Well, it is time to talk about running for office again. If you are going to be in office in early 2011, you should be working on it, everyday, right now. Why does the Dog think that you should be busting your ass 21 months before Election Day? That is a good question; the basic reason is that if you are ready to do this job, you should never miss an opportunity to make sure that you get the job. It does you no good to be the very best gal or guy on policy and an earnest desire to help the people of your State or city or district, if you can not get elected. If you want to win, then you had better be ready to do everything you have to in order to make it happen. Frankly if you are not willing to do it, you should contribute some other way.

Which brings the Dog to one of the two points for today, it might seem like a little thing, but you had better be putting some time in on your image. Yeah, it is totally superficial; it has exactly nothing to do with your ability to do the job you are trying to get elected to. But you have to remember that you are going to get a vote or fail to get one based on as little as one minute and 200 words. Since you don’t get to pick (or even really know) when that minute happens or when those words are said, you have to be on top of things all the time. Remember, you knew this was going to be hard, if it were not, everyone would do it.

So, you have to work on your image. That does not mean that you have to be a button-downed suit wearing clone of some corporate drone. It is really important that your image is really you, but it has to be the best of you. If you are a jeans and tee shirt person, that is fine, but they have to be completely clean and fresh. What you are trying to convey is that you are a leader, of what ever image group you belong to. You have seen folks like this all your life. Think back to High School (no, the Dog is not trying to put you in a PTSD induced flash back), in every group in school, you would be able to identify the leaders of that group visually. They were the ones that had their particular look down to a tee. Their clothes might be the same as everybody else, but they carried it off with more of that style. This is what you are going for.

As a practical matter you are going to have to have dress up and dress down clothes, but you still have to look good in them. It is true that folks like Rep. Barney Frank can and do look sloppy, but that is their style and they are long term incumbents, you are not, so you have to earn the right to be a slub. So, look at your wardrobe, are there shirts that are fraying? Then you have to consign them to only being worn around the house. When you are doing your door-to-door, have a couple of extra shirts in the car, you need to always look fresh. What about your teeth? Yeah, you brush, but are they really white? You are going to be smiling a lot, so investing in whitening toothpaste and a course of bleach is a good idea.

Now, how about your hair? Is it in control? Is what does your hair style say about you? It sucks, but people are going to make assumptions about you from your hair. After all it is the one thing that you wear every single day. Sen. Edwards got a lot of heat for a $400 hair cut, but the reality is that the way your hair looks matters, a lot. So, if you like the Dog are a devotee of Great Clips, you had better think about going to real stylist. Now, for the men, lets talk facial hair. Basically you need to lose any that you have. You might be able to get away with a mustache, but why in the world would you take that chance? If you don’t believe the Dog, just take a look at the Congress and the Presidency. Do you notice any beards? You are trying to get elected and facial hair is going to hold you back. When you are 10 term Representative, you can roll the dice and grow your beard back, but not this cycle.

Every little thing matters. If your footwear is strange for where you live, you should change it. The only exception on this is if you are making a point like when Sen. Webb wore his son’s combat boots when he was campaigning. If you can make a point like that with some item of clothing, great, otherwise don’t draw attention to it. The whole goal is to look like a leader, all the time. It is worth the effort, because impressions are what most voters are going to go on, make the best one you can all the time.

Enough of that; let’s talk about fundraising. Yeah, we seem to talk about it in everyone of these essays, but it is something that you will spend a lot of time and effort on. In the last installment we talked about hitting up your friends and family. That is relatively easy, but now you need to start thinking about how you are going to get money from the wider public in your district. As a Dem, you are most likely going to get less people that give the maximum donation (you did go and find out what the rules are from the Secretary of State, right?). You will have to make it up in volume. This is okay as it gives you an argument that you are the candidate of the people instead of the business interests.

First off, it is going to be more expensive, but you must, must, must have the ability to accept credit card donations on your website. If you insist on checks or cash, you are going to have a much harder time getting the 100K you need (or what ever the level you have determined you will need). By using internet credit card processing you will have to give up between 4-8% of the total donated to the banks. There is just no way to get around this, so just put it in your planning. Now you will have to figure out how to drive folks to this site. There are lots of ways, but don’t fall in love with one to the exclusion of others. This is going to need to be a shot-gun approach where each tactic reaches some of the donors you want. Be sure to get a list of Dem voters in the last election from the State Party. It is likely to cost you a few hundred dollars, but it is worth it to get the leads on folks that are most likely to be receptive to your request.

You will need a pitch. Why should they do anything more than vote for you? It is best to have an axe to grind with the current office holder. What ever it is, use it to leverage the idea that this donation is an investment in some kind of change or different ideas. Sorry that the Dog can’t be more specific, you will have to tailor it to the situation where you are running.

One very good tactic is getting some folks that believe in you to do some fundraising for your. If you can find 10 people that will commit to getting 10 others to donate $100 each, there is $10,000 right there! The more of these kinds of things you can arrange that do not require your direct attention, the better. You need the money to run, but you also are limited on the amount of time you have to campaign. Balancing these is one of the hardest things that politicians have to do.
So, there you are. These two things should keep you busy (along with all the other stuff you are still doing) for another few weeks. Keep focused, have faith, this is hard, it is an everything all the time situation, but if you keep on top of it, you can do it!

The floor is yours.