21–30 of 167 posts
Stale data, unfortunately. I could run for the US federal legislature, with an election day of Nov 8, 2016. Also, no local elective offices in my jurisdiction.
There's a powerful social permission / imposter syndrome thing that works against people running for office, so an effective thing you can do even if you yourself can't bring yourself to stand for office is to convince friends to do it, and offer to support their candidacies. I've found it's remarkably easy to have that conversation with people. Ultimately, telling someone you'd support them if they ran for elected o…
(Many contributions have strings attached. Yours doesn't have to.)
Oddly, it gave me an office in Chicago when I searched my home address in Atlanta...
> Today, 40% of state legislature races go uncontested and the problem is worse at the local level. There is a crisis of leadership occurring in our democracy. We need more people to lead. We need more people to run for office.
> Run for Office is a free service that provides all the tools you need to launch a successful campaign whether you are a seasoned veteran or first—time campaigner.
You won't "launch a successful campaign" if you are a nobody running against an incumbent who is supported by the dominant political party in a bright red or deep blue state. You'd need to be a seasoned veteran with wide name recognition who is very well connected, well liked, and also wealthy, but then you're not likely to be using this tool.
It's in the races where the incumbent is not running for reelection, the position is nonpartisan, or there's a lot of turnover that someone could say "Hey, I have a chance at that spot."
I applied as a candidate for the local planning commission because I think that restrictive zoning is driving some portion of inequality in this country, and also has a lot of problems in terms of long term financial stability (see: Strong Towns). I've never done anything like that before; we'll see how it goes.
That's awesome! Are you keeping a journal of what's happening with it? Maybe we should stand up an invite-only Discourse site for people doing this kind of stuff. Also, knowing you only on HN, but also knowing that means I probably know you better than most voters know any candidate for local office --- I'd totally vote for you.
Thanks for the kind words!
I'm not sure what the discourse/mailing list/whatever group would promote? Tech people getting involved in politics? We'd probably all be so busy arguing on the list that we wouldn't have time to get anything done!
There's a powerful social permission / imposter syndrome thing that works against people running for office, so an effective thing you can do even if you yourself can't bring yourself to stand for office is to convince friends to do it, and offer to support their candidacies. I've found it's remarkably easy to have that conversation with people. Ultimately, telling someone you'd support them if they ran for elected o…
True. And, if you see a news report about somebody whose positions you like deciding to run ... send them a campaign contribution. Running for office is quite costly these days, and no-strings-attached contributions are really helpful. (Many contributions have strings attached. Yours doesn't have to.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's awesome! Are you keeping a journal of what's happening with it? Maybe we should stand up an invite-only Discourse site for people doing this kind of stuff. Also, knowing you only on HN, but also knowing that means I probably know you better than most voters know any candidate for local office --- I'd totally vote for you.
It's an appointed (by the city council) position, so no voting. Thanks for the kind words! I'm not sure what the discourse/mailing list/whatever group would promote? Tech people getting involved in politics? We'd probably all be so busy arguing on the list that we wouldn't have time to get anything done!
Is this a (clever) marketing stunt for NationBuilder?
There's a powerful social permission / imposter syndrome thing that works against people running for office, so an effective thing you can do even if you yourself can't bring yourself to stand for office is to convince friends to do it, and offer to support their candidacies. I've found it's remarkably easy to have that conversation with people. Ultimately, telling someone you'd support them if they ran for elected o…
True. And, if you see a news report about somebody whose positions you like deciding to run ... send them a campaign contribution. Running for office is quite costly these days, and no-strings-attached contributions are really helpful. (Many contributions have strings attached. Yours doesn't have to.)