As you start your campaign and begin putting together the
people who will assist the effort, think of your campaign team as a
three-headed beast. Each of these three
heads must be alive and well for a campaign to operate effectively.
Head One: Honorary Campaign Committee
There are certain people who you may want to be associated
with your campaign even if they aren’t going to invest a lot of time or
money. What you do want from them is the
use of their name as a supporter and perhaps, for them to sign a letter to
voters endorsing your Campaign
Strategy effort.
As a new candidate, you need to create a sense among the
opinion leaders that your candidacy is legitimate and well regarded. This will help to bring many good things to
your campaign, not the least of which is votes.
Honorary campaign committee names might include leaders in
the fields of business, labor, agriculture or the local religious
community. It could include former
elected officials or local sports heroes.
You may want the leaders of the Farm Bureau, teacher’s association or a
neighborhood group. Or, if you are less
known in a particular neighborhood or county you will probably want a well
known name from that geographic region.
As you approach these people and ask them to support your
effort, you will likely want to emphasize you aren’t asking for their time or
money. What you are asking for is the
public use of their name as a supporter.
If they say yes to your first request, you should see if they will be
willing to sign a letter to voters later in the campaign. This can be an important endorsement for the
group in which they are influential.
A mailing to farmers can be buttressed by the endorsement of
the local Farm Bureau leader or senior citizens may be impressed by the support
of a local family doctor who has been practicing for fifty years. Having noted the importance of these
endorsements, I need to emphasize that endorsements alone are a fairly weak way
to gain votes. But when endorsements are used to deliver two or three good
reasons to support a candidate, they can be an effective way to open doors and
persuade voters.
Head Two: The Worker Bees
While its important to have well known and well respected
community leaders supporting a candidacy, it’s equally important to have the
backing of people who are simply committed to seeing that the basic tasks of a
campaign are well executed. This means
finding the worker bees: those people
who can be relied on to successfully accomplish important campaign tasks.
These individuals are frequently not flashy or wealthy, but
they know the value of work and are willing to part with their time for a cause
they believe in.
Identifying individuals who will fill the working positions
is critical but at the same time, can be very difficult. And while the specific positions that are
required will vary from campaign to campaign, there are some that seem to be
consistently needed no matter the year or office being sought.
Here are some positions you should look to fill:
Yard Sign Coordinator:
The individual who will see that the locations are lined up, the signs
are designed and ordered and volunteers show up to raise them on yard sign day.
Treasurer: This
position is not to be confused with your finance chairman. Instead, the treasurer’s job is to write the
checks, see that the register balances and see that legally required disclosure
reports get filed in a timely fashion.
Finding a reliable person to do this job can keep you out of jail and
out of the newspapers.
Volunteer coordinator:
Every campaign needs volunteers.
Whether it’s to get a mailing out, walk parades or distribute
literature, campaigns are volunteer dependent.
Finding someone who is good at lining up volunteers and who is also
organized enough to see that they’re time is well used when they do show up is
critical.
Some other positions that might be helpful to have filled
are: event coordinator, coalitions
coordinator, campaign manager and scheduler.
Head Three: Finance Committee
The third head of the campaign beast is the finance
committee. Its relatively easy to figure
out who should serve on this committee, but a lot tougher to actually sign them
up.
The question to ask oneself is simply this: Who has enough influence among potential
major donors in the community that just the association of their name opens
doors to donors and wallets?
These people are frequently bankers, probate attorneys,
entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and leaders of business associations.
It’s enough just to have these leaders lend their name to
your effort, but you also need a few who will go further than that. You will want some members of this committee
to 1) be willing to sign fundraising letters, 2) attend major donor meetings
with you and hopefully have at least one or two who will 3) open their home for
a fundraising event.
The key to signing up the members of this committee is to
start with the easiest one first. Once
you have their name on board, use it to leverage the support of others. The more influential names, the easier it
gets to add others.
----------------
Creating a campaign team is a critical first step to
building your candidacy. Thinking in
terms of these three different groups will help you classify the types of
people you need to pursue. It’s not
unlike building a football program.
Finding the right coaches, athletes
- and of course – alumni, are all integral parts of a strong and winning
program.
If you have questions or thoughts on this article, please
feel free to email me at Steve@VictoryEnteprises.com
