Here’s the problem: not everyone who wants to run for local office is willing to wait months or years to kick off a political campaign, and many eager candidates jump into a race without doing any research at all about historic election cycles.  Most of these shoot-from-the-hip local candidates go on to lose their political campaign on election day, and are too demoralized to ever run again.

Being wise about which election cycle you put your name on the ballot starts with getting some historical election results and voting data from your county board of elections studying the data.  Let’s use, for example, a city council race with a term that is up for re-election every two years.  In this case, I would get election results going back about eight years and look at each of the four previous election cycles.

With this data, you’ll be able to identify some important trends: which election cycles are friendliest to first-time candidates (due to low turnout), which election cycles are friendlier to well-known names (due to higher turnout), and which election cycles tend to favor particular political parties.

Several factors could result in specific election cycles having the characteristics I listed above: presidential campaign years, gubernatorial campaign years, and years when there simply isn’t much interest in local elections at all.

With a little bit of research, you should be able to quickly identify which election cycle will be the best year for you to run.  You usually won’t have to wait much more that a year or two in order to put your name on the ballot and make your eventual election day victory more likely.

Having said all of that, however, don’t let me discourage you from tossing your hat in the ring immediately if you have a gut feeling that your hard work can overcome the odds.  There’s never any time like the presence, but with a bit of patience you could increase your likelihood of winning by a few points.

Related posts:

1. Planning a Political Campaign: Voter Turnout
2. The Importance of Campaigning During Non-Election Years
3. Planning a Political Campaign: Your Winning Number

Keeping your campaign message short and focused, identifying what will appeal to your target audience, and strategic timing aren’t just elements of a successful marketing effort for products, but also for political candidates.  Here’s a snippet from the post:

Third, and lastly is timing. The difference between salad and garbage is timing. People buy things when they need them, and people’s needs change on a regular basis. It is important to find a means of communication that targets the right customers at the right time. Utilizing all three of these strategies in a marketing campaign will allow you to grow your business.

Voters’ needs change on a regular basis, too.  Plenty of political campaign candidates running in local elections for office have doomed their chances at the polls by focusing on issues that the voters couldn’t care less about.

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Guide to Local Elections & Political Campaigns?
2. Personal Touches in Local Elections & Political Campaigns
3. Practicing What you Preach in Political Campaigns

“I love your stuff! Is there any way you could write something about absentee voting. I run campaigns  and would love to get your insights (right now, a contested Court of Appeals race).  I think it is going to be a BIG issue in the future.”

You’re exactly right, Brian: absentee voting–and early voting–is already a big deal here in Ohio, and is going to become an even bigger deal with each election cycle.

I don’t know many details about early & absentee voting in other states, but Ohio allows voters to start casting absentee ballots 35 days before the date of the primary or general election.  The percentage of absentee voters rises every year as citizens learn more about the process, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some counties start seeing more people vote absentee than actually come to polling places to vote on election day.

This is a huge game-changer for political candidates who would traditionally ramp up their campaign in the final few weeks of the season in anticipation of the vast majority of ballots being cast on election day.  With the high percentage of absentee voters, a candidate in Ohio doesn’t have that luxury anymore.

There are plenty of ways that you can tweak a traditional campaign plan to take advantage of the increasing number of early voters.  One important change that I made was to make sure that I ramp up door-to-door and direct mail efforts in the month prior to the absentee vote date . . . not election day, as I did in the past.

In other words, it helps to look at the day that absentee voting starts as election day, and make sure that you’ve thoroughly canvassed the neighborhoods in your district by then.  I also make sure that I send out at least one district-wide mailer in the week before the absentee date to remind residents about early voting and reinforce my campaign message.

Of course, you should continue working as hard as you can in the final month of election season, keep knocking on doors, and send out more direct mail.  After all, there will still be a large amount of voters casting their ballots on election day, and absentee voters can send their ballots in at any time during the final month of the campaign.

By working hard to ensure that voters know who you are by the day that absentee voting starts, though, you’ll have a huge early advantage over your opponent.  In my last campaign, I was amazed at how many other candidates didn’t even really start to ramp things up until the last few weeks of the election . . . when absentee voting had actually started weeks earlier.

Here’s another great thing about working hard to reach out to the early voters: the first votes that get counted and released by the Board of Elections on election night are the absentees.  If you’ve done a good job with the absentees, then that means that the first batch of numbers that are released will show you ahead of the rest of the pack.

Of course, winning the absentee vote doesn’t always mean that you’ll go on to win the election . . . but it’s still a good feeling and a good indicator of success when you see that early voters were solidly in your corner.

Related posts:

1. Winning Early Absentee Voters in Your Political Campaign
2. Teaching Kids to Love Voting, Political Campaigns & Elections
3. Local Election Date: What Day Do We Vote, Anyway?

Increasing  voter turnout with phone calls is one of these tough-to-quantify tactics: while we know it works, there a lot of different ways to make campaign calls that could result in different levels of success.  What should you say to the voters?  How long should you keep them on the phone?  Which voters should you call, and how many times should you call them?

Sometimes it seems like every veteran political campaign consultant and manager has a different opinion about the psychology of getting out the vote with phone calls, and it can be tough for new candidates to settle on a single strategy.

That’s why I love seeing scientific, quantified data about exactly what works: like this interesting political campaign study mentioned on the Research Digest Blog.

After targeting more than a hundred thousand voters in Pennsylvania, two psychologists found that turnout increased significantly if the voters were asked to tell the caller exactly what date and time they planned to go to the polls.

There were more great observations from the study that I’ll let you read about yourself.  It offers some really great insight into how a political candidate can increase election turnout by slightly modifying a commonly-used campaign strategy.

Hat tip to Delaware Liberal for bringing our attention to this useful study.

Related posts:

1. Get Out the Vote (GOTV): Increase Election Turnout
2. Planning a Political Campaign: Voter Turnout
3. New Political Campaign Technology: SMS/Text Phone Bank Calling

What does this mean for a candidates running in smaller, local elections where the absence of political polling means that no one really has a good grasp on which candidate has momentum going into the final weeks of a campaign?  Well, for one, it reinforces the idea that you should work as hard as you can right up until election day, and always assume that you are ten points behind your challenger.

If you’re doing what you need to do to win your local election, then you’ll get a good feel for how your race is going as you meet voters in their neighborhoods.  They’re either going to know who you are, or they aren’t.  If you find that there are lots of people out there who haven’t heard of you, don’t let it get you down–instead, look at it as an opportunity to come from behind and utilize the final weeks of the election in the most effective ways possible.

Giving up when you get the feeling that you’re lagging behind your opponent in support is a sure-fire way to lose your election.  Putting things into overdrive and being determined to make a political campaign comeback, though, is often just what a candidate needs to get the attention of voters and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on election day.

Regardless of how well your political campaign is going, there are going to be days when you feel like you’re falling behind your challenger.  Always keep in mind, though, that there are few political deficits that can’t be made up by a great performance in the final weeks of a campaign.

Related posts:

1. Political Campaigns, Elections & Early Absentee Voting
2. Political Campaigns: the Importance of Thank You Cards
3. Local Election Issues: Political Campaign Message Focus

“Thank you so much for the incredible mass of information you provide on the site. It’s been quite helpful.  I’ve been receiving questionnaires from various groups considering their endorsements for my race. Among them are organizations I respect but who I have philosophical disagreements with and who will definitely be endorsing the incumbent. Is it better to respond with answers they don’t want or ignore them entirely?”

Thanks for the compliments Dave, we’re glad you like Killer Campaigning!  Political candidate questionnaires and surveys are one of those inevitable parts of being involved in local elections–and the larger and more hotly-contested your race is, the more questionnaires you’ll get in the mail.

In many cases, these groups obtain the addresses of every candidate on the ballot in a given campaign season from the local board of elections and send out bulk surveys to every person on the list.  Don’t read too much into it or make the mistake of thinking that someone at the organization is waiting breathlessly for your response.

Non-profits, unions, political action groups and countless other organizations send out thousands of candidate questionnaires and surveys across the country every year–ostensibly to help them decide which candidate to endorse in a local election.

The reality, however, is that most of these groups have already made up their mind who they are going to endorse long before the questionnaires are ever sent out (especially in general elections, but to a lesser degree in primaries, as well).  In most cases, a candidate’s political party or status with a particular group has more to do with whether or not they win an endorsement than does their actual opinions on the issues.

Also, keep in mind that one reason many of these groups dole out political candidate endorsements is to get free publicity for their own cause . . . not necessarily to educate the voters.  Endorsements often make it into local news stories, and these organizations love seeing their names in the papers as much as political candidates do.

But back to your question: should you fill out a candidate questionnaire if you know ahead of time that the group is almost certainly not going to endorse you (and in most cases, you will know before you fill it out).

There’s an easy answer to that question and a more difficult answer.  Here’s the easy answer: if it’s an organization whose endorsement you wouldn’t want in the first place, then you shouldn’t fill out or return the questionnaire.  A candidate who is targeting conservative voters, for instance, probably shouldn’t court the endorsement of a group that advocates gay marriage . . . and a candidate whose base consists of progressive voters doesn’t need the endorsement of a concealed weapons advocacy group.

The real difficulty comes when you are weighing whether or not to fill out a questionnaire from a less polarizing group whose endorsement you would like to have . . . but which you know you aren’t going to get.

In this case, there’s a litmus test that I use in my own campaigns that might help you make a decision, as well: are you on friendly–or cordial–terms with any of the leadership or members of the group?  Do you know them personally, and are you likely to continue to interact with them professionally even after the election?

If the answer is yes, then you’re probably better off filling out the questionnaire and mailing it back.  As a political candidate, your allies and supporters are going to fluctuate over the years, and there’s no reason to insult or alienate a group whose support you would like to have in the future.  If they really are an above-the-board and legitimate organization, then they will respect you more for filling out the form and turning it in, even though they are supporting another candidate.

On the other hand, if members of the group in question have been openly hostile to your candidacy or have gone out of their way to be rude to you or your supporters, then don’t give them the satisfaction of filling out their questionnaire.  You aren’t likely to gain anything from it, and sending in their survey will only allow them to paint you as someone who desperately wanted their endorsement but wasn’t good enough to earn it.

Of course, these are the more extreme examples–these solutions aren’t going to fit every endorsement questionnaire scenario.  Above all else, keep an eye on your future political aspirations–not just those in this particular election–and use some pragmatism to make your decision.

Of course, I could go on to tell you just how little these endorsements really help a campaign, after all  . . . but we will save that for another post.  Just make sure you don’t concentrate too much on winning endorsements, and instead dedicate your valuable time to good old-fashioned campaigning.

Related posts:

1. Political Candidate Endorsements: Do They Help Campaigns?
2. Political Campaign Endorsements Are Useless in Local Elections
3. Sharing Political Candidate Surveys on Multiple Social Media Channels

How to Take Your Political Campaign Video Viral–Bruce Dietzen’s Blog

Political Marketing on the Internet in the Hudson Valley–90 Miles North

Do You Have What it Takes to be a Guerilla-Style Campaign Manager?–Anti-Pinoy

The Craziest Political Campaign Ads from Across the Country–Huffington Post

How to Run a Good Political Campaign–Lakesha Womack

What’s Your Favorite Political Campaign Theme Song?–Luke Hellier.org

Political Campaign Ads: Go Online to Go Viral–The Mixpo Blog

It’s Spring and Campaign Signs are Popping Up Everywhere–Romick in Oakley

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2. Free Political Campaign WordPress Theme Template Download
3. Political Campaign & Election Strategy for Philippines Candidates

“Hi Killer Campaigning, I’m a fan and maybe you can help give me advice with a problem that I have. I was a City Councilman but had some personal problems in my life and made some bad mistakes that ended with me getting arrested (it was my own fault, I admit that).

“I have overcome those problems now, but the local newspapers were not kind in their coverage and I lost my last re-election campaign. I really want to continue serving my community as an elected official, do you have any suggestions for how I could win my seat back?”

Thanks for the question, Dave. Although you don’t give us any details about what actions led to your political scandal and arrest, it’s admirable that you admit that the fault for your problem was yours alone–far too many politicians who get caught up in a scandal try to pass the buck and blame their behavior on other people. Regardless of whether you are successful in getting re-elected or not, taking responsibility for your actions and admitting that you have a problem is the first step toward recovery and building a better life.

In my opinion, though, the nature of your mistakes has great bearing on whether or not you should attempt to run for office again at all. Elected officials are entrusted with very serious responsibilities to serve their constituents and do the best job they can representing them.

If your scandal involved exploiting your office for personal gain, then I’ll be brutally honest with you: the voters should never give you the opportunity to bilk them again, and you should get the idea of running for re-election out of your head. If, on the other hand, your arrest involved illegalities of a more personal nature that didn’t have to do with your office, then the voters might be more justified in forgiving you.

Also, what is your real motivation for wanting to win your seat back? If it’s really out of a desire to serve your neighbors and make your community a better place, then go for it. But if you miss the prestige, power and paycheck that came with being an elected official, then forget about it. You can’t hide those kind of selfish motives from voters, and they’ll quickly see that you’re being disingenuous.

But let’s talk political campaigning: yes, there are several examples of politicians who have gotten booted out of office because of scandals–drunk driving arrests, cheating on their wives, tax evasion, even drug charges–and come back to win a local election again. And there are a few steps that you can take to help resurrect yourself from a political suicide.

An important word to the wise, though: you need to be realistic about your chances of getting elected to local office again. The majority of politicians who lose their seats because of a scandal simply do not get re-elected to office. If you accept the fact that the odds are against you in any future political campaign and you still want to give it a go, you need to be ready for some very tough campaigning.

You should expect plenty of negative campaigning from your opponent–in fact, he would be silly not to remind everyone in your district about the details surrounding your arrest and scandal. Obviously, trying to ignore the situation and hoping that the voters will forget about what happened is the wrong strategy. Instead, I suggest you tackle the problem head-on, and beat your opponent to the punch.

Here’s what I would do: start campaigning many months before your opponent, and make a point of personally apologizing to as many voters in your district as you can. Get out and start knocking on doors in your ward, looking voters in the eye, and talking to them directly. Let them know that you want to serve them again, that you made some personal mistakes, and that you take full responsibility for those mistakes. Tell them that you’ve worked hard to overcome your own weaknesses, and that you want to work even harder to earn their forgiveness and their trust.

You can’t just rely on a mea-culpa to win your campaign, though; you need to make it clear to the voters why it would benefit them to put you back in the office that you were voted out of. Remind them of the good things that you did when you were in office, and tell them about the ambitious plans that you have to make your community better if they return you to your seat. Show them specific details of what you will do for them, and make it clear to them that you’ll work hard for their best interests.

Be very careful about getting into a mud-slinging match with your opponent. You might know a few unsavory details about your opponent and be very eager to share them with the voters, but this is a dangerous tactic for someone who already got booted out of office because of his own scandal.

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, and believe me: you now live in the biggest glass house in the city. Resist any temptation you might have to campaign negatively against your competition, because it will likely backfire and only serve to remind the voters of your own shortcomings.

A well-planned direct mail campaign will also serve to help you, but you need to be prepared to finance much of it from your own pocket; you might discover that many of your previous fundraising sources have dried up since you lost your seat. Obviously, the more financial resources you can invest in your campaign, the more likely you’ll be to convince the voters that they should give you a second chance.

If you have successfully dealt with the personal problems in your own life and you genuinely want to win your seat back because of a desire to help your community and serve your constituents, then I wish you luck in your effort to get re-elected.

Just remember: there are plenty of ways to serve your community without being an elected official, and you shouldn’t judge your ow personal worth by whether or not you hold public office.

As I’ve said before on Killer Campaigning, there are far more important things in the world than political campaigns: your family, your friends, your own personal happiness and satisfaction.  Make sure that make those things your top priority over getting re-elected.

Related posts:

1. Local Political Campaigns: How to Win an Election
2. Political Counsultants: Local Campaign & Election Consulting
3. Elections & Age: Candidates Too Young for Political Campaigns?

I admit that I haven’t read every book, guide and plan out there that claims to show political candidates how to win a local election, but I did check out quite a few of them before I ran for office myself.  Most of them won’t teach you anything that you couldn’t learn right here on Killer Campaigning, but there is one that actually maps out the exact same steps that I personally used to win my first local election.

Joe Garecht’s How to Win Any Election Kit is without a doubt the best single political campaign advice product that I’ve ever seen, and it’s a resource that I’ve personally used.  In fact, I use it so often–both in my own campaign planning and here on Killer Campaigning–that I have the entire kit in a folder right on my computer desktop  (it consists of a HUGE amount of templates, advice and pre-written plans and fundraising letters).

Joe Garecht isn’t just some bozo who worked on a couple of political campaigns–he’s America’s foremost expert on winning state and local elections.  He’s consulted and managed some of the biggest names in politics, and he’s quoted frequently in the media–including The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Hotline and Roll Call.

As someone who has run a political campaign for local office and won, I can tell you that the How to Win Any Election Kit has everything that you need to build your campaign from the ground up.  Even if you’ve never run for office before, Joe’s kit will show you exactly what you need to do get on the ballot, gather a team, and start your campaign.

Like I said, this kit contains a MASSIVE amount of information.  In addition to the 178-page “How to Win Any Election” E-book, you also get a master’s class on advanced tactics to build political momentum; a professionally-written sample campaign plan; sample fundraising direct mail letters; a sample political press release, and more.

I’ll let you go check out the How to Win Any Election Kit over on Joe Garecht’s site yourself, and I’m sure it will end up helping you as much as it helped me.  Don’t forget: if you’re a candidate in a political campaign, then campaign consulting items like Joe’s kit are legitimate campaign expenses, and can be purchased from your campaign funds!

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Guide to Local Elections & Political Campaigns?
2. Local Political Candidate: Do I Need a Campaign Manager?
3. Political Campaign Costs: Spending in Local Elections

The first step in mounting a successful political campaign is analyzing the race you are thinking of entering, looking at historical voting data, and determining the likelihood of success.  If you determine that some elbow grease and shoe leather will give you a better than average chance of winning, then you enter the race.  The time for election predictions is before you announce your candidacy, not during your political campaign.

Once you’ve fully committed yourself to a local campaign, the time for predictions, prognosticating and guessing is over.

As a potential candidate, you are allowed to weigh the likelihood of victory.  As an actual candidate, though, your only concerns should be working hard, implementing your election plan, knocking on doors, making phone calls, raising money . . . everything that a winning campaign does.

Believe me, I know how easy it is to start second guessing yourself and your chances of winning once you’re in the thick of campaigning.  Getting just one door slammed in your face during door-to-door canvassing can make you start to wonder if you’re really likely to win your race, after all.  And that little kernel of doubt can sap your resolve and your productivity.

But don’t fall into the trap of re-visiting your election predictions and trying to analyze your chances of winning with every passing day.  By over-analyzing the ever-changing dynamics of your political campaign, you’re only going to do one of two things: make yourself over confident, or demoralize yourself.

Instead, concentrate on the original political campaign game plan that you put in place before your launched your local election effort.  Concern yourself with hitting all of your benchmarks on time: a thousand doors knocked on, a thousand phone calls made, a thousand hands shaken, a thousand dollars raised.

Once you’ve reached one goal, don’t stop and try to re-assess your chances of winning.  Just focus on your next goal.

During the course of your political campaign, you will go from thinking that you are going to win, to thinking that you are going to lose, to thinking that you are going to lose again.

Rather than paying attention to those needling election predictions that pop up periodically in your mind, ignore them and concentrate instead on the only thing that will really win the race for you: hard work and good planning.

Related posts:

1. Local Political Campaigns: How to Win an Election
2. Planning a Political Campaign: Your Winning Number
3. Winning Early Absentee Voters in Your Political Campaign