The Campaign Plan - A Must to Win

Mike Noblet
Sep 15, 2017
2 min read

Wasting time and money and missing goals go hand in hand when long-term projects start without a plan. Embark on your political campaign without one and expect to fall short of your goal on Election Day because as the saying goes: When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Good planning comes first; then action. Good campaign planning starts with your first hunch that you may run for office. Beginning then makes your political campaign manageable. However, if you decide to run and filing deadline is close, compress your schedule. Delete whatever doesn’t apply.

A detailed plan that’s flexible helps assure a well-run campaign. Build yours with the help of Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Word offers a nice calendar format for an at-a-glance view of upcoming, short- term tasks and events. Use the Word template to create a similar calendar for each month of your campaign. As you do, know that political candidates often have optimistic views of how long a job might take to complete, so play it safe and double estimated time for certain tasks.

Essentials

Start your calendar with these dates:

Dates for Primary and Election Day
Filing period for your office
State or local campaign finance disclosure reporting dates
Voter registration deadline
Primary dates
If poll voting:
Date absentee ballots are mailed to:
Active military
In-district
Date by when absentee ballots must be returned.
Date for early voting, if applicable.
If all-mail-ballot voting:
Date when ballots are mailed (military and in-district).
Date by when ballots must be returned.
General election
If poll voting:
Date absentee ballots are mailed
Date by when absentee ballots must be returned
If all-mail-ballot voting:
Date ballots are mailed.
Date by when ballots must be received.
Deadline to submit statement and photo to local voter guides, government and/or commercial.
Public events, like local football games, where supporters wave your signs

To Be Announced

Events like these get scheduled as campaign season progresses:

Candidate forums
Newspaper endorsement meetings
Fund raising events (added as dates are known)
Meetings with potential donors (added as dates are known)

To Be Added

Based on the items listed in the Essentials section above, you have scheduling flexibility when it comes to certain tasks and events. (Some of the following list may not apply to campaigns in very small districts.)

Sign-waving events
Candidate rest breaks
Campaign fund raisers
Production time lines for mailings
Neighborhood block walking schedules
Campaign theme, platform, slogan, and logo
Yard sign production, deployment, and maintenance
Website and social media construction and deployment
Campaign wind-up activities like phoning to get out the vote
Election night speech, victory party, and acknowledgements
Candidate forums and newspaper interviews preparation and practice

The Take Away

Always keep your plan flexible. Let it evolve with your campaign and adjust as needed. Have it ready before the campaign begins. Then if an opponent attacks, the local media misrepresents, or an event surfaces unexpectedly, you are not forced into crisis mode. With an adaptable plan, you rise to the challenge of curve balls in style.