[statecom-discuss] Think critically about Senate, Presidential races

[Ron Francis]

High Profile Candidate campaigns tend to draw a lot of energy because they just tend to be very sexy, for lack of a better word, and sometimes draw charismatic candidates that make them even more sexy.

There is no guarantee though that these campaigns actually leave us in a stronger position; sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

We need to be very careful here.

We should not just run because we have the ability to run.

The real question is whether or not the person-hours used up in running for high offices can be better used somewhere else.  Each person needs to evaluate this.  

The person hours used up in high profile races could be used to really build our party at the local levels - which is what many people have said in any "strategy" discussions that I have been aware of.

We need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk; can we have just one year where our main focus is building up local chapters ?  Just one year !... just to see what would happen.  If it doesn't work, then we can go back to the strategy of running for high office essentially every chance we get.

We get caught up in these high profile candidate races and all of our energy gets sapped and the number of our locals stays the same or decreases.  Our active membership can even DECLINE.  At some point we have to learn from our experiences.

We could have 30 or 40 thriving local chapters in one year's time if we use our energy appropriately, but we choose not to.  How long will this continue ?

Ron