HLS Democrats Host Campaign Training Series
Pamela Foohey
Issue date: 4/12/07 Section: News
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Think you might want to run for office or run a campaign? Over the past few weeks, the HLS Democrats have hosted a series of campaign trainings designed to put into context all types of campaign work and roles. The last of the series is scheduled for Monday, April 23. Providing the candidate's perspective, Rhode Island State Representative David Segal will relate his own experiences of being a young candidate and the process of running for office.
Before spring break, Dan Geldon, President of the Dems, led the first training session. Titled "Putting a Campaign Together," the training sparked a good deal of interest, attracting over thirty students. Geldon presented a structural overview of typical campaign jobs by running though a roadmap of how a candidate may approach setting up her campaign. Focusing on the roadmap, Geldon outlined four keys steps to starting a campaign. First, and arguably the most important for launching a successful career, the candidate must begin reaching out to friends, potential donors, influential community leaders, and influential activities even before she announces her campaign. As Geldon explained, this outreach identifies loyal supporters willing to serve in the candidate's kitchen, and provides some financial support to fund the next steps. At the same time, candidates should brush up on the federal and state election law.
Having built a base of support and some financing, candidates should begin hiring consultants and building a staff. Unsurprisingly, Geldon described consultants as essential, but potentially troublesome. Consultants generally are selected earlier than other staff, partly because their experienced advice is invaluable, and partly because picking a few helps to stop the slew of calls from the universe of consultants. As the universe of consultants is expansive, providing advice on topics from media, to voter targeting, to research, to general counsel, consultants tend to have an extraordinary amount of power on campaigns. Accordingly, as Geldon noted, it is important that candidates keep tabs on their consultants to ensure fights between them and the rest of their key staff do not slow down their efforts.
Before spring break, Dan Geldon, President of the Dems, led the first training session. Titled "Putting a Campaign Together," the training sparked a good deal of interest, attracting over thirty students. Geldon presented a structural overview of typical campaign jobs by running though a roadmap of how a candidate may approach setting up her campaign. Focusing on the roadmap, Geldon outlined four keys steps to starting a campaign. First, and arguably the most important for launching a successful career, the candidate must begin reaching out to friends, potential donors, influential community leaders, and influential activities even before she announces her campaign. As Geldon explained, this outreach identifies loyal supporters willing to serve in the candidate's kitchen, and provides some financial support to fund the next steps. At the same time, candidates should brush up on the federal and state election law.
Having built a base of support and some financing, candidates should begin hiring consultants and building a staff. Unsurprisingly, Geldon described consultants as essential, but potentially troublesome. Consultants generally are selected earlier than other staff, partly because their experienced advice is invaluable, and partly because picking a few helps to stop the slew of calls from the universe of consultants. As the universe of consultants is expansive, providing advice on topics from media, to voter targeting, to research, to general counsel, consultants tend to have an extraordinary amount of power on campaigns. Accordingly, as Geldon noted, it is important that candidates keep tabs on their consultants to ensure fights between them and the rest of their key staff do not slow down their efforts.
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