Hints for Political Success in a General Vote System

1. The name of the game is name recognition so don’t waste time on problems of individual ratepayers because the small vote payoff is not worth the effort.

2. Make sure that you are very visible on the televised council meetings and try to dominate so that you get more than your share of face time.

3. Try to be controversial, argumentative, and unruly as the media will more likely reward you with the press which is good for promoting your name.

4. Whatever you do, don’t support the ideas of fellow council members, even their great ideas, as they are your competitors for votes in a general vote. You want to do everything in your power to prevent your competitors from getting the press...especially for something good. Avoid this at all costs!

5. Make sure you listen to the large groups in the city like the trade unions, churches, the golf club, senior’s centers, etc. as these groups have the potential of influencing their members who live city wide to vote for you…so be a friend of the large groups…do what they want!

6. Election funding is expensive…so be especially friendly to the development industry and other potential big election donors and do everything in your power to keep them happy with your votes.

7. Try to secure help from the large organizations in promoting your name within the organization particularly for things like getting sign locations and election help as big organizations and big budgets are required for election... If you are especially friendly with these large groups, they may be a good source of campaign volunteers. Keep the large groups happy with you!

8. Try to glad hand at large functions around town. Try especially to get your name and picture in the paper or any communications published by large groups.

9. It is quite impossible to get to enough doors city wide, so campaign by having a mail drop of your material and holiday in Florida during the election. There are so many candidates that no one will miss you. Election will just come down to the money you have been able to raise…so pay someone to run your campaign and pay workers for things that have to be done. There will be so many candidates at All-Candidates Forums getting 2 minutes each and so no one will miss you when you don't attend.

10. Above all…relax during the campaigns…because political campaigns are not too important in getting you elected. If you’ve done a good job in promoting your name, you won’t have to do much else to get elected. You’ll have a seat for the rest of your life. There will be so many candidates that the sucker voters will not know any of them and will just go down the list aimlessly marking the names they’ve heard---yours! You’ll thrive with the impossibility of voters making informed choices. The voters will be frustrated with the immensity of the task. They won’t remember that you got all of the press by all of the negativism that the press thrives on.

11. Make sure that you use all of your middle names fully spelled out on the ballot because the longer the name, the more it will stand out and attract votes. If you don't have enough names, invent some. It would be helpful if you were born with a family name starting with "a" as names are alphabetical on the ballot and names listed first have a better chance of being selected. So maybe you should change your name for election purposes to make sure it stands out in a preferable location on the ballot. The position and visibility of your name on the ballot may be the most important factor in getting elected in a general vote as there are so many names on the ballot, no voter gets to know who the candidates are or what they stand for. Because of this, you want to enhance everything about your name in attracting as many random votes as possible.

SO NOW THAT YOU HAVE SEEN THE TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF CAMPAIGNS, WHICH DO YOU THINK WOULD PRODUCE THE KIND OF POLITICIAN YOU WANT FOR OSHAWA?