You believe you can serve as an intelligent, studious, useful member of a public body, but you don’t “have an issue” or an angle that makes you stand out. Are you wondering if you’re too boring to win a local election?
“I’m not one of those firebrand candidates who gets all the attention. It’s just not my personality. Should I even bother throwing my hat into the ring for local elected office?”
We know what you mean, and the answer is – YES! You can carve out your own low-key path to public office.
Sure, even in a local election, attention will automatically be drawn to the louder and more controversial candidates. These are the ones who boast a hardline stand on hot-button issues, or the ones who portray themselves as the bold and necessary electoral choice. (This last type might be the visionary we need to keep a stagnant public agency from falling behind the times or the rock-ribbed traditionalist we all need to keep the agency from going completely off the rails.)
So what about you, the low-key political hopeful?
You believe you can serve as an intelligent, studious, useful member of a public body, but you don’t “have an issue” or an angle that makes you stand out in your local election.
There are tried-and-true ways to run and win from this position.
A reporter we know watched two such “low-temperature candidates” win city council seats – easily – with campaigns based on competence, hard work and an aversion to ruffling feathers.
Civic involvement
The first candidate won her seat through broad and enthusiastic civic involvement. She was a member in good standing of the local women’s club, tirelessly volunteering for projects around town, without seeking leadership roles or accepting even the slightest credit. She earned universal goodwill from her civically connected peers, and made no enemies, or even rivals, along the way.
When she announced her run for office for a local election, she was completely unknown to the local media and gadfly set. Readers even called our reporter to insist that she must be a “stealth candidate,” running with a hidden agenda too radical to reveal, until she gets into office.
She resolutely took a pass on the hot-button issue of the campaign, saying she would study it fully once in office. She insisted she just wanted to serve. Said she would study hard, listen, and try to help the council find the best outcomes for the city’s residents and businesses. (And that is exactly what she did, after she won.)
Her victory came by way of her civic involvement. Her work with the women’s club – which exposed her to other groups and agencies as well – meant that her supporters were well respected leaders in their neighborhoods, and among their friends and colleagues. They were the folks other voters turned to for advice about who to vote for in local elections. Neighbors paid close attention to see whose lawn signs they put in their yards. Their opinions carried weight. And they all knew this candidate and liked her.
Walk the walk, talk the talk
The second such notable success was a pleasant, semi-well-spoken young man. The kind of sweater-wearing and nerdy, who was an utter cipher to the local media. He was smart and capable, in a general sense, and his heart seemed to be in the right place.
But he refused to be dragged into the mushy and polarizing issue of the day, promising to study it from a better-informed perch on the city council.
His path to victory came through knocking on doors and showing his face to the voters, person by person and family by family.
It is hard to stress just how time intensive this is. Think of it as more or less a second full-time job. When reporters hear a candidate is taking this approach, they shrug and wait for them to burn out and give up.
Not this guy. He walked and he walked, he knocked and knocked. Showed resident after resident that he cared enough about their vote to ask them for it personally. He was pleasant and cheerful. He listened to their concerns.
And he won. Easily.
How to win a local election
During their campaigns, neither of these candidates made so much as a ripple in the local media. “Library-Type Lady Runs for Council” and “Sweater Wearer Seeks Office” are not the stuff of splashy headlines.
But in the first case, everyone who was anyone liked her, and no one who was anyone disliked her. And in the second case, pretty much everyone who had a door knew him. Most liked him, and nobody disliked him.
And both of them were authentic. Voters like that, even if it doesn’t always make their pulses pound.
Do you think you have what it takes to run for City Council, or School Board, or another local office? You probably do. Let ElectionSecrets.com help you get your campaign started and learn how to win a local election. We transform aspiring candidates into serious contenders.