Election Dynamics Part 3: Putting it all together

As promised, this is part three, the final installment in the Election Dynamics entries. This somewhat rambling set of posts has been designed to help potential Green Party candidates think about elections in an organized and strategic manner - why are you running, where will you run, what type of office, what are the tools and techniques that can be used?

This last installment will be focussed on your incumbent and the race you running in.

Starting with the last first - the race you are running in. What is the best race for you to run in, as a Green Party member? That depends on many things, but most importantly - your interests, your ability to devote time/energy/resources to the campaign, and your incumbent(s),

What are your interests? Are they focused towards social justice, the economy, environmentalism, or something else? The issues and values you focus on in your race should be of great interest and passion to you. This translates in to something the voters can feel, and understand. Even if you are the area's biggest authority on transportation issues, if you sound bored with the subject and the values behind it, the voters will tune out on this. They will hear the message that you do not have the energy, and that you may not even care about the ideas you are trying to advance. Monitor the news, the opinion pages, blogs, and other media for hot issues in your race. If some or all of these issues coincide with issues you are excited and passionate about - seriously consider addressing them in your campaign.

What amount of time/energy/resources can you devote to the campaign: A good rule of thumb is - the smaller the amounts of each, the smaller your district should be that you are campaigning in. Continuing along that line of thought, at a certain point you will have to ask - "Am I able to give enough to have a chance of achieving my goal(s)?" Be honest with yourself, the people you have gathered to help you, and the Green Party organizing you are working with. It is better to delay running for office until the next cycle so you can do it right vs running a weak, poorly managed campaign that you cannot be fully engaged in. You can never devote too much time to your race, but think carefully when considering if you can devote enough.

The incumbent. This is what it comes down to - you have to defeat someone to win office. It may be an entrenched incumbent, it may be a field of other candidates if the encumbent is term-limted out of running again. But it will be you against someone else. The first rule of combat is Know Your Enemy. While that may be a bit much when it comes to politics, you will need to know your opponent as well as they know themselves. Their voting record, fundraising, professional history, educational history, public records, published articles, speeches. Their own record, action, and words can speak volumes about them, and against them. Now, I am not advocating for negative campaigning or a spree of attack ads. But, proper research on the incumbent is essential in knowing where they are weak on issues and values, and where you can show your strength. For example: if your incumbent takes massive donations from corporate special interests, and you do not (and you BETTER NOT as a Green Party candidate) - you have the opportunity to relentlessly and honestly hammer the point that your incumbent is more concerned with representing the wealthy and powerful then the regular folks of the district.

A note of caution: If you start to gain momentum in a race, and start to look like a contender for victory, you will be attacked (especially if running against an entrenched incumbent). So, look into that closet of yours and see what skeletons might be in there. Not a pretty thing to think about, but it can happen. On the upside, if you are being attacked, that means you are doing something right, so do not let up on your opponent!

Once you have done your research on your opponent, you can contruct a message grid which will help guide you in putting together a cohesive set of messages. I message grid has four quadrants:

1. You on you: These are messages that your campaign will advance about you, your values, your issues, and your ideas.
2. You on them: These are messages that your campaign will advance about your opponent. Again, this is not automatically negative campaigning, but highlighting of differences to your advantage.
3. Them on them: This is what the opponents campaign will say about themselves- their ideas, values, voting history, accomplishments, etc
4. Them on you: If they start talking about you/attacking you, these are message that they will use. Do not go easy on yourself. Have your meanest, snarkiest friend play the role of the opposition and rip into you from a messaging standpoint.

A note on message grids: There are entire books written about messaging and messaging techniques. A message grid is meant to be nothing more than a simple, useful tool, to help you get used to thinking in a multi-dimensional way. Think about big electoral races - both campaigns are constantly: talking about themselves, talking about their opponent, running positive ads, running negative ads, running rebuttals to attack ads run against them, etc. It is very common for some or all of the messaging modes to be running simultaneously.

That wraps up the three part series on election dynamics. I hope you have found it useful, and that it can be a starting point for your own ideas about running for office. Questions, comments, and feedback are always welcome - post those comments, people!