You don't have to be a Barack Obama or John Tester to run for office. I don't know if the '50 State Strategy' or the '435 Seat Strategy' includes local politics. If not, they should.
I'm running for local office. I became interested in politics at the age of 53 when my brother (a non-politician) decided to run for office in another venue. I couldn't vote for him; I didn't live in his district. So, I went down there on election day to help GOTV. After he won his election, he encouraged me to get politically involved on the local level.
So I did.
The first thing I did was to get in touch with my town's Democratic Town Commmittee (DTC). I live in suburban Connecticut, a town with a Board of Selectmen including a First Selectman and two other Selectmen. Our town budget is about $27.5 million, of which the Board of Education receives about $18 million.
The 1st Selectman and one of the other Selectmen are Democrats. I called them up, and they were thrilled to see me. This was on a Saturday on the home of one of them; they were fine tuning the budget. The first question was, "Are you willing to run for State office?" Well, I am, but I thought I'd have to argue my case. The best political advise I got from my non politician brother was to get involved locally, then look to state service perhaps a year or 2 down the road, meanwhile getting face time and developing a track record. So I said, "yes, I could run for state office, but what is there in this town?" It turns out that there is a lot. I think it's typical that whenever someone shows up, willing to put himself or herself out there, there will be plenty to do. There were vacancies on the town's board of finance, library board, board of education. Typically, these are jobs no one wants, they are thankless, time consuming, and voluntary (ie, no pay). Still, if a person wants to get active, to make a mark...
So I volunteered to fill the Board of Education vacancy. It is really an elective position, but the current member had resigned for reasons of her own. There had been big troubles with the BoE in the recent past; a do-nothing Superintendent fired with attendant chunk of money, an interim hired, several new administrators hired, smoke cleared, and stability refound.
This is where I entered the picture. The existing BoE was also thrilled that someone stepped up to the plate, and voted me an interim member until the election, which is this November. Since then, I've been to several meetings, a retreat, met the newly hired Superintendent, was in on the hiring of a new Principal.
But tonight, the DTC had their caucus. I was invited, of course. I found that Democracy in action at this level was exciting. I was included in the slate of DTC endorsed candidates, both new candidates and those seeking reelection, from the 1st Selectman on down. There were perhaps 9 or 10 candidates all told.
Before we adjourned, we were treated to a visit by Nancy Wyman, the State of Connecticut's State Comptroller. She was stumping for our own home town Presidential Candidate, Chris Dodd. The DTC endorsed him, as is happening all over the State of Connecticut by many towns. I learned the both DTCs and Republican Town Committees always endorse home state candidates in major national races. We can endorse our next choice after the convention, if it comes to it.
So now, I sit down with the Chairman of the DTC and map a strategy for election. Shall we use brochures? Radio? What is the best way? I have some ideas, since I recently attended the DFA Academy on how to get elected, but we need to plan it all out. Thanks to DFA, I know how it's done, how to do it myself. It'll be good.
And in 2 or 3 years, my district's State Representative or State Senator (surprisingly both Republicans in this blue, blue state) might find a challenge in a little known non politician. Like me. Or like you! Because believe me when I say, if I can do it, ANYONE can do it!