How to Run For Office

The first step to running for office is deciding to run for office. This is probably the biggest, most difficult step in the process. The idea has grown up in the last fifty or sixty years that the government is a separate entity from the people being governed. Back in 1944, a Canadian politician even compared the government to cats and the governed to mice. "Why" he asked rhetorically, "do the mice keep voting for cats to govern them?"

This idea is not only wrong, it's dangerously wrong. The traditional American view has always been that government is not only "of the people", it's also "by the people". We ARE our government. The more people forget this, the easier it is to alienate people from the government, to convince them that government is some sort of ruling elite that's been imposed upon them from outside. When you decide to run for office, you reject the idea that government is an alien ruling class, and embrace the idea that WE are the government.

So, having decided to run for office, the next step is to show up at the local Board of Canvassers and let them know that you're running for office. This is done by filling out a Declaration of Candidate form. There's a three day period when you can do this -- this year it was June 23 to 25.

When you declare your candidacy, the Board of Canvassers hands you a bunch of forms that have to be filed with the Rhode Island Board of Elections in Providence. First is the Notice of Organization, which informs the Board who your campaign treasurer is. Every campaign is required to have a treasurer, though in Rhode Island the candidate is allowed to be his own treasurer. It's the campaign treasurer's job to keep track of all the money collected and spent by the campaign. The treasurer also has to send in periodic reports on "campaign activity" (ie money received and spent).

Once you've declared yourself a candidate, in due course the Board of Canvassers provides you with your Nomination Papers. This is basically a petition, and you have to get a certain number of signatures from registered voters by a certain date. This year, the candidates get their Nomination Papers on July 1, and they have until 4:00 PM on Friday, July 11 to turn them in. (In my case, running for the state House of Representatives, I have to get 50 signatures from people living in District 75.) It's always a good idea to get extra signatures, ideally twice the required minimum, just in case some of them aren't valid.

If you can get enough signatures, then you qualify for a place on the ballot. At this point, you start to do the actual "campaigning" part of the campaign: persuading people to vote for you by kissing hands and shaking babies. The most basic form of campaigning is knocking on doors, saying "Hi" to the people who answer, and asking them to vote for you. All other forms of campaigning -- handing out flyers, telephoning people, staging rallies, participating in debates -- are variations on this basic theme. They're all different ways of persuading people to vote for you.

If there's more than one person from your party running for the same office, you all go head-to-head with each other in a primary election. In my case, since Peter Martin is also running as a Democrat, the two of us will be running against each other until Primary Election Day, Tuesday, September 9, when the Democrats and unaffiliated voters of the 75th get to choose between us. The only other person running for the seat is the incumbent, Steve Coaty, a Republican. Since he's the only Republican in the race, he doesn't have to worry about a primary election. He only has to get ready for General Election Day, Tuesday, November 4, when the voters of the 75th get to choose between him and whoever wins the primary between Peter and me.

After the election is over, you have to file a final post-election set of reports on "campaign activity", and you also file a form dissolving your campaign. And of course, if you win the election, you become part of the government. But that's a whole different set of worries.