Campaign Update: Just getting started

Let's Do this...somewhere
It’s almost 5 am as I write this and I can honestly say I feel a new day coming.

The birds outside are chirping and I’m beginning to feel a bit of a buzz about my campaign prospects. Of course, there’s still lots of work to be done.

First, I have to find a campaign treasurer. As much as I hate to admit it, this is one of the most critical positions on the team. In addition to handling all the campaign contributions and expenditures, the appointment of a campaign treasurer can have a huge impact on how quickly those campaign contributions roll in. It’s gotta be someone you trust, and who will keep up with the reporting dates in addition to all the other stuff. It helps if its someone with a good foothold in the community because it lends a level of credibility to a campaign. I’ve got some potential candidates in mind. We’ll see how it all shakes out in the coming days.

Second, I’ve got to get some kind of campaign account set up. Really, I could have already done this, but I’m a poor college student, and could only scrape together $35 in change from my change jar, couch, and car. I think most places want to see at least $100 to get started. Maybe a bake sale will help.

Besides finding a way for a blue collar, college student such as myself to fund a campaign, there are several other things that must be done.

I’ll have to go pull and file nominating petitions and get enough signatures from the district to qualify. The signature part is no big deal, I’ve done that before, even though I didn’t file back in 2008. The problem is finding the people to sign 9 petitions. See, a qualified signature must live in the district that its filed in. Since I don’t know what district I’ll be running in, and no one knows for sure what district they’ll find themselves in after redistricting, it can get pretty complicated.

Heck, I’m not even sure the Election Commission will let me pull all 9 petitions, which means that if I start trying now, and get shifted to another district I’ll have to start all over again. No one wants to do that, and having to do so can hurt your credibility with supporters.

So, rather than have people sign a bunch of stuff and then have to do it all over again, I’ve started a “virtual petition” facebook page for people to show their support, and get in line to be one of the names on a history making campaign for some, yet to be determined district.

I’ve also got to get my campaign website up and running with some content. While I understand that a web strategy alone won’t win you a race, its also important to have a place for potential supporters to go so they can see what you have in mind.

I’ll be working on that over the weekend.

Finally, I’m trying to decide if I need to do something to spur the City Council into action, or at least get some information shared publicly. There are many avenues that could be explored, some more adversarial than others, but I’m a peacemaker more than a trouble maker. I think they have a meeting on Tuesday. Maybe I should just go up there and ask them.

Well, it’s just after 5:30 am and I see none of my policy advisors have accepted my page “Like” request yet. I guess I’ll let them sleep since I can’t pay them at this point. It’s going to be a long slog to October. They need their rest. If you’re up, go beat them to the punch and “Like” my Facebook page.

Thanks in advance for your support.

Sincerely,

Steve Ross

2 Replies to “Campaign Update: Just getting started”

  1. Now Steve, those of us volunteering on your campaign need to banking some sleep. We will be working NINE districts, for pete’s sake. I foresee many sleepless nights ahead and too much coffee and lots of cranky Twitter messages in the near future.

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