Off and Running!!! Candidates, if you haven’t filed yet, the filing deadline in Maryland is February 27, 2018 at 9 p.m. if you’re planning to run for office in November 2018.  You can get started by going to the MD Board of Elections to begin your paperwork. For those of you who have already filed, here’s what you need to be working on: Announcement Start planning your announcement. This isn’t a fundraiser. It is a message to let everyone, including the media, know that you are running for office.  Here’s what you should have on hand for your announcement: Palm Cards Virtual…

MORE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook The use of social media in politics including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube has dramatically changed the way campaigns are run and how Americans interact with their elected officials. The prevalence of social media in politics has made elected officials and candidates for public office more accountable and accessible to voters. Plus, the ability to publish content and broadcast it to millions of people instantaneously allows campaigns to carefully manage their candidates’ images based on rich sets of analytics in real time and at almost no cost. Twitter and Facebook have become instrumental in organizing campaigns.…

Looking back at 2017 Now that 2017 is in the rearview mirror, let’s take a look back and examine some of the things you should have done by this time: Should have identified the office you are planning to run for, or at least narrowed it down to possible offices. If you haven’t done so, you really need to focus on this goal. Please refer to Dr. Politics Issue No. 1 for a list of offices and their requirements. However, if you haven’t figured out which office you’d like want to run for, it isn’t too late. Please feel free to contact…

Fundraising Keep it Going It is August– You’ve gotten past the primary elections, you’re knocking on doors, you’re telling yourself you are doing great . . . However, you may have neglected fundraising.  It is very important that you focus on fundraising now, and I recommend that you utilize all of the methods that I mention below. First, keep in mind that fundraising isn’t just about having events. While events are a great way to raise your profile and widen your circle of potential donors, in this day and age you need to focus on all of the possible methods…

IT’S NOT OVER EVEN AFTER IT’S OVER Okay, Election Day has come and gone. For many of you who ran, the results weren’t what you had hoped for. However, to quote Sean Hannity, “…Don’t let your heart be troubled…” over your loss.  You are in very good company.  Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Governor Spiro Agnew, Governor Hogan and countless numbers of other Republicans lost their first, second, third or even fourth campaigns for office. Moreover, this phenomenon is not limited to Republicans, since the first attempts to run for office by Bill Clinton and Hubert Humphrey were…

I am a big believer in hopeless causes, I know the naysayers will go on about how Montgomery County is a hopeless cause for Republicans. But I have in my 46 years on this earth I have lived through many hopeless causes. I remember when a Democrat congressman from Texas was ostracized by the Democrat Party for supporting President Reagan’s Tax Cut plan (Kemp-Roth Tax Cut).  Rep. Phil Gramm resigned his safe Democrat House seat, switched parties and ran for same seat as a Republican.  When he ran for the 6th Congressional District in Texas, there wasn’t a single Republican…

We are heading into the hot, hazy, not-so-lazy days of summer for candidates.  It starts with Memorial Day weekend, which marks the beginning of the summer festivals season. This is what you should do in order to be ready for this segment of your campaign: Compile list of all events in your district or near your district – Then break down the list in order of importance, and whether the event sponsors allow campaigning or not.  This is an easy task. If they don’t let you campaign, you can erase that event from your list. However, sometimes you’ll find that…

Despite what some tech-savvy web designers and Internet specialists might say, we still haven’t reached a point in our society where a website is a must-have for every local political campaign. True, it’s hard to imagine a successful congressional, senatorial, statewide, state legislative, county wide or presidential campaign without a great website, social media plan and online grassroots coordinator. But smaller campaigns, such as the ones for city council and school board races, don’t always need a website for their respective candidates to win on election night. However, you should keep in mind that a campaign website is a great…