Hon. Kenneth Ken Reid - The 6 Secrets to Winning Any Local Election – and Navigating Elected Office Once You Win!: A Step-By-Step Guide to Campaigning and Serving in Public Office

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Copyright 2019 Kenneth Ken Reid

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2019

ISBN 978-1-64628-114-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64628-115-2 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

PART I

The Six Secrets To Winning Any Local Election

Acknowledgments

I would like to first dedicate this book to the Almighty God for the wisdom and spiritual guidance he bestowed on me and this earth.

But without my wife, Dr. Lynn Reid, PhD, and our beautiful twins, James and Lara, I would be a lesser man. My family stood by me throughout the years I was involved as a civic activist and elected leader in Virginia. They campaigned for me, helped me when I was down, and stood by me in the good and bad times.

Finally, I wish to thank all the men and women I served with in Loudoun County and Leesburg Towns elected office and the many electeds I worked with in Virginia, Maryland, and DC over a twenty-three-year period of civic activism and serving in elected office. I also wish to thank the many volunteers, donors, and mentors who helped me win.

Local office holders are the unsung political leaders of our nation, and they will be duly recognized for their sacrifice and service in this book. As such, I will use the title Hon. (meaning the Honorable) before each of their names in this book. Ken Reid , LeesburgReid@FDAinfo.com.

Readers of the print edition of this book can receive, for free, files with the various campaign materials referenced in Parts I and II, by sending an email with your proof of book purchase to LeesburgReid@FDAInfo.com. Thank you.

Prologue

T he 2018 congressional midterm elections yielded an infusion of first-time office holders winning seats in the United States Congress, especially female candidates.

According to Pew Research, a record 102 women are now serving in Congress, comprising 23.4 percent of the House of Representatives 435 voting members. More than a third of those women (35) won their seats for the first time in last months midterms.

By far, the election that has probably inspired youth, minorities, and women to run is the upset that twenty-eight-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (a.k.a. AOC) pulled in New Yorks fourteenth district, unseating long time Democrat Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary.

While it is rare for an incumbent to lose nomination in a primary, the fact is that AOCs ascendance has encouraged a number of Americansnotably, women and minoritiesto run for office.

Getting elected to the House, Senate, or a state office is difficult and expensive. As a result, many are looking to get into office at the municipal level. By that, I am referring to school board, town and city council, county commission, council or supervisor, sheriff, district attorney, and other local offices.

Why run local? For one, local races are less costly and require less time to run (and to serve), which means you can keep your day job. In addition, a huge number of local races are not even contested. Governing magazine reported in June 2016 that 45 percent of state legislative seats in the US are uncontested. In Georgia, some 80 percent were uncontested, according to Ballotpedia, an online politics site that tracks races and ballot initiatives (http://www.governing.com/topics/elections/gov-uncontested-legislative-races.html).

My hunch is that the percentage of uncontested municipal races is even higher. And a large part of that is due to the lack of interest of the public and low voter turnout. More on that later.

Second, running local allows you to talk to voters and learn more. Third, the regimen of being in local office, while demanding in a number of communities, is less demanding than serving in Congress or even your state legislature.

But this is the most important reason: you will get more done, you will have more satisfaction and less frustration, and you can position yourself for higher office if you so choose . There is less hassle, less time having to raise money, and more time solving problems.

This book is designed to help you win and have a seat at the table of decision-making. It was written to help you organize and use your precious financial and volunteer resources and your own time in the most effective way possible. While the book is written for municipal races, if you are running for state legislature or even Congress, you may find the practical advice and tactics of great benefit.

Having ambition and ebullience will help you go far, but I have seen a number of candidates file for office, with stars in their eyes and tons of likes from their friends on Facebook. They rush out to buy yard signs and then find they do not know the fundamentals of how to deliver the right message, to market themselves, or to speak to voters. They wind up losing very badly and then fall out of politics altogether out of frustration.

A number will file, run, and have their lives upended when their opponents find out something in their past and do a hit piece on them via direct mail. A number are caught off stride and wind up losing. In one case, a candidates life was completely messed up when revelations of him beating a woman came out. He lost two jobs and then resigned from office and was divorced.

Others will spend a lot of money and waste it on campaign items they were told they needed to by, but ignore basic things like newspaper, Google Ads, and direct mail.

Frankly, AOC would still be bartending or perhaps seeking another professional degree had Joe Crowley taken her more seriously and did some appropriate opposition research (AOR) on her. This book discusses AOR and how not to underestimate your opponent(s).

Then there are those who win and have no idea what to do once elected, or come out of the gate looking like know-it-alls or upstarts, or get burned out taking on too many tasks. Many will develop bad relations with their mayor or chair and start viewing opponents as enemies.

This is why Part II of this book is so important. It is titled Navigating Elected Office Once You Win. You may find it less upbeat than Part I because I plan to share the many mistakes I and others have made in our first terms so you can do better. I also will share a number of strategies that have been successful. I outline ways to work with various special interest groups and the municipal staff to get things done. Sadly, there are few courses or practical guides to help elected municipal officials.

While you wont be a superstar on the twenty-four-hour networks like AOC if elected to municipal offices, you also will not have to deal with the rat race and snake pit that is the US Congresswhere, frankly, very little problem-solving exists, at least on the major issues of the day.

Municipal governments do not have the luxury of continuing resolutions, which Congress seems to rely on to pass budgets. We have to ensure the garbage is collected, streets are maintained, and police are funded. Schools must be funded too. No ifs, ands, or buts.

It may not be sexy. You may not get any news coverage out of it either. You will attend a lot of night meetings away from your families, and it may hurt your income as it did mine. However, a number of people will be helped so much by what you do. They will let you know that, and you will see it.

Of course, I had my share of mistakes, but as I look around Leesburg now, Im happy to see so many highways under construction that had lain dormant for years until my leadership and others brought funding and construction.

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