5W-H: When (FREEBIE)

Calendars, Timelines, and Deadlines, OH MY!

Welcome to the fifth in our 6.5-part series on the 5Ws & an H of running for office. We’ve jumbled up the typical “Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How” into the chronology of how those questions should play out in politics: Why, Where, What, Who, When, and How. Here’s our When…

When are the meetings? Do they even work with your family’s schedule?

We covered some of this in the What post, in terms of duration and time commitment. However, it’s important to make sure the regularly scheduled meetings don’t conflict with a regularly scheduled event at your home – church choir, speech therapy, soccer practice, etc. If you’re going to run, you must commit to the time commitment.

  • True story: A candidate called to hire me. He had already filed for the office. I asked a few questions to gauge his intent.
  • He had never been to a meeting of the board on which he filed to serve.
  • He didn’t know which days of the week it met, or how often, but
  • He DID know that this was something he could run for and keep his day job.
    • “You know, build some name ID for a Congressional run.”
  • I kid you not.
Image by amyelizabethquinn from Pixabay

When is the election for that role?

To that end, there are a number of “Whens” which you must answer as part of the decision to run and serve. We could also add in another “what” here, because “what else” is on that particular ballot can make a lot of difference in who turns out for the election. But that’s an entirely different blog series (makes mental note).

  1. Is it a traditional November even-year general election?
    1. Midterm or Presidential?
  2. Odd-year elections:
    1. Party-affiliated or non-partisan?
  3. Primary Elections: Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall?
    1. Party-affiliated or non-partisan?
    2. Jungle/blanket or ranked choice primary?
    3. How much time between primary and general?

When should you file?

Regardless of the answers to the questions above, it is always best to file ASAP – once your ducks are in line – see below for our Candidate Filing Playbook.

Many would disagree, and there’s quite a bit of strategery around when you file, for a number of reasons:

  1. Campaign finance filings:
    1. If you file before campaign finance reports are due, you’ll have to complete a report.
      1. If you’ve raised a lot, this can be good.
      2. If you haven’t, it could signal weakness.
    2. If you file just a few days before, you still have the hassle of completing the report without much time to have anything to show for it.
    3. Filing well before the deadlines AND having a lot of money to report is a great way to ward off opposition as well.
  2. Other candidates filing: Is the rumor mill churning out potential opponents?
    1. Filing first, especially if you have great name ID, can scare other candidates out of the race.
    2. Filing second can help prevent a primary (depending on the number of candidates which trigger a primary), but it can also make you a target.
      1. Are you filing against an incumbent? Did you do your research on them? It’s harder to fundraise against incumbents because they have a long list of previous donors, and have established relationships with the “donor class” of lobbyists, businesses, and the habitual donors. Again, a reason to file early so you have time to overcome this challenge.
      2. Is someone already filed, or rumored to be running, which, in your opinion, doesn’t represent the broader interests of the district? Or are they from a faction which doesn’t have enough votes to win?
  3. Election calendar requirements: Be sure you know the important dates for the office you are considering. Filing deadlines both to run for office and to file campaign finance reports are crucial:
    1. Some states have filing deadlines far in advance of the election.
    2. Some states have a filing period, a matter of weeks or even days within which all candidates for certain races must submit their paperwork.
    3. Other states have short deadlines, where the filing period doesn’t give much time before the election to build your campaign and name ID. Another supporting point to our file early policy.

Bottom Line: The more time you have as an official candidate to raise your name ID and recognition of your campaign, the better. In every case.

The How of the When

We’ve compiled a step-by-step timeline of the few days before you file, to provide an order in which to get things done. We hope it’s helpful for you! Download it here (Candidate Filing Playbook).

Additionally, the great folks at the National Conference of State Legislatures has some incredible state-by-state resources for those interested in running for their legislature:

This is one of our favorite resources – their list of state filing deadlines. It’s not released yet for 2024, but this 2022 list gives you a good idea of next year’s dates.

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