Reply #72: Only Run If-- [View All]

[mdguss]

If you run--and if you want to win and/or keep the doors open to other elective office--you have to raise enough money to print some signs, buy stamps, employ a small staff (probably 2), you have to have a large group of people who'd be willing to volunteer for you (generally this is family friends), you have to be in a position where you could spend 16 hours a day 7 days a week running.

Against a well-funded opponent, you'll never match them on tv ads. But you'll have to buy some to get your side of the story aired.

You have to be willing to knock on thousands of doors, attend countless meetings of different groups, and generally try to patch together diffuse interests.

Is it possible? Sure.

But if you're not in a position where you can raise $125,000 (and that is the bare minimum), and spend that long campaigning, don't do it.

Also, only run if you want to be a Congressperson: they generally have to spend 3-4 days a week in Washington attending various committee meetings, calling various agencies on the behalf of constituents, and crossing the street to raise enough money for the next election. They go through this grueling campaign every two years. If you win, you'll be in a vulunerable seat, and you'll have two or maybe three more hotly contested elections.

But if you can do all those things, go ahead, run. You might not win, but you can probably make a difference.