Just a technical note: it shows that the "next election date" for several offices in my area is November 8, 2016.
Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
121–130 of 167 posts
Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
#122I 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.
" I've never done anything like that before; we'll see how it goes."
Democracy in a nutshell
Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
#123Most people know they can run for federal and state offices, even if they don't know what district they are in (and this barely matters, as the election office will tell you); and while they don't know some of the more esoteric offices, those offices tend to not have much power.
What people usually don't know about is all of the local government positions that affect their daily lives: many of the things you care most about exist below the level of a city, and yet websites like this throw aside all of the water districts and park districts and commumity service districts as if they don't matter :/.
Honestly, as someone deeply involved in politics at this point, who burns a lot of time into trying to educate people as to how government works and how to get involved, I believe this website--which is so bad it didn't even include city council of a smaller city as a local result, returning only internal democratic party positions--can only do more harm than good.
Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
#124This doesn't appear to include student offices, which, especially at large state universities, are very powerful and misunderstood. If you are a student, consider running for student office. It's likely (in fact almost certain) that your student government makes more decisions that impact your life and spends more of your money than the national government does. They typically have multi-million dollar budgets, seats…
> This doesn't appear to include student offices Eligibility to run for student offices is generally not at all tied to where your ZIP code of legal residence, which is the only criteria it uses. So, without substantial redesign of its search model, I don't see how it could meaningfully handle them. Which isn't to say those offices aren't important at some schools, just doesn't seem like a good fit for the model of t…
The search already returns results for offices which you may be eligible for, not which you are eligible for.
For example, my results include my state's Attorney General office, despite there being a requirement that candidates be admitted to the state's bar for 5 years prior to running for office. The vast majority of searchers will not be eligible for that office. It seems reasonable that anyone living in a zip code within a geofence around a university could have those student government positions returned, but with eligibility requirements clearly stated.
In general, the eligibility requirements also need to be more clear. In my example, the bar requirement is real but wasn't listed on the site.
Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Almost certain" seems like an exaggeration. At my college (Yale), the "student government" was basically just a committee to plan Spring Fling. You can see their budget online: https://www.ycc.yale.edu/budget/
Right right - I meant more at public universities. Presumably at Yale and other prestigious private schools, students (and student governments) have ways of exerting power other than the budget. I'm not sure that's true, but I think that's a presumption that people make when thinking about education politics.
And people wonder if the elites can get out of their bubble...
Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This doesn't appear to include student offices Eligibility to run for student offices is generally not at all tied to where your ZIP code of legal residence, which is the only criteria it uses. So, without substantial redesign of its search model, I don't see how it could meaningfully handle them. Which isn't to say those offices aren't important at some schools, just doesn't seem like a good fit for the model of t…
The search already returns results for offices which you may be eligible for, not which you are eligible for. For example, my results include my state's Attorney General office, despite there being a requirement that candidates be admitted to the state's bar for 5 years prior to running for office. The vast majority of searchers will not be eligible for that office. It seems reasonable that anyone living in a zip cod…
Yes, that's an issue that could some refinement, but it's different than the issue with student government where eligibility is tied to enrollment, not legal residency, which may be very remote from the institution.
So, for most student government positions at universities, would have to show up as possible eligible positions for all searchers with a model which uses zip code of residence as the only criteria and prefers risking false positives to false negatives.
That's pretty useless, which is why I say student government is a bad fit for the model.
Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Running might not be expensive, but I bet winning is. My wild-ass guess (not a political science major) is that voters can be bucketed into the following broad groups: A: People who vote straight party-line, no matter what. A toad could be on the ticket and they'd vote for it. B: People who vote for whatever name they most recognize. C: People who actually study the candidate's positions and make a rational choice. G…
Running for statewide or federal office is extremely expensive. What I'm saying is, don't do that, at least for your first win. Instead, win a seat on your local library board or parks district.
Sorry I deleted the original comment, remembered wrong facts.
Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Running for statewide or federal office is extremely expensive. What I'm saying is, don't do that, at least for your first win. Instead, win a seat on your local library board or parks district.
Sorry I deleted the original comment, remembered wrong facts.
Obama was a state senator in Illinois before running for US Senate.
Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for
#129Anyone know of training for running for office? For example, for women, there's this course: http://incubator.sheshouldrun.org/course-modules/
There's a decent list of organizations that provide training for prospective Democratic candidates here: https://www.democrats.org/page/run-for-office
I'm sure there's a similar one out there somewhere for Republicans, but since I want them to field bad candidates I will leave finding it as an exercise for the reader :-D