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…

With the advent of early voting over the past few years, Democrats have been able to create more electoral mischief at the ballot box and the ground game for Election Day has changed. Before early voting, the ground game had only two parts: Absentee Ballot Program and Election Day.  Early Voting Early voting in Maryland starts this week.  What to do . . . First things first: don’t drive yourself crazy during the next 11 days of voting.  If you are running for a county wide or statewide seat, you have a lot of ground to cover before Election Day.…

It’s October – the leaves are changing colors, and hopefully the weather will get cooler soon. You are 75 days away from Christmas; 82 days away from January 1, 2018, and 391 days from Election Day (Pls note: I’m writing this on October 11, 2017). So, what does this mean? First, you only have 74 shopping days left until Christmas. But more importantly, you have 82 days until January 1, 2018, the first day of another exciting election year. If you’re still sitting on the fence, you’d better make up your mind soon, because getting in the race now is far better than getting in…

Okay, you have been at it since last spring, or even longer for some of you. Tomorrow is your final exam, you worked hard, and most of you guys did all the right things.  I was very impressed with the quality of our candidates, yard sign designs, palm cards and over-all campaign collateral.  What to do: Remember that the polls open at 7 a.m.  You should have a list of polls you want to hit during the day.   When you go to the polls, shake hands with the voters who come to cast votes, but remember that since some voters…

Let’s Review What We Have Covered So Far You have filed for candidacy, put your finance team in place, and you’ve just finished your first campaign event.  You likely have a small core group of volunteers now as well.  Hopefully, you also have a war chest of $5,000 and $10,000 dollars in cash on hand. It’s Time to Build your Leadership Team When you are running for the House of Delegates (or in other states, the State House of Representatives or State Senate) you may have one, maybe two, paid staffers, if you are lucky. Most likely you will have…