10 TIPS TO WIN COUNCIL ELECTION
INDEPENDENT candidates with limited budgets need sound advice and commonsense as they set about campaigning to win a council election.
And among the pitfalls to watch out for is an affliction called “candidate’s disease’’.
So you want to be able to walk inside the Gold Coast’s council chamber?
Gaining traditional and social media exposure is only part of the journey to get recognition and win. On my count, at least 43 candidates are running in the March council poll.
After talking to veteran campaign advisers and successful candidates, and from my own experience, here are the top 10 tips to get elected:
(1) Have a daily plan to election day. You must convince about 11,000 people to vote for you.
(2) Organise traditional media like the Bulletin, TV and radio news, and social media. Remember readers of this newspaper and listeners to the ABC’s morning program are already engaged. Do not give the same tired speech at events.
(3) You have to have a budget. About $50,000 would help. You need corflute posters and flyers.
(4) You need a campaign committee. Have someone responsible for every component. These are people who you trust and can have honest conversations. Employ someone skilled in digital media.
(5) Devolve all responsibility to your campaign team. Wear out the shoe leather, doorknock and attend community events where you meet and greet people not engaged in politics.
(7) About 35 per cent of your vote will be at the prepoll. You will need at least 12 volunteers for those shifts, or get like-minded candidates to hand out your how-tovote cards.
(8) On election day, there will be between seven to 14 booths in your division. Between 80 to 120 friends will be needed to hand out for you.
(9) If you are on an anticouncil ticket, stop wasting time engaging on Facebook sites that run the “hate Mayor Tom Tate” line. It might help your ego and give a lofty impression of your chances of winning, but you are preaching to the converted.
Are you a candidate who is supportive of the Mayor’s development agenda including light rail? In that case, reach out to community groups and undecided voters who are opposed and explain your other policies to try to win them over.
(10) Do not whinge or pick fights. Voters hate that. You must keep your cool.
One other bit of housekeeping. Ensure you have a political doctor on hand to diagnose “candidate’s disease”.
This nasty infection can happen in the final few weeks of the campaign.
You believe you will win, this newspaper will release a poll that shows you won’t, you will say the Bulletin’s polling is crap – beware, mostly it is on target. Then enough people will caution you that you might lose. You need to blame someone. You call the Bulletin – probably me.
Please refer now to point 10 above – and possibly check discounts at Dan Murphy’s. We could meet there, not for a story but to talk about campaign pain — all of it off the record.
A successful candidate makes these serious points:
“The majority of people in the division are not interested in politics, they’re interested in people,” the source said.
“That’s why your corflutes are important. They convey a personal image to captivate people. You need to doorknock and facilitate a good marketing campaign with face recognition to work on that.”
Finally, even if you lose and it costs your pocket big time, you will have built up strong community connections and hopefully positive relationships with the media.
Those ideas of yours, the good ones that can change your suburb for the better, can still become a reality by future lobbying and newspaper reports.
Best of luck.