Free Advice To Rockville City Candidates

In the spirit of public service, I wanted to offer some free campaign advice to all >candidates. This advice is worth exactly what you are paying for it.

Since the late 1990′s, I have been involved with a nonpartisan candidate training program at UVA’s Sorensen Institute geared towards first-time candidates. I was just a small part of it. The program brings in campaign experts in a variety of areas (mail, polling, communications, GOTV, etc.) who offer their wisdom to a group of mixed Democrat and Republican (and some Indepenendent) candidates. Over the course of a great number of training sessions, I have gleaned a few lessons from listening to the presenters and also from talking with the many, many candidates in the rooms. (Especially the ones who had already lost a race and were trying again.)

In my experience, many people who run for local office seem a little bit daunted by the process. Others go the opposite direction and act as if they are running for President. Neither approach results in a very successful campaign.

Local campaigns should be fun. These are our neighbors, telling us about what they think is important for our communities, and arguing over the best way forward. What could be more of a hoot?

I am offering these tips in the spirit of helfpulness to all candidates. They are not hard-and-fast rules. I am not a campaign consultant; these are just things I have picked up by osmosis along the way. Take them or leave them. Tell me I’m all wet (or think it to yourself).

In no particular order:

• Most incumbents win re-election. Sorry, it’s true. Challengers have the deck stacked against them. Okay, now you know this. Move on.

• Most first-time candidates lose. Sorry, it’s true. Persevere anyway.
• You must know how many votes you need to win. If you do not have a written plan for how you will get that number of votes, you are planning to lose.
• Know who and where your voters are. Get the voter list. Work it. The person who knocks on the most doors of voters will usually win.
• If you cannot bring yourself to ask friends and family to make a financial investment in your candidacy, you should seriously rethink whether being a candidate is for you.
• You cannot be your own campaign manager. Find someone to do it for you. It can be for free. Then, let them do their job.
• Mailings are worthwhile. Don’t do them too early.
• Many companies make a lot of money selling unnecessary goods and services to small campaigns. Watch your spending.
• Lawn signs do not help you get elected. Put up only enough to seem credible. Don’t be a jerk: Take them down after the election.
• Don’t buy emery boards, pot holders, magnets, or hats. They are a waste. T-shirts are only good if you can get a number of supporters to wear them at the same time. (Like at a parade.) Don’t give them away; supporters should pay for them.
• Buttons are nice for the wearer, but little stickers get the job done just as well for cheaper.
• Television and radio advertising for local candidates is generally not worthwhile. You can’t afford enough repetition to make a dent and you don’t know you are reaching actual voters.
• You need only the bare minimum on the Web; do not spend time and resources on a fancy web site.
• Know who the two or three reporters who are covering your race are. Treat them with respect and get to know them. Remember their job is to write news stories, not just publish your press releases.
• Do not ever, ever lie. You will be found out.
• Know and follow all the rules and laws. Make sure there is someone paying attention to that for you…but you are responsible.
• Google yourself twice a day, morning and night. Study your opponents’ web sites.
• Don’t get caught up in the excitement of speaking to large groups of people unless you know for sure they are possible voters in your district. It does you no good to ask voters in another district to vote for you.
• Always present yourself as if you are in office. People expect you to look like a grown-up. Dress up a little. Don’t wear goofy stuff.
• At receptions and events, don’t be photographed with a glass in your hand.
• Always thank people and be gracious.
• If you are going to be on TV, do not wear a white shirt.
• Yes, issues matter, but people are voting for a person. Let them get to know you. Don’t hide behind a bunch of white papers and position statements.

Well, that’s about it. If you have other ideas, or disagree, please just post in the comment section. Let’s make this a dialogue…and a resource.

What do you think?

Rockville Town Square Dedication Today

>Today at 10 am at the Rockville Town Square, luminaries and dignitaries will be on hand for the official dedication of the new centerpiece of our city. Go to Town Square and you will see Governor O’Malley, our Mayor and City Council, and others.

Our friends at the Norfolk (Virginia) Examiner have chosen this day to release a story whose essence is that Town Square has gotten mixed reviews. On the one hand, it’s been a wild success in terms of visitors:

From a standpoint of attracting people to downtown Rockville, the 12.5-acre Rockville Town Center has been a big success. Hundreds can be spotted dining, shopping or gathering at nearly every time of day.

But, says the Examiner…

[R]esidents are voicing skepticism about the ability to pay back the money used to build new parking garages. Merchants also have said that construction problems along the way have hampered businesses’ success since the first shops opened in February.

Construction problems are nothing new, and are valid complaints. But they sure don’t condemn the whole project. In a facility this size, with so many different facets, it would be a surprise if there weren’t complaints about how smoothly construction had gone.

As for the parking complaint, I would like to know more about just what it means. “Government is supposed to provide improvements that help all citizens,” one Rockville resident is quoted. “How do parking garages satisfy all residents?” To me, it’s part of infrastructure — it would have been crazy to have built something of this size without parking. By keeping 1,000 cars off of streetside parking, the garages sure do satisfy me.

But, that’s all just my opinion. I am a Town Square booster. I am proud of it and spend time there. I patronize its businesses.

I know there was a lot of controversy around its even getting built, so there are a lot of ill feelings towards its very existence. But, whether you supported it or not, here it is. People are coming to it from around the region.

Let’s make it work.

What do you think?

(Photo by Carson)

Revolution In Rockville?

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But then, ‘way up in the corner, I noticed something. Two small dents in the window, with something that looked like red clay…as if from a brick…embedded in one. Wow. They really had tried to “smash the s***” out of the windows, but had evidently failed.

Planning Chair Frowns on Whining

The Gazette >tells us that Steven Johnson, Rockville Planning Commission chair, is irked at the “tiresome” complaints about the a-borning Twinbrook Neighborhood Plan lodged by Twinbrook Citizens Association President Christina Ginsberg, Saying of them that they are “a bit of a whine.”

Comments such as that by city officials (even volunteers) about citizens are unfortunate. But there is a larger issue at work here, too.

At issue appears to be a classic staff/citizen rift. The Planning Commisssion, says Ginsberg, does not provide information timely and slants its questionnaires so that they will result in positive assessments of the current draft plans. Meanwhile, the Commission seems to believe, citizens are not giving them enough room and flexibility in which to make plans — demanding answers about zoning that would come out later in the process.

Each side has an understandable interest: planning in a way that is most beneficial to Rockville as a whole (on the one hand); and really knowing what is going to happen in the neighborhood moving forward (on the other).

It’s too bad that the very mechansim that is supposed to minimize such friction — commuity outreach , that is — appears to be the very thing that is causing it.

Who knows how this process will move forward. But, in the future, people who are designing such mechanisms would do well to really ask, as they go about this important work, just what is it we are after? “Input” that we will then do with as we will? Or a real understanding of the concerns and aspirations of the community?

While we all might quickly say it’s the latter we are after, we need to make sure our plans and actions don’t send the message that we really just want the former (and that only grudgingly).

One way to approach this is to ask: What would it really look like if we went about planning in partnership with the community, rather than just seeking “input?”

What do you think?

Mixed Review for Greystone Grill

This weekend, the >Washington Post has a decidedly mixed review of the Greystone Grill, one of Town Center’s new fine dining offerings.

Sex Ed Curriculum Passes MCPS School Board

As expected, the Montgomery County >school board approved a new sex education curriculum for use in 8th and 10th grades. Our own Julius West Middle School was a test site for the curriculum, which adds two 45-minute lessons to the year and has been the subject of a great deal of controversy.

The curriculum got a last-minute change from schools superintendent Jerry Weast, who added a provision that called for teachers, only if asked by students, to point out that the psychiatric profession does not consider homosexuality to be a disease. (Without the provision, teachers would have been instructed to encourage the student to ask a “trusted adult” about the matter.)

In a comprehensive article announcing the vote, the Washington Post says:

Much of the nation is moving toward an “abstinence-only” approach to sex education, which emphasizes the advantages of confining sex to marriage. But school systems in liberal communities are heading in the opposite direction, teaching more about sexual orientation, as well as contraception and abstinence, in what is termed “comprehensive” sex education.

Sex ed has always been a contentious issue. It goes to core beliefs about how — and what — we want to pass on to our children, and under what conditions. If the Post is right, there is an added “culture war” overlay too.

It seems clear that, even though the vote is over and done, the disputes will continue on.

What do you think?

Duncan Library?

If you read the Gazette or the Washington Post, >you know it is possible that the new library in Rockville Town Center could be named for the former Montgomery County executive and former Rockville mayor (and West End resident) Doug Duncan.

The new MoCo executive, Ike Leggett, is set to make the decision after a board (stacked, critics say, with Duncan supporters) has recommended to go with the name. This would make it one of the few libraries in the county that has a person’s name affixed (usually they are named after the place they are) and Leggett would have to waive a county policy that requires people for whom buildings are named to have been away from public service for at least five years.

[edit] According to WaPo, “Duncan backers said that he was a supporter of public libraries and that he increased funding, expanded library hours and fought for state money for the Rockville project during his 12 years in office.” [/edit]

Critics say that Duncan did not push hard enough, when MoCo executive, for library funding and so it would be wrong to name a library after him. Among alternatives that have been proposed is “Rockville Memorial Library,” to honor fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What do you think?

Retreat This

A retreat to re-establish trust and clear the air among our bickering city council members has been scheduled for August 17, the >Gazette reports that city manager Scott Ullery confirms.

I am all for members of government bodies to get along. But I question the wisdom of the Rockville City Council trying to “retreat” in the midst of an election campaign that will be getting hot (Sept. 7 is the deadline to file as a candidate) and which includes an open mayoral seat. It will be hard for council members to check their self-interest at the door under such conditions.

Better to do something like this shortly after taking office in an even year, when election pressures have not yet mounted. Granted, this summer’s retreat is in part designed to make up for one held February 2006 — which Councilwoman Robbins did not attend for medical reasons.

Yes, there has been acrimony and division. But as the term ends and campaign-time begins is probably not the most effective time to try to bury the hatchet.

Maybe I am wrong. What do you think?

Trash Day

It’s trash day on my block. Last week we didn’t have pickup because of Memorial Day. It made me recall the ongoing argument over >switching from twice-per-week trash pickup to once-per-week.

I am in favor of once-per-week. Two times a week is a waste of resources, in my view.

What about you? What do you think?