This past November we participated in the classic tradition of voting; In Salt Lake County we made some strong advances and made progress in getting Democrats elected to all levels of government.  Indeed, we have seen good work out of Jay Seegmiller, Trisha Beck, Laura Black, and Jani Iwamoto, just to name a few – and they are currently in positions of power because they ran good, solid campaigns that focused on talking to voters and making sure people knew who they were.

Ah, but here is the rub – three out of the four names I just listed came from the school of electoral hard knocks.  That’s right, Seegmiller, Beck, and Black each have, at the very least, one prior campaign under their belt before they were victorious.  Furthermore, two out of the four (Seegmiller and Black) had extremely close elections in 2006 – Beck too had a relatively close race, but I exclude her because in 2006 she ran for a Senate seat whereas in ‘08 she ran for the House.

In other words, with Iwamoto being the notable exception, Democrats will only win if they try, try again – but let us extrapolate that further – Democrats only win if they get exposure.

Now how do candidates get exposure? Obviously being on a ballot two or three times is a good way to remind people of who you are – but short of that less than desirable option, how do you make sure that the public knows who you are – after all, most of the time the first time a candidates name is ever really public is when they file to run in March.  In short, candidates have eight months to introduce themselves to the voters and convince them to vote for them come November.

Now, I have worked on numerous campaigns, and if there is one thing I know, it is that candidates are far too busy receiving a crash course on how to campaign to actually go out and, well, campaign. Congratulations, you just lost three weeks. of campaigning  Now that you have the skills, you need to finance your campaign, lists need to be compiled, letters need to be written, and phone calls need to be made – another three weeks spent not campaigning.  Ok, you have some cash – time to buy campaign literature, have lawn signs printed up, and perhaps go out and find a campaign manager and/or consultant to help you, another two weeks lost.

It is now late May, early June, and you have yet to talk to a single voter.

Now, you will note, that every single one of the activities that I listed above can be done before a candidate ever officially throws their hat into the ring.  You will also note that (in the case of Democrats in Utah) your opponent will have a big, fat “R” next to their name and is not terribly concerned about actually trying to win over voters.  You will further note that your opponent probably has six, seven, or ten thousand dollars more than you in the first financial reporting period and that you are on a fast track to nowhere.  What are you to do?

Simple: get the information on how to run two months before you officially announce rather than after.

This is where early candidate recruitment comes in.

Now I am under no illusion that that every single seat from city council to state senator has people lining up to run, in fact, I believe it is quite the opposite – finding candidates is hard and most people have never considered running for office.  But there are people out there who know they want to run and live in areas that could potentially vote Democrat if only they had a quality candidate on the ballot.

The Salt Lake County Democrats and the Utah Democratic Party must invest more time in finding candidates.  In all relaity the process should be taking place 18 months to two years before the candidates actual election; a single candidate should be chosen at least a year before the election, and all training should be done by February so that candidates are ready to campaign on the first clear day in March.  In the event that a seat is contested within the party, both candidates should receive the same training. And, yes, I did say campaign in March.  I know that the thought of people campaigning right now seems crazy, but I am not talking about knocking on doors, I am talking about going to community council meetings and introducing yourself, going to community fairs, and talking to your neighbors.  Simple, easy things that give you an advantage when Election Day comes around.

When elected as Second Vice Chair, I will make sure that the County Democrats start recruiting candidates much earlier in the election cycle.  We may not win them all, but we will have a two month head start on the way we have been doing things.

Ladies and gentleman, we can win elections – but we need to make sure that our candidates have the tools to win on day one.  Please vote for me, Curtis Haring, for Second Vice Chair, and I will work hard to make sure that we find the right candidate for the job, not just the one who could write his name on a declaration. The election is April 18th at Cottonwood High, for more information, please click here.