As the release of ‘So You Want to Win a Local Election?’ finally draws near (we have the InDesign files and are looking at mid February, woo hoo!), I will continue to cross-post blog entries from that website right here on The First Ward.
This particular column covers my favorite campaign commandment, pick a race you can win! And we use the crowded Chicago mayoral field as the perfect example of how most of those fine folks don’t have a snowball’s shot in hell.
Enjoy!
Please pick a race you can win!
My favorite campaign commandment in the soon-to-be-released ‘So You Want to Win a Local Election?’ is …drumroll please… pick a race you can win! I may love idealists and their boundless energy, but we campaign managers have another name for those overly optimistic folks – “losers!”
And I mean that in the electoral sense only.
Because for every Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Dave Brat (he beat Eric Kantor), there are 100 candidates you’ve never heard of and never will. And the truth is, Brat didn’t win, Kantor lost that Congressional race out of an absurd abundance of arrogance and Ocasio-Cortez is one of those rare “movement candidates” you see just once or twice in a lifetime. read more
Harold (Red) Johnson was mayor was mayor of Sycamore and in his 9th term when he passed in 1991. I heard that he was elected one year even though he was not running for the post.
Alex, I’ll take no body for $1000,
Answer: A person that you can trust and vote for in Illinois.
Who is No body?
Correct!