[Sosfbay-discuss] Find-A-Candidate Challenge: Do you have a success story yet?

[Ray Tobey]

I hope it's okay to keep everyone in the discussion.

Caroline Yacoub wrote:
> Jim Doyle gave us a reality check at the last meeting by saying that, 
> if we were serious about winning an election, we had to be prepared to 
> spend $60,000. I think it would also be helpful for a few folks to 
> read "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me" by Jesse Ventura. You 
> don't have to agree with him to be impressed by his winning the 
> governorship against the democrats and republicans.

Spending money is only a time saver - for example, it costs money to 
mail to the voters. If you are willing and able to hand deliver to 
specific addresses, you don't need the postage money. In fact, though 
mailers are one of the fastest ways to get your message out, they rank 
among the least efficient methods of persuasion.

Expertise is the most important expense for most winning campaigns. A 
good campaign consultant charges in the range of $15,000 per month. 
Without knowing how elections are won, most of the money, time & effort 
is wasted. If you study, then you don't need to budget for consulting fees.

I think we spent about $65,000 on Aimee's second campaign in Oakland and 
ended up with 39% of the vote, among 3 candidates. However, we only had 
5 months. With two years, there are far more options, all of them cheaper.

Thanks for the book suggestion. The ones I recommend are:

    The Speed of Trust
    Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
    Crossing The Chasm (derived from 'Diffusion of Innovations')
    Political Targeting, 2nd Edition
    Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way

So far, I've summarized the first three as part of my own book. At 60 
pages, the summary is 750 pages shorter than the originals. If anyone 
wants the read it, please let me know.

- Ray