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Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

runforoffice.org

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Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#161

Post by wonder_er »

davidw wrote: post #13

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.

I'm investigating doing the same for my town, also inspired by Strong Towns.

There might be tens of us!

I plan on documenting what I learn as I go. Will you do the same? Do you have anything I could subscribe to to stay in the loop?

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#162

Post by castillar76 »

jimterrapin wrote: post #34

My name is Jim Cupples and I work on RunForOffice.org Thank you for the suggestions and comments. I'm a politics nerd that likes local government, and believe it has dormant power for movements. I wrote a piece called The Bottom Carries the Top that explains my thoughts on that stuff. Anyway, I agree with many of the comments and we think the university positions is a great idea. If you like, feel free to email me at…

Hi, Jim! Love the site, and I'm delighted that someone is offering this. It would be great if the page had the ability to offer feedback to you, but since you're on here I'll pass this along here. It would be really helpful if each office listed included the name and party affiliation (where appropriate) of the person currently holding that office. In many cases, my decision to explore running for an office will depend on whether I'm happy with the person representing me. Even better would be the name of the person holding the office as a Google link to that person's voting record, so we could click through and look at how that person has been doing in that office thus far.

Thanks for putting this together; I'll absolutely be keeping an eye on the site!

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#164

Post by davidw »

wonder_er wrote: post #161
davidw wrote: post #13

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.

I'm investigating doing the same for my town, also inspired by Strong Towns. There might be tens of us! I plan on documenting what I learn as I go. Will you do the same? Do you have anything I could subscribe to to stay in the loop?

I've been bugging Chuck, on slack, to document his own experience with the local planning commission he is now a part of.

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#165

Post by davidw »

guelo wrote: post #136
davidw wrote: post #13

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.

From my experience in the bay area, unless you're very politically active and connected you're not going to get appointed to the planning commission. Nor should you, if you have not been intimately involved with all the community stakeholders for a long time. Also, it's a hard thankless job.

I don't live in the bay area. I did my time there and I'd like to see my town (Bend, Oregon) not turn into a place like Boulder, with average house prices north of $600,000.

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#166

Post by EternalData »

jimterrapin wrote: post #158
EternalData wrote: post #53

I always love technological solutions that ease the path forward to meaningful action. I wonder if there's a way to algorithmically determine how a candidate with subpar funding could beat somebody established with many more (a playbook of kinds). That would be the next step forward -- sure, you can run, but it flips the dynamic when you're smart about running to win.

Yes to all of this. There are algorithms to be applied, we just need more/better data to fine tune them. Of course, it's politics, so it's more art than science, but there is a lot to be uncovered with patterns. Great thought.

Yeah, I guess it starts by getting more people to run, regardless of their chances :)

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#167

Post by huevosabio »

jimterrapin wrote: post #151
huevosabio wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks like a fantastic work! I have pondered for a while on building software for political campaigns (albeit focused on Mexican independent politicians), and nation builder seems the closest to what I have in mind. Care to elaborate a bit on the state of political software and your experience in building and selling software for politicians?

I don't have as much experience building/selling software. I'm sure tha practically everyone on this board has better tech chops than me. I come from a poli-sci background and the work on this project is what exposed me to tech. I can happily speak to features that I'd like to see for political software, but when it comes to building software, I'm a poor resource.

Interesting! How is tech treating you so far? Care to elaborate on what you think is missing in political software?
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