in so many yards so quickly were it not for the team I
campaigned with. So while it may have
been somewhat unconventional, working as
a team in and of itself put each of us in a class all by ourselves; all of the sudden, we were “those guys who
are working together in their campaigns”
Yes it was a bit unusual, but it was also very effective.
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