Again, when I became Chair in 2005, I immediately began candidate recruitment for 2006. It was no easy task. In fact, it downright sucks. No one cared til right before the deadline. Everyone had some kind of issue about why they couldn’t run (as a Democrat usually).

It’s a huge task that isn’t as easy as everyone thinks.

In 2007, Rob and I formed committees to help with recruitment but at the end of it all, it was me, Wayne and Rob making phone calls and begging people to run. Hell, I’ve even paid for filing fees just so we’d have a name!

I don’t mean to sound judgmental or cruel in my comments. It’s just that I’ve gone through this before, as have many others. I hope I can be a good sounding board and purveyor of good advice. I care about this party so much it’s been my entire life for 10 years. But after a while, you begin to wonder if you’re the only one.

And as for candidate training, the candidates beg the party to do some kind of training. In fact, agreeing to provide XX hours of training is how we convinced many Legislative candidates to run in 2008. Plus, you’d be surprised how much of the common sense campaign techniques people just don’t know.