Have you ever thought of running for an elective office or do you know of someone who you think would make an ideal candidate? If so, I would like to offer some suggestions and insights. I ran for Congress in the 7th District in 2004 and I learned a few things in the process. In fact, the learning experience itself is a good reason to seek office. You can read what I have to offer or read books on the subject, but there are some things you will never learn until you run for office yourself. You will learn what works and what you will never do again. For example, you will learn you could spend more money in one area and perhaps less in another. So I will share some of my experiences with the hope that it might spark some imagination or provide encouragement for someone to launch a campaign.

Some questions for a potential candidate to consider are: Am I qualified for the position? What will it cost me in terms of time, effort and money? How do I get started? What are my objectives and goals and what do I want to achieve? The answer to that last question might seem obvious to some that my goal is to win the election. I had no illusions of winning against an entrenched liberal incumbent of thirty-five years. But since the Constitution Party name was on the ballot, I thought we should have a candidate’s name on the ballot for our congressional district. What better way to get the CPoW name known than to have a candidate on the ballot? So one reason for running would be to help ‘get the party known.’ But I decided that if my name was going to be on the ballot, I had to run a campaign. I would do all the things that candidates do, but maybe not to the same extent, time and resources permitting.

The first thing that I did was to visit my county clerk to get the information I needed to contact the state election board. I received my petitions and instructions from them.

My daughter, Jennifer, agreed to be my campaign manager. This was a tremendous help. She did the researching, compiling a list of every newspaper in the district, every city festival, parade, or event in the district and then put together an itinerary. I went to the county agricultural agent and got a list of all the fairs in the state. We picked up a tourist guide paper, which told all the events that would be happening in our district. These are available at any rest stop along the freeway and at many restaurants. I wrote a press release and we sent it to every newspaper in the district. This is free publicity. Every newspaper will carry it and it should be done as soon as possible, even before the petition signing.

I wrote up some campaign literature. My local newspaper printed them (10,000 cards), which I wanted to be available before we started the petition signing. We also had Tim Farness (now CPoW State Chairman) make campaign buttons.

The time for petition signing was from June 1 to July 13. I was required to get 1,000 signatures. My wife, two daughters and myself mostly did this. There were three weekend festivals with parades during that time–The Musky Festival at Hayward, the Aquafest at Rice Lake and the Liberty Fest at Chetek. These types of events are excellent for petitioning. Thousands of people attend and while people are waiting for a parade, they do not mind being bothered...they have nothing else to do. We campaigned as we collected signatures, giving each person a campaign card and answering questions they had. We also had campaign buttons available. We finished our petitioning on July 4th with over 1,100 signatures.

I asked the CPoW chairman for and received a list of all the people on our party’s mailing list for our district, broken down by counties. I sent a letter to each one telling about my campaign. As a result of these letters, I received contributions of $1,500. I added $500 more to that, so $2,000 was my campaign budget. I could have used more, but we worked with what we had. It is not necessary to file with the Federal Elections Commission unless your contributions exceed $5,000, but it is still important to keep records of your contributions and expenses.

In my letter, I asked people for help in their areas–to set up meetings or events, to pass out literature, to set out and pick up yard signs. I contacted many people by phone also. When I was going to be in an area, I sent a letter to those people in the counties surrounding that area. Three meetings or rallies were set up. Someone in the area arranged for the meeting place, placed ads in newspapers and helped with setting up.

We had a booth at the Barron County Fair and visited several other fairs and festivals. We supplied campaign literature to every Constitution Party fair booth in our district. The men in the Top Center Unit of the Constitution Party developed and produced another piece of literature and widely distributed it. We attended several parades and passed out literature to the crowds. We marched in a parade in Amery with our Constitution Party banner while campaign helpers were handing out literature to the parade watchers on each side.

Then came the debates, radio and TV and newspaper interviews. In September and October, the activity really picked up. It occurred to me that ordinarily, the news media wouldn’t care what I thought about the issues. But for a couple months, radio and TV stations and newspapers contacted me. They wanted to know my views. This was my time to speak. It was an awesome responsibility. Sometimes I was allotted only a few words–seventy five words in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, for example–so I had to make my words count and say what was most important. Other times, I could elaborate more, like 500 words in the Spooner Advocate. Several of the papers put out a voter guide.

I participated in five debates. Some of them had press coverage. One was broadcast on radio. After the debate in Merrill, a Wausau TV station interviewed the candidates. It aired on both the 6 and 10 PM news that night. The next day, while going door to door in Marshfield, one man came to the door and said, “I saw you on TV last night.” He also assured me I had his vote. It was always good to hear the words “you got my vote”, because it probably means a candidate not only has his vote, but the votes of several other people within that voter’s sphere of influence. We heard those words during the petition signing, at fairs and festivals and door to door. The more the candidate himself is out there, the better. When people put a name with a face they will remember on Election Day, especially if you take time to answer a question they are concerned about.

In September, I had five hundred yard signs printed. That may not seem like many for a congressional district, but was within our budget and was about the amount we could get set out. Effectively placed yard signs get a lot of attention. You need to get permission to place them and they should be taken down immediately after the election. This is where volunteers in each city our county is very helpful. Some cities have regulations about yard signs. You should also retrieve as many as possible because you might want to use them again.

One of our campaign workers from Merrill called to let me know that the Family Research Institute was sponsoring a rally for traditional marriage in Wausau at Marathon Park. We decided to attend and as we drove into Wausau, we saw a couple of my yard signs on a corner lot. We hadn't even campaigned there yet. At the rally, we handed out cards to everyone entering or leaving, so just about everyone in attendance got our card. My name was also announced on the speaker system as being in attendance. And it paid off. We set up yard signs by our car and several people took them. Wausau is one of the larger population centers in our district. I received the largest percentage of vote in my home county of Barron and the second largest percentage in Marathon County.

How much time must you invest in a successful campaign? The more the better and it would be helpful to take a three week vacation from work in October, the height of the campaign season. I worked a full-time job and campaigned weekends, but I took a few days off and several half days in order to get to the debates and other events.

We determined that we would stay in our district during the entire campaign. That doesn't mean that we did not combine business with pleasure with our campaigning, but we did so within our district. We saw countryside we had never seen before. We visited nineteen of the twenty counties in the 7th Congressional District.

After spending, some time at the fair in Iron County passing out literature, we went swimming in Lake Superior (it was a hot day). Incidentally, we asked permission from the fair office to pass out literature. Many fairs require you to have a booth to distribute literature, but they were fine with it. It was also our practice as we were driving to and from our campaign destinations to stop at gas stations and ask if we could leave some literature on their counter, leaving 10-12 copies if they agreed. We also asked if we could leave cards on bulletin boards at grocery stores, truck stops, laundromats and Kwik Trips.

For my efforts and with the help of many friends, I received 5% of the vote in the district. As a result of my campaign, thousands of people heard of the Constitution Party, many of whom checked out our web site. I listed the cpow.org web site on my campaign literature. I didn't have my own web site at the time. However, it is now a requirement of the Campaigns and Candidates Committee that any candidate have a web site. This tool is a good way to multiply your efforts and reach many more people than just a campaign can.

It would have been good to follow up my campaign with another in 2006. I felt that I was not in a financial condition to make the commitment in time and money that a follow-up campaign would have required. I had not developed the organization that I felt would have been needed, having volunteers in every county. It (the campaign) was alright the first time, but I felt I would have to do better the next time.

That brings up an important point. It would be good to have a complete slate of candidates, one for every office on the ballot. But at the same time, there must be a minimal personal commitment by said candidate(s). Contributors will expect it and the media will expect it. I am not trying to discourage anyone who after reading this far, might be thinking to himself that, "This is something I can do." But I want the prospective candidate to count the cost and to know a little bit what will be expected of him or her.

I have related some of my experiences in campaigning in a congressional district. This is about as large an area as I would consider based on my situation. A statewide office would require much more travel, time and money. On the other hand, a state senate or assembly campaign would be much easier to handle. County, city and township offices would be within reach of many of us.

I hope these words will encourage many of you to give campaigning a try. Whether you win an election or not, the debate would be good. Winning is not the only way to measure success. Your campaign will bring ideas to the public they would not hear otherwise. It would help our party and help promote constitutional government.

Prospective office seekers should contact one of us on the
Campaigns and Candidates Committee:

Larry Oftedahl
121 N. 4th Street
Barron, WI 54812

William Hemenway
N15 W22294 Watertown Road
Waukesha, WI 53186-1195

Joan Tatarsky
5229 N. 107th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53225

* Larry Oftedahl is chairman of the Campaigns and Candidates Committee and is a Representative for CPoW Congressional District 7.