{"id":2053,"date":"2015-10-20T08:48:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T12:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/blog\/?p=2053"},"modified":"2015-10-20T08:52:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T12:52:54","slug":"post-campaign-blues-what-i-learned-and-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/post-campaign-blues-what-i-learned-and-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Campaign Blues: What I Learned, and What’s Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or, how less than 0.86% equaled 3.5%.<\/em><\/p>\n

The voters spoke two weeks ago today, and declared that I was not their choice to represent District D on the Town Council of Cary, North Carolina. C’est la vie.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am grateful to everyone who voted for me<\/strong>, and a little pleased that I garnered 3.5% of the vote while investing less than 0.86% of the total money spent on the District D campaign. How much less than 0.86% I’m not sure, since the other candidates haven’t filed their final reports (and two of them are continuing to spend money on a runoff); that figure is based on their reports from 2 weeks before<\/strong> the election, and I know one candidate in particular spent a whole lot more money on mailings and robocalls and such right up to election day.<\/p>\n

\"Prepare<\/a>
\n(“Prepare for the Worst: Political Ads are Coming!” by Jeff Gates, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I do wonder how many more votes I might have gotten if I had mailed out a postcard or two, or put up a few signs, or advertised a little. I think I might have made it competitive, but it’s hard to do when you spend less than $100. But, to paraphrase the song,<\/p>\n

I’d like to run for [office] and play the political game
\nBut I don’t have very much money to wage a big campaign<\/p>\n

— “I Think I’ll Run for Congress”<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, besides the obvious lesson that you have to be willing to spend a great deal of money — either your own or someone else’s — to get elected, what other lessons did I learn, or have confirmed? I’ll catalogue a few:<\/p>\n