With Town Caucus barely two weeks away and April elections a month later, it’s not too soon for prospective candidates for municipal office to begin planning for the 2014 campaign season. But where should the aspiring first-time candidate start?
One place might be the long-dormant and oddly named 1992 citizen guide, “The LEXICON of Harvard Politics”, a publication of the League of Women Voters of Harvard (LWVH). At more than 100 pages and appendices, the original work is a surprisingly thorough look at the mechanisms of town government and the volunteer officials who make them work.
For the first time in 20 years, the League is updating this unique guide and just this week released fresh chapters on “How to Run for Local Office” and “How to Seek Appointed Positions,” both available online.
Not seeing enough new people
“The …idea for updating the LEXICON came from an attendee at our Civility Matters meeting in November,” League President Patti Anklam told the Press this week. “And a primary reason we started the civility project,” she added, “was that we were not seeing enough new people, good qualified people, running for office.” The League hopes to encourage an increase in the number and diversity of candidates for open board seats, she said.
This year, 19 seats on 12 elected boards and offices will expire. In last year’s election 10 candidates ran unopposed and one seat on the Parks and Recreation Commission lacked any candidates at all.
First, some self-assessment
But getting yourself on the ballot should be one of the last considerations of anyone seeking office, Anklam and the guide’s authors say. Instead, before taking that life-altering step, it’s time for some self-assessment. Do you understand the scope of your chosen board’s authority, the nature of the work it does for the town, and the responsibilities of its members? Have you attended meetings or spoken with current and past members? How might you be able to contribute?
Membership on an elected board requires time and attention. Will you be able to attend regular meetings? Are you able to take on committee work outside of those regular times? Do you have time and drive to delve into topics that might come before your board but with which you are unfamiliar?
In addition to contributing their time and attention, elected officials are expected to be accessible. “Most voluntary town positions do not have secretarial assistance or other usual office support,” the guide observes. “Family members will often have to take calls and messages. They must be willing to perform such chores.”
Avoiding potential conflicts
While experience and skills “can be important,” the guide continues, it’s not necessary to be an expert to be a good contributor. What counts, it says, is the ability to work in teams, to collaborate with peers with whom you will not always agree, and a willingness to learn, to master the details of the job.
A final step is to review or get advice on the Massachusetts conflict of interest laws to ensure you have none that would prevent your acting in an uninterested way on town matters that come before your board.
Throughout this process, the guide advises, reach out to family and friends, as well as current board volunteers. Once you’ve decided to put your name forward, it’s time to get it on the ballot.
Getting on the ballot: Three ways
There are three ways to get your name onto this year’s ballot: you can be nominated at the March 1 Town Caucus; you can petition the Town Clerk, Janet Vellante; or you can offer yourself to voters as a write-in candidate on Election Day.
The first option is the easiest. Simply arrange for two of your supporters to be present at the caucus, one to nominate you and the other to second that nomination. If for some reason you fail to be nominated, you can still petition for a place on the ballot. The number of signatures required varies from year to year because of an odd state law that uses town turnout at gubernatorial elections as its basis. This year that number is 41. Vellante has the necessary forms.
Whether you’ve been nominated or are petitioning for a slot, you must have your paperwork in the hands of the Town Clerk no later than 5 p.m. on the Tuesday following the caucus (March 4, this year). “There can be no exceptions” to that deadline,” says Vellante.
Write-in candidates have no such deadline, but with no name on the ballot, their task requires getting voters to commit ahead of time.
“I don’t recommend this approach,” says Vellante. It’s rare for a write-in candidate to win an election when there are other names on the ballot. “Think of it as a last resort,” she says, to be used only if you are not nominated or unable to submit signed nomination papers in time.
Write-in candidates sometimes create stickers to affix to the ballot, but Vellante recommends checking with her to make sure they will fit within the available space on the ballot and can be read by vote-machine scanners. Handing out stickers or otherwise soliciting votes on Election Day is not permitted within 150 feet of the ballot box. “If you’re planning a write-in campaign,” Vellante told the Press, “please let us [the Clerk’s office] know ahead of time. It helps us plan our vote counting on Election Day.”
Organizing your campaign
Once your name is on the ballot, it’s time to launch your campaign. For starters, it’s useful—but not required—to put together a campaign committee, with a chairman and a treasurer. Because the state requires that you report all campaign contributions and expenditures, it’s useful to have a treasurer, who can relieve you of day-to-day accounting tasks.
Once you are a formal candidate, there are forms to be filed, which Town Clerk Janet Vellante provides to every candidate along with instructions (see the checklist that accompanies this article). But for the next five weeks you’ll be ramping up your campaign, the subject of a future Press article.
LWVH President Anklam says that among her organization’s 2014 goals is to increase voter options at the ballot box.
“Citizen engagement and active participation in democracy is a cornerstone of the League’s mission,” she said. “So while we will continue to address civility issues directly, educating voters and prospective leaders and volunteers in town seemed like a natural thing to do.”
