[From the diaries by susanhu w minor edits] In the flush of Hackett’s exceptional showing in southern Ohio — and it is fantastic — and reading some of the threads it occurred to me some of us may want to get involved in ‘Candidate Recruitment’. I’ve helped do this on a state and district level and it’s not that difficult so allow me a couple of minutes and read on.
Now it helps if you are part of the Dem party (it simplifies the process), but it can be done by any determined, focused group who lives in said district. This process works for any level race, from local through Congressional….
(xposted at DKos)
First off, your pool of candidates may be bigger than it looks. To find a candidate you need to have a group who knows the area and its people reasonably well. That can be the local Dem county committee or DFA or bloggers but don’t do candidate ID in a vacumn. Ask these questions:
Who are the solid, good people in the community: Principals, librarians, store owners, non-profit ex. directors, doctors, lawyers, dentists, chiros, farmers, police, etc etc. In essence, who are the people who have community contact in their daily activities. Don’t leave out current Dem office holders but do expand that basic list.
Make a long list. Ignore their political affiliation but make sure they reside in the district! (voter reg lists or even ye olde phone book)
ID people who know these people. Ask them what they think about the idea of Person X runing for office. If they like it, ask them to have a conversation with their friend to sound them out. If you can’t find a friend of theirs, send someone from the group.
Compile the list of people who do not completely say NO more than 4 times (Ask at least 4 times) and then engage the ‘food chain’. That is, contact current office holders (preferably those who would be their peers) to ask them to run. Repeat this process until the highest Dem political office holder in the state is asking. Let’s say you want someone to run for the state legislature. Get the county chair to ask them, then another legislator and then a Member of Congress or the Governor (if a Dem)
When you are successful, form a campaign committee and launch the next phase.
Most of the people who you get on a list Do Not wake up thinking about running for office. They have busy lives, probably different priorities and are likely to be resistant to running and could even care less about politics (it is hard work after all). The process of wooing a candidate is often different for each candidate. You want to find the people they admire and get them to make the ask. You also have to show a level of organization and fund raising ability. That’s why it helps to do this as part of the Dem party. That’s not so hard. Volunteer for your county party, offer to get involved in candidate recruitment. Get the ball rolling.
Don’t get discouraged. This is an effort in which perfectly good people will say NO far more often than Yes but persist and out of 10 ‘qualified’ people asked at least one will say yes. I could go on with more of the nuances but these are the basics.
Remember, Paul Hackett was not an office holder, nor had he even run for dog catcher. He’s another stand up American who had enough of the current Admin.
