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This section covers things you can do through electoral politics to advance your campaign. It
applies mostly to campaigns where you are trying to get a board elected by voters to adopt a
policy. You can use electoral politics most effectively with three goals:
- creating an LGBT constituency;
- building working relationships with board members and others who have a role in
adopting policy; and
- getting public attention for your issue.
Building a constituency is important because one way to get politicians to pay attention to you is
to show them that there are voters who care about your issue. Building working relationships is
important because politicians, like most people, tend to respond more favorably to people they
know. Getting public attention is important because politicians are likely to deal with issues they
believe voters generally care about.
Most of the tactics covered here will help with at least two of these aims. All of the tactics
covered here except one involve elections for office directly. The section also talks about getting
LGBT people appointed to boards and commissions. Appointments are often a result of being
involved in the electoral process, and they are the principal way (short of electing people into
office) to get LGBT people into policy making positions.
It is probably not a good idea to have your campaign organization itself involved in electoral
politics. First, because you'll need broad support to pass the policy, it is best to be nonpartisan.
Since endorsements make enemies as well as friends, they are likely to narrow your support
rather than expand it. Second, endorsements almost unavoidably involve considerations other
than your policy, and organizations which make them are likely either to compromise the policy
goal or compromise what they see as the LGBT community's overall best interest.
There are two exceptions to this general rule: voter registration and candidates nights/issue
questionnaires. Voter registration doesn't involve taking sides in an election so it can't really
hurt; it is also about the most apple pie electoral thing you can do (nobody is publicly against it).
Candidates nights and questionnaires about candidates' positions on the policy make politicians
take sides on your issue. Since these techniques don't require you to choose between rival
contenders -- both can side with you if they want -- and since they are focused precisely on your
policy, they avoid most of the risks that go with other kinds of involvement in electoral politics.
While your campaign organization ought to stay out of electoral politics, the individuals who do
get involved may find that having an organization is essential. To use involvement in politics
effectively, LGBT people have got to be a visible presence. It is often easiest to be visible if you
are identified with an organization, like an LGBT political club. In addition, as explained below,
sometimes you need to deploy people strategically to have much impact, and you can do this best
with a political organization.
The obvious solution is to have the individuals who decide to get involved in the election either
do it through an LGBT political club, or set one up. The political organization should not be the
campaign organization with a different name. Some of the campaign leaders should focus
primarily on the policy; they should stay out of the election. At least a few of the campaign's
leaders and most important workers should stay out of election campaigns so that they can work
with whomever wins.
Finally, it is typical that in some races, people who work in the policy campaign will disagree
about who is the best candidate. You shouldn't discourage people from working for opposing
candidates. If members of your campaign work on both sides in an election, it will buttress the
nonpartisan status of your campaign. It may also make it easier to work with the eventual
winner.
In many states it is easy to register voters and almost anyone can do it. The first step is to find
out what the local rules are. Most cities have a local official called a Registrar of Voters who
will explain. If your town doesn't, call your city council representative and find out who is in
charge.
Remember, the idea is not to register any voter, but to register LGBT voters and to make sure
politicians know we are doing it. Make your drive as visible as possible and as LGBT identified
as possible. To recruit LGBT voters (and for visibility), focus your drive on LGBT events and
places. Even if you don't have an annual pride parade or rally, you and your friends have
christmas parties and birthday parties, etc. If there is no LGBT neighborhood, register outside
LGBT bars and businesses. Try setting up a table labeled "LGBT voter registration drive" in a
part of town where supporters are likely to found.
If your state allows it, you can add a voter registration drive to things already doing. For
example, think about coordinating it with a post card campaign, with getting discrimination
stories, or with getting people to public hearings. Keep a count of how many people you register
so that you can tell the politicians. If state law allows, ask people you register if they want to
sign up for your campaign organization, either as potential volunteers or to get notice of
important events like public hearings.
More policy campaigns have used candidate questionnaires than any other single tactic.
Typically, the questionnaires ask candidates if they will support the policy proposal. Sometimes
they ask related questions about LGBT people.
The tricky thing with questionnaires is specificity. If you simply ask if the candidates oppose
discrimination, it is easy for them to say yes, but later to oppose the policy on the basis that they
disagree with the details. On the other hand, if you give them a complete draft, some may beg
off responding, claiming that they don't have time to study it. The best approach is probably to
ask a specific question without a draft. For example, ask
Will you support a human rights ordinance which will make illegal for the city or
its contractors to discriminate in hiring, firing or on the job on the basis of sexual
orientation and gender identity?
Or ask
Will you support an amendment to the city's human rights ordinance to make
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity some of the types
of illegal discrimination?
A "candidates night" is an event where candidates explain their positions to an audience and,
usually, answer some questions. They are often sponsored by political or civic organizations, and
typically all the candidates for a given office are invited. In a smaller town, all the candidates for
all the offices might come (sometimes at different times). Usually the public is welcome,
although sometimes the meetings are open only members of the sponsoring organization. In
some ways, candidates nights are better than questionnaires because they may permit you "follow
up" questions in which you are able to confirm the depth of a candidate's commitment or get
specifics on any reservations.
If other organizations are holding candidates nights, go if you can and ask about support for your
policy. If the event is open only to members, join. Ask other local organizations to jointly
sponsor a candidates night with your organization. This will let you make detailed questions
about the level of commitment to your policy a part of the program. You may want to sponsor
your own candidates night. To get candidates to come, you probably need to have already done
something in electoral politics (like a registration drive or the first part of a campaign for a
policy) to show that some voters care about your issue, or to show that your support is otherwise
valuable (like providing campaign workers).
Even if you sponsor or co-sponsor your own night, you should go to other candidates nights to
make candidates who dodge the issue by dodging your event take a stand.
For questionnaires and candidates nights to work, LGBT voters need to know what the
candidates said. Use all the usual techniques for communicating with the LGBT community: the
LGBT press, posters and flyers in LGBT business and friendly businesses, etc. You might also
try giving the answers to the mainstream press.
Small organizations are the basis of most local politics -- the source of the money, and often more
important, the volunteers -- that local politics runs on. The form they take varies enormously
from city to city. Some cities have town and ward committees for each party, others have
political party affiliated clubs, others work with "nonpartisan" (here meaning not party-identified)
civic associations.
Like getting appointed to a commissions, working in mainstream organizations makes you
known to some of the people you'll have to influence. The more volunteer work you do in
mainstream clubs, the more others feel obligated to pay attention to you when you raise issues.
Like any involvement with mainstream activities, your very presence will change some (but not
all) people's attitudes towards LGBT people. If you work well with people, you'll build personal
alliances which can be very helpful in your policy campaign.
Usually there is no barrier to volunteer work, so its easier than getting appointed to a
commission. It may be an essential first step. Once you've been involved with a mainstream
organization for a while, you may want to get together with other LGBT people and set up a
LGBT caucus or subcommittee, to make sure they know you are there.
There are two advantages to getting LGBT people appointed to local boards and commissions.
First, they become political players; the politicians know them, and politicians will respond more
readily to people they know. Second, and far more important, if you get appointed to the right
commission, you could be helpful in moving policy along, by holding hearings, making
recommendations, or developing evidence. In many cities, the first suggestion for a policy has
come from a commission, like a human relations commission. Often the commission's position
was promoted by an LGBT activist. Although human rights commissions are an obvious choice,
commissions on the status of women and civil service or personnel commissions are also good
places to begin a campaign or to help it along.
Getting appointed to local Boards and Commissions is easier in many places than you might
think. Sometimes, there is virtually no competition, and all you need do is tell whoever makes
appointments that you are interested. Even where things are not quite that easy, if you
demonstrate a real interest in what the commission does--by attending meetings, offering to help
out with minor tasks--you will often seem a logical choice for an appointment if you ask when
there is a vacancy.
Asking is critical. Very few political appointments go to folks who modestly wait for
recognition. The other way to get appointed is by doing political work, for a party or an official,
and then asking. Especially in larger cities, this is the way most people get appointed.
If is not possible to get someone on a commission, think about the possibility of getting the board
you are working on to appoint a special commission to study discrimination against LGBT
people, or to study the need for local civil rights laws or needed revisions. While special
commissions are generally less influential than standing commissions (they will go away), they
let you focus on your problem.
Running a candidate for office typically takes at least as much time, money and sophistication as
a policy campaign does. While it usually does not make sense as a tactic in a policy campaign,
occasionally, when the resources are available, it might. This is a high risk strategy that can
really pay off if it works. The risk is that if you do badly in the election, you could lose most of
your credibility. If you can't make even a good showing running one of your own, politicians are
likely to conclude that you are not a significant enough force with the voters.
There is also the risk that if you do well, people will become confused about what is important.
Far too many candidates who run at first to help with an issue come to think they are the cause.
You may need to run someone once and make a good showing to reap most of the benefits of
running an LGBT candidate. But few people who do it can resist the temptation to have at it
again. That will siphon time and money away from the policy campaign.
If your candidate loses but makes a respectable showing, you'll send a wake up call to her or his
opponents, and usually to most of the rest of the politicians. The message usually is that you
have the three things politicians respect most -- energy, the ability to raise money, and voters who
care. They will pay attention to you, not just because your opposition is a potential threat but,
perhaps more important, because your support is a potential asset.
Of course, if you should actually win, you've got a player who, in the right office, can help the
policy along directly. You've also got a colleague among the politicians, and politicians, like
most people, are most responsive to people they work with and whose help they may need.
Don't try to run a candidate unless you can get the money, volunteers and professional help you'll
need to make a good showing. The point about professional help can't be overstated. Money and
work alone are not enough to win elections. You need a pro who knows how to win elections in
your area (the techniques vary enormously from place to place). You also need pros to tell what
a respectable showing is, so that you can gauge the risks.
>> Next: 12. Developing Literature
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