Running for local office, the first thirty days, step by step

Every first-time candidate has the same first month. Day one is glorious. You tell your spouse. You tell your pastor. You tell the guy at the hardware store, who says, "About time." By day three you have designed a yard sign. By day ten you have a logo, a slogan and a Facebook page. By day thirty you have discovered that the filing window closed last Friday, that you live two blocks outside the ward you were going to run in, and that you have been depositing contributions into your personal checking account.

That movie plays out in campaign after campaign, and it tends to end the same way. The candidate who loses the first month to enthusiasm loses the race to paperwork. The candidate who spends the first month on the dull things wins the right to spend the rest of the campaign on the interesting ones.

So here is a checklist. It is grouped, and every item comes with its reason, because a rule you understand is a rule you remember. It is also general. Local offices run under state law and local charters, and the rules differ widely, so your job is to find the exact answers for your exact office. I'll tell you which questions to ask and who can answer them.

Group 1: Confirm what you are running for

1. Confirm the exact office and the title on the ballot. "City council" might be "alderman," "commissioner," "trustee" or "ward representative." The ballot title is what appears on the forms. Reason: the filing office takes forms for a specific office, and a form filled out for a slightly wrong one may be rejected.

2. Confirm the term and which seats are up. Many local boards use staggered terms, so only some seats are on the ballot in any given cycle. Is it a two-year, four-year or six-year term? Is the seat up this time, or is it a special election to fill a vacancy? Reason: running for a seat that is not up is the quickest way to waste a season.

3. Read the job description. The city charter, county code or school district policy usually says what the body does, how often it meets and what it pays. Is the job part-time, full-time or something in between? Does it come with a stipend, a salary or nothing? Reason: a candidate who does not know the job cannot explain why he wants it, and voters can tell.

4. Learn whether the race is partisan or nonpartisan. In a nonpartisan race there is often no party label on the ballot, and the primary may work differently. Reason: it changes how you use the party's help, and whether there is a primary at all. See nonpartisan on the ballot does not mean nonideological in the council chamber.

Group 2: Confirm that you are eligible

5. Check the age, citizenship and residency requirements. Look them up in the state statute, the local charter and the filing guide. Reason: eligibility is the one thing a clerk cannot waive, and a challenge after you win is worse than a rejection before you file.

6. Confirm how long you must have lived in the district or ward. Some offices require a minimum period of residence before filing or before the election, and some require you to live in the district for the whole term. Reason: a move last spring can change the answer.

7. Verify your voter registration and the address on it. Many offices require you to be a registered voter in the jurisdiction. Reason: your registration is the first thing the clerk will check, and a mismatch between your registered address and your filing address is a common cause of delay.

8. Ask about other conditions. Some offices bar candidates who hold certain other jobs, such as a public employee seeking a seat on the body that employs him, or a person who has been convicted of certain offenses. Ask the clerk or the county or city attorney's office. Reason: "incompatible offices" and conflict rules are state-specific, and you do not want to learn about them after the election.

Group 3: Master the calendar

9. Find the filing window. Obtain the opening and closing dates and times from the filing office or the secretary of state. Put both in your calendar with an alarm one week ahead. Reason: the window is a hard line, and late is out.

10. Find out what you must submit. Typically it is a declaration of candidacy, a filing fee or a petition with signatures, and sometimes both, plus an affidavit or oath. Ask whether a petition is an alternative to the fee. Reason: a missing signature, a form signed in the wrong place or the wrong fee amount can sink a filing. For more, see ballot access explained, petitions, fees and the deadlines that kill campaigns.

11. Find the other dates. These include the deadline to withdraw, the date the ballot is certified, the deadline for write-in candidates, the last day to register to vote, early voting dates, the date for campaign finance reports and Election Day itself. Reason: each one is a trap for a campaign without a calendar.

12. Work the calendar back from Election Day. Count backward in weeks. Here is a hypothetical. Suppose Election Day is 26 weeks away. That is 26 times 7, or 182 days. If the filing window closes 20 weeks from today, that is 20 times 7, or 140 days, and the stretch between the close of filing and Election Day is 182 minus 140, or 42 days. The first thirty days of your own work should be spent finishing everything in this list well before that window closes, because once it does you have six weeks to run a campaign, not 26. Mark the weeks for fundraising, the weeks for door-knocking and the final seventy-two hours for turnout. Reason: a campaign without a calendar is a campaign run by the last email.

Group 4: Register the campaign and open the books

13. Find the right agency for committee registration. For federal offices, candidates register with the Federal Election Commission once they cross the statutory dollar threshold. For state and local offices, the registration is with a state agency, a county clerk or a city clerk, and the thresholds, forms and deadlines are set by state or local law. Ask the clerk which agency governs your office and whether you must register before you raise or spend anything. Reason: the agency decides what reports you owe, and registering late can be a violation. For a broader orientation, see How campaign finance law works, and why you should check the FEC for the numbers.

14. Open a separate campaign bank account. Use the name on the registration, get the account number in order and deposit only campaign money. Reason: mixing campaign and personal money is the surest route to a compliance problem, and many jurisdictions forbid it outright. A separate account also gives you clean records.

15. Name a treasurer. Many jurisdictions require one, and a treasurer who is not the candidate is a good habit even where it is not required. Choose someone careful and numerate, and confirm that the person meets any legal requirements. Reason: the treasurer keeps the books and files the reports, and a candidate who is also the bookkeeper tends to make errors at the worst moments.

16. Learn the disclaimer and reporting rules. Many places require that campaign signs, mailers and ads carry a disclaimer saying who paid for them, and require reports of contributions and expenditures on a schedule. Get the rules in writing and keep them near the desk. Reason: a mistake on a printed piece is expensive to fix. Our guide on yard signs, mailers and disclaimers, the rules of the road answered covers the usual questions.

17. Set a rough budget. Write down what you can raise and what you must spend: printing, signs, mailers, a basic website, filing fees, a voter list. Reason: a budget tells you what is possible. See a campaign budget worksheet for the candidate with no money and no staff.

Group 5: Build the list

18. Get the voter file. Ask the county election office how to obtain the list of registered voters and what restrictions apply to its use. In many states a candidate may obtain it for a fee or at no cost, for election purposes only. Reason: the voter file is the map of the race. It tells you who is registered, where they live and, in many states, whether they voted in past elections.

19. Calculate your win number. Find out how many people voted in the last comparable election for this office, estimate how many will vote this time, and work out what it takes to win. Our the win-number worksheet, how many votes does your race really take shows the arithmetic. Reason: "I need votes" is not a plan. "I need roughly this many, from these precincts" is.

20. Write down your first twenty supporters. Not donors, not experts: twenty people who know you and will say yes to a small request, such as hosting a coffee, putting a sign in the yard or making ten phone calls. Write their names, phone numbers and what each one can do. Reason: campaigns grow from a small, committed core, and a core you have not named is a core you do not have.

21. Tell your party, if there is one. If you are running as a Republican, call the county chairman. Ask what help the party offers, whether it makes endorsements and how it handles contested primaries. See how a county party recruits candidates for every empty line on the ballot. Reason: the party can offer training, a list of volunteers and introductions, and it does not like to be surprised.

Group 6: Learn the office

22. Attend a meeting of the body. Sit through one and, if you can, two. Read the agenda and the packet. Notice who speaks and how decisions are made. Reason: a candidate who has never watched the body work cannot say how he would change it. Public meetings are open, and our open meetings and public records, a citizen's toolkit for any local government explains how to find the agenda, the minutes and the records.

23. Read the budget. Local budgets are public. Find the current one, note the biggest line items and notice what has grown fastest. Reason: most local races turn on taxes, services and growth, and the budget is the document that decides them.

24. Write your reasons in three sentences. Why are you running, what would you do first and why you? Reason: if you cannot say it in three sentences you will not say it at a door.

Group 7: Tell people, carefully

25. Do not announce before you are legally ready. Check whether announcing or spending triggers a registration or reporting duty before you do either. Reason: the clock on some obligations starts when you receive or spend money, or when you declare, and it is easy to start it by accident.

26. Plan the announcement. A short statement, a photo, a call to the first twenty, a note to the local paper. Reason: a clear announcement tells people what office you seek, why, and how to help.

What a good thirty days looks like: a worked example

Take a hypothetical candidate, call him Dan, in a hypothetical town with a nonpartisan council election. In week one, Dan calls the city clerk and gets the filing guide, finds out his seat is up, confirms his residency and puts the filing window and the other dates in his calendar. In week two, he registers his campaign with the clerk, opens an account, names his sister-in-law, an accountant, as treasurer, and sets a modest budget. In week three, he gets the voter file, works out his win number and writes down twenty names. In week four, he attends a council meeting, reads the budget, writes his three sentences and tells the county chairman. He has not printed a sign, and he has not wasted a dollar. His campaign is ready to begin.

Dan is a made-up person, and the point is not Dan. The point is that none of these twenty-six steps is exciting, and every one of them is the difference between a campaign that can win and a campaign that can only lose.

The objection: "Paperwork is for lawyers; I just want to talk to voters"

That is the best objection, and it comes from the right place. A candidate should be talking to voters, and the system is too complicated. I agree with the second half: there is no good reason a citizen should need a lawyer to run for the school board.

But the rules exist, and the other side's operatives know them. A campaign that misses a deadline cannot talk to voters because it is not on the ballot. A campaign that mishandles money gives an opponent the story. A campaign that never counted its votes arrives at the door with no idea of where to go. The paperwork is not a distraction from the real work. It is the thing that makes the real work count. And three phone calls in week one save weeks of trouble later. See also three first-time candidates, three races, and how each spends the first year.

The bottom line

• Spend the first thirty days on the dull things: the office, the eligibility rules, the calendar, the registration and the books. They are the difference between a campaign that is on the ballot and one that is not.
• Call the clerk or election office in week one. Ask the exact office, filing window, requirements and campaign registration rules, and get them in writing.
• Open a separate bank account, name a treasurer and learn the disclaimer rules before you spend a dollar.
• Get the voter file, calculate your win number and write down your first twenty supporters.
• Go to a meeting, read the budget, and be able to say in three sentences why you are running. Then print the signs.