A CivFanatic Running for Florida State Legislature

[Gori the Grey]

if anyone wants to share thoughts on how to appeal in Florida

That's Job One for you. Get out there. Make up business cards with your name and campaign slogan and go to every public gathering, every minor league baseball game, every craft fair. Come up to people with your card. Tell them you're running. Ask them what they'd most like to see state government do for them. Where it coincides with what you want to do in the role, share that with them. Where it doesn't, just say "Mmmmmm. Thank you for that."

 

[Quintillus]

State Legislature is a bit of a vacuum to me. By that, I mean, I know my local city councilors (well, to some degree anyway), and I know my U.S. rep, but I don't know much about my state reps, I'm not even sure if the ones that I think represent me represent my current house or my previous one. I'm not passionate about them and I'm not a great advocate for why they should be re-elected. "They have the right party stamp" not being a great reason.

I'm reminded of the head of city council for a nearby municipality who got radio time for his proposals to build affordable housing in a traditionally not-affordable suburb. Or, while not government officials, a group of engineers who are trying to save a small (< 150 people) local town by revitalizing its downtown and improving its infrastructure. People talk about these ideas, over dinner with friends for example, and they don't know what the political party of the people suggesting the ideas are, because they're interesting ideas in their own right.

So I think there's very much an aspect of what Gori is trumpeting - going out there and talking with people, and making yourself visible, and listening. But there also comes a point of championing the best ideas from that process. Getting people excited that maybe this recurring pain point will be addressed if you get elected. That in turn might lead to campaign donations and volunteers and a chance at being elected.

If you do get elected, and want to get re-elected, my advice would be to borrow an idea from a former state rep of mine. He'd send out a newsletter about every six months to each of his constituents, highlighting what he'd been working on, what had been accomplished and was still in progress, and his plans for the next 6-12 months. It was very clear that he was doing real work out there, listening to constituents, and improving life in the state, and that he had been for over 50 years at that point in time. Whereas my current rep? They could spend half the year on a beach for all I know. Be that rep who lets your electorate know what you've been doing, and you'll probably be re-elected more easily.

And if you become president someday, start an Ask Me Anything, but on CivFanatics instead of Reddit. We'd benefit from the spotlight.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Hey, you and I were there back in the day when it might take only three pages to go from "Do you like pastrami?" to "Is Israel a Racist State?". Seven pages to get to this is a pretty poor showing all things considered.

It still is approximately three pages, when you consider that vBulletin had 40 posts/page and XenForo only has 20 posts/page.

Thank you, mods. I may regret this.

I have submitted my filing paperwork, and the team is waiting to have my listing appear on the Florida Division of Elections website. I am meeting with my county party officials to discuss my campaign and candidacy next week.

Glad to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same here

if anyone wants to share thoughts on how to appeal in Florida, I love the off-the-wall ideas.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Hygro]

Hey toasty, try to get a friend with a nice camera or at least a potrait-mode iphone to get a new headshot. you look nice in your photo but you need a higher quality new one. Hope you're getting some traction out there!