Filing to run for office in Richland Hills begins Jan 18th and ends Feb 18th. A candidate packet of information and forms are available online or can be picked up from City Secretary after Jan 3rd.
We always need choices on the ballot – even if we are happy with the status quo, we need campaigns to enlighten us and avoid complacency in the incumbents. Please we always need people interested in protecting our city and citizens to step up and serve in our local government or on our boards and committees. If not you, then who?
Things I learned and would like to share about running for a local office:
It is important to take an available opportunity to meet the candidate. If the candidate is offering a meet and greet, go and hear their ideas and share your own. They are not asking for anything more than your time and your engagement. My vision for RH never changed, but it expanded with each meeting as I learned from residents all over RH about the history, the good times and the issues facing different areas.
Once you select your candidate, support them.
- Financially – $10 from 100 people pays just for the signs that you need to introduce your candidacy to the community. A candidate that has never run for office, can’t recycle signs…and signs with current inflation were anywhere from $1000-3000 for just 150 signs. I found an online site that offered a 50% discount. Then there are flyers – about $0.50 per home in a town of 3000 homes…and you need at least 2 flyers – one to introduce and one to encourage voters to get out and vote. Then there is the unspoken costs of gas to drive around town, talking with residents and businesses. I will never again ignore the cost of a candidate to run for office. A local campaign can cost $3000-5000 depending on how well known, or not, you are.
- Emotionally – anyone sane will face fear and trepidation when deciding to run for a public office. The worry that you will be embarrassed, that you and/or your family will be harassed, that people will attack you (and some will), and finally the fear that you might not be able to make positive changes. It is important to pray for candidates and their families, and to give words of encouragement often. I prayed daily for my family’s protection and for grace to handle the stresses.
- Physically – I grew up in another city close by, I attend a church outside of my community – since moving to RH, my husband and I have often worked multiple jobs to finance our home rebuild (it was a HUD repossession, very bad shape) and time to socialize was very limited. All this to say that sometimes a good candidate will not have a large support system initially. So, support your candidate by helping with distribution of information – even if it’s just in your own neighborhood or facebook page.
- Take a risk – in today’s cancel culture and in the ‘good ole boy’s club’ style of government, many people are concerned about publicly supporting a candidate. When you can openly support a candidate in person or social media, that helps tremendously. A candidate can only reach a limited number of people, but when others join in the chain, it branches and reaches many. On the flip side, some friends are also concerned that they might hurt your campaign. People need to understand that a candidate is running on their own platform, for their own reasons (which you had an opportunity at a meet and greet to learn). Friends can be supporters, without being advisors or devious behind-the-scene puppeteers. I have friends of many different groups of thoughts and actions – I can enjoy and learn from a difference of opinion, if it is equally respectful of my own.
“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”- John C Maxwell