Here's a good example of a candidate who's trying to set himself apart from the pack by not campaigning. No signs, information or any other campaign material.
Here's the full story, but remember this: those who don't campaign lose. Why? People, although they deny it, want to be asked for their vote - this is called campaigning.
Here's a fun story from Washington State about campaign signs clean-up. It's pretty indepth and the author did a great job getting into the meat of the subject. A fun read!
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign: Post-election cleanup begins
November 10, 2009
By Warren Kagarise
Election Day is done, but the symbols remain: campaign signs planted by candidates and volunteers near busy intersections, along bustling streets and in front lawns from the Issaquah Highlands to Squak Mountain.
Candidates realize residents tolerate the signs during campaign season, but after Election Day, the placards become visual pollution.
A few candidates mobilized volunteers to yank signs from the ground before midnight Election Day. City Council candidate Nathan Perea started uprooting his signs Election Day afternoon. Councilman-elect Tola Marts left a victory party and gathered his signs in the election night chill.
Perea said he empathized with residents tired of the signs. The compact campaign ads sprouted en masse during the summer.
“I appreciate the clutter being gone as soon as possible,” he said.
Perea blanketed Issaquah with distinctive green-and-orange signs emblazoned with a pine tree logo. In the end, however, Perea said the signs had little effect. Marts won the Position 7 council contest by a landslide.
Marnie Maraldo, a successful school board candidate, said she understood why the signs must come down soon after Election Day.
“I do sympathize with the public who has had to look at them since April or May,” she said.
Remember a couple weeks ago when we talked about the rare case where a candidate could get caught stealing capaign signs? Well, here it is on video. HOW HUMILIATING!!!
Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy9CEN5oah4
Also, note the guy lied about how much his 300 campaign signs cost - he valued them at $2,500. Let's see, that's$8.33 per sign. REALLY? Sorry Mister, I don't know where you bought your signs, but you got "took!"
There’s a hidden secret of saving money when you buy your campaign signs. Most people’s instinct is to start from scratch, order fresh and buy new. But political campaigns are nothing new and neither are political campaign signs.
That means there have been tens of thousands of yard signs posted in your area over the last few years. That also means that thousands of signs have been thrown away. Along with the campaign sign, goes the metal wire. But, metal wires and H stakes should NEVER be thrown away. The secret to saving money on your campaign signs is to use wires from another campaign.
While not all of them can be perfect, you can estimate that 70% of the wires will be in usable condition. Stapling a new sign over the old wire and no one will know the difference.
The fact is, wires cost anywhere from 49 cents to $1.69 per wire, per sign. That ends up being a large amount of money. If you can get your campaign signs printed on poster board and then stapled around the old wires, you just saved a bundle.
Not only will you save on buying the wires, you’ll also save on shipping the wires. Wire shipping, depending on the size, can run anywhere from $15 to $65 per hundred; that’s a significant savings.
So, how do you get old wires or H stakes? There are a few easy ways. First, call your local party office and see if they have any wires or someone’s old campaign signs. They may be happy to get rid of them. If that’s a bust, call some friends who have run for office before or call an elected official. They may have signs in storage and want to get rid of them. You may also try a local recycling center to see if they have any they are hanging onto.
If you’re planning on running for office, but there’s an election between now and when you’ll run, call a candidate, or two, or three and ask them to give you their wires or H stakes when they are finished with them. You should offer to go collect the signs when their election is finished.
Another great place to get wires and H stakes is polling places. When voting is over, the custodians of schools, churches and other polling places collect the campaign signs and throw them in the trash. With few exceptions, few candidates ever go pick up their signs at polling places. This is a great opportunity for you to get anywhere from five to 50 wires or H stakes. It will only take a few polling places and you’ll have enough wires or H stakes for you and a couple other campaigns. Make sure you offer those stakes or wires to someone else if you’re not going to use them.
With a little planning, some elbow grease and a dash of creativity, you can use this hidden secret to saving money when buying your campaign signs.
Here's a new take on campaign signs clean-up.
A AClifton, NJ Assemblyman by the name of Thomas Giblin is going to donate 10 cents to a local charity for every one of his campaign signs returned to his office. This is the first we'd heard of this tactic, but it's a great idea. Hopefully they will recycle the signs that come back to his office.
From the story:
"We can clean up our streets and help the less fortunate at the same time," said the Montclair Democrat, who was re-elected Tuesday. "Eva's Village can do a lot of good with additional resources at a time when a lot more good needs to be done.
I recently interviewed Carol Daley of http://www.OnlineCandidate.com about political campaign website. Carol is an expert at political websites so we thought you’d appreciate an interview. I came up with the seven most important website questions a candidate should have answers to.
How do I know if I need a website for my campaign?
At this point in time, if you are running for just about any elected position, voters expect a candidate to have a campaign website.
How much will a campaign website cost?
That varies a lot, even for a local campaign. Hiring a designer to build out the site can be expensive. We’ve seen small campaigns spend thousands to build and maintain a custom-built site. A volunteer could build something for free, but then there’s the issue of quality and the ability and availability of someone to update the site. The price to have a campaign website design firms varies. Some provide very basic sites and cookie-cutter designs for a monthly fee, while others charge a flat rate and include different amounts of customization. Online Candidate packages are about $400, and that’s all-inclusive of domain registration, hosting and custom design.
Will I be able to raise money from my campaign website?
Definitely. With some promotion and a means to accept online contributions, your campaign website can certainly raise money. Combining offline and online marketing, candidates can drive traffic and donations through the web. However, we always remind candidates that a campaign website exists as a conduit through which to raise money, not as a means unto itself. If your website is not promoted or no one has an interest in your campaign, slapping an online donation button onto a web page will not do a thing for you.
How much work is it to set up a campaign website?
It depends on how the website is built. Most websites today are built with a content management system (CMS). There is often a balance between functionality and ease of use. For example, the Online Candidate CMS is designed to be very easy to use for a non-techie, but open enough to allow additional functionality for someone with more coding experience.
What will I put on my campaign website?
Just about anything! You can add a candidate bio, issues, contact, endorsements, media links, donate and volunteer pages, photos, video, digital versions of campaign materials, links to voting information, additional resources and more. A campaign website can serve as a communications hub, and the center of a candidate’s online social network!
What will my campaign website actually do for me?
A campaign website gives voters and supporters a place to keep up to date with the campaign. It’s a single destination that can be added to all of a campaign’s print materials and signs. It’s a way to make your local campaign appear larger than it might really be. This can attract new supporters, and perhaps scare the heck out of your political opponents!
I don’t understand the process, where do I start?
There are two parts to a campaign website – a domain name and the website hosting. A domain name can be registered before a website is built. Domain names can be registered through any registrar company. Two of the largest are Dotster and GoDaddy. Where a site is hosted is usually determined by whoever builds the website. If you know you are running, it’s not a bad idea to choose and reserve your domain name early.
If a website is ordered through Online Candidate, we register the domain name and set up the hosting for the client. We make sure the domain name is registered in the candidate’s name, which is important as whoever’s name is used as the registrar is technically the domain name’s owner.
For more campaign tips and ideas, visit www.OnlineCandidate.com. They offer a variety of products designed to help small and medium-sized campaigns achieve election victory!
We're looking for your unique and original ideas for ways to recycle, repurpose and reuse political campagin signs. How have you reused a campaign sign? Share with everyone how you've been inventive. Please post your comments!
Here's a guy in North Carolina that's doing it right!
Big signs, but no opponent
Evans says he's serious about mayor's post
BY COLIN CAMPBELL, Staff Writer
SMITHFIELD - He's got the biggest campaign signs in town, but no one's running against Daniel Evans for mayor.
Evans is unopposed in his bid to succeed outgoing mayor Norman Johnson, but he's decided not to let election season pass by without some campaigning.
"I want everyone to know that I take the job seriously," Evans said. "I want to generate an interest in Smithfield politics. It will lead people to ask questions." more here
Yes, it's true, someone has taken pictures of illegally placed campaign signs. http://bit.ly/1fYeYW This is in California.
Okay, the heat is on - voting is just a short 8 days from now, and it's obvious the last posting has gotten some great response and search volume. So, I'm going to back up for a second and give you some "real world" advice.
What to do if someone steals your campaign signs - and you actually know it's a person, not 1) a few young vandals with no intention of harming you politically, or 2) the weather.
First off, never - EVER - put a sign in illegally. It's not littering, it's unfair and it's not right. And never – EVER – take your opponent signs, no matter how unfairly they are being to you. You must remember, YOU have to play fair, even when your opponent doesn't. Why? You'll be better off in the long run.
Story time: I had a school board client recently who worked his tail off to get 4X8 commercial locations. He must have gotten 20 locations - that's a lot for a local school board race. His opponent’s husband came by and put in her 2X4 signs right next to his - NEVER getting permission from the land owner. They just thought since his wife's opponent was there with a sign, they could too. NOT THE CASE!
My client lost. But turns out the "lady" in question is not in deep trouble and will probably get kicked off the school board. Suffice to say, the law of sowing and reaping is alive and well these days. (Always remember that!) While my client didn’t win, he played fair and square and can hold his head high for being an upstanding and fair-play person.
Okay, back to your question...
What are some very common reasons your sign may no longer be in someone's residential yard?
1. It may be a rental house and the owner/tenant took it out
2. Two votes in one house have different opinions about who to vote for and the sign that was once "okay" to be in the yard is now no longer okay
3. The lawn mower, whoever it was, didn't/forgot to replace the sign after mowing
4. The voter changed their mind and they no longer want to display your sign - this happens for MANY reasons and you shouldn't get freaked out by it
5. They gave their sign to a friend because the intent to get another one soon (and you're obsessing about it way too much) - this sounds unlikely - I even didn't believe this, but have seen it a gazillion times and I'm still amazed
6. The homeowner is going out of town and took the sign down (another excuse I thought was totally bunk and have heard it so many times, it needs to get included in this list)
There are other factors at work here other than your evil opponent stealing your signs. Frankly, (and it’s hard to believe this now, because you’ve worked so hard on your campaign it’s easiest to blame the other side) most of your signs are not being stolen by the other side. Does it happen? YES – OF COURSE! But are the bulk of your missing signs being stolen by the other side? No.
You cannot expect that if your signs are missing from several locations that your opponent is stealing them. It’s simply a bad assumption.
However, if you lose 60 or more signs out of say 200, chances are someone is intentionally taking them.
Here’s the deal with that though. USUALLY, no candidate is stupid enough to take someone else’s signs. Remember, I said usually. Each election cycle, some jackass candidates DOES steal their opponent’s signs and it’s caught on video tape. So, yes, it does happen. But an actual candidate stealing their opponent’s signs is rare. (This will not sit well with most candidates or politicians because they think anytime a sign is missing, it was stolen by the other side.)
Most times, when signs are actually stolen – really STOLEN - it’s a “well-intentioned” supporter of your opponent’s. They are usually new-comers to politics. They think they are helping. They think that they are being tricky, hacky and hurting the other side.
In reality they only risk hurting the candidate they are trying to help.
Opinions abound in politics, but here’s an opinion you would do well to hear: most people can’t judge how many campaign signs you have up. You could have 100 up in a small neighborhood, or 1,000 – and you’d get a different estimate from each person you talked to. In fact, experienced professionals – paid “experts” often times have no clue how many signs to order…and often misjudge the demand for signs – too high and too low.
Instead of focusing on the “stolen” signs, you need to be going door to door asking people for votes.
Remember, you must have campaign signs for your campaign. But, campaign signs don’t vote – people do.
Therefore, get your signs up, get as many locations as you can; get signs up along busy streets and then try to penetrate deep into residential neighborhoods.
Get enough signs to put up through Election Day and at the polling place. Don’t worry about all the signs your losing. Just keep putting signs up, knocking on doors and asking for votes.
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