How to Run for Local Office, Revised-second edition, 2008. An extensive step-by-step guide to help you win your election, along with valuable advice for you after you take office.

This is the completely revised, second edition of How to Run for Local Office. This new edition includes everything that made the first edition so popular, selling over 18,000 worldwide and used by dozens of universities and colleges, including Harvard, Oklahoma State University, Ohio State Univerisity, Indiana State Univerisity, Keene State College, Pennsylvania Fels Center of Government and even West Pointe Military Academy. How to Run for Local Office will take you step-by-step through the election process when running for political office. This book covers everything you need to know whether you are running for Alderman in a small community or running for Mayor in a city of over 100,000 population. It covers every aspect of putting a campaign together including making your decision to run or not, what you will face if you do, putting your team together including your inner circle and much more. This book will explain how to put your literature together, how to use it, how to distribute it and do it cost effectively. It will explain how to use campaign signs, where to place them, where not to place them, which ones are the best for you to use and how to put together your campaign lawn sign crews. This book will tell you how to prepare for debates, how to determine what public events to attend and which ones to avoid. It will explain how to do your door to door knocking and how to use your volunteers to maximize your efforts. It will explain how to set up your fundraising and what to expect. It will explain how to determine whose doors to knock on and which ones to avoid. It will explain how to maximize your campaign funds and save you more money than you would believe. This book will explain the use of the internet for your campaign and how to use GOTV. The original first edition of this title was 128 pages. This new edition has 304 pages but it includes some additional, completely new chapters not found in the original. The new Chapters are, Using Computers and the Internet, Just for Council Members-Township Trustees-Alderman, Etc., Just for Judges, Just for Mayors, Final Thoughts and Words of Wisdom. The book contains samples of letters to absentee voters, press releases, samples of postcard literature and sign up sheets that you can use for your campaign. Anyone who liked the first edition of this book, and over 18,000 people already did, will love this new edition.

Robert J. Thomas began his career in politics by accident. He began working for the City of Westland, Michigan in 1970 as a municipal worker at the Department of Public Service. Over his twenty years at the Department of Public Service, he held practically every job position available there from animal control to street plowing. He was heavily involved in the union, rising in the ranks from Union Stewart to Union President of AFSCME Local 1602. He negotiated contracts with several city administrations and during that time he slowly got involved in the political arena. In June of 1986, just six months into the city's newest mayor's four year term, Robert decided to run for the office of mayor in the election in 1989. He was given absolutely no chance of winning and was the underdog of a lifetime. He ran against one of the most powerful political machines in the history of Westland and even though he was outspent five to one and had one tenth the volunteers of his opponent, he won that first election for mayor by 200 votes. This was his first public election and he won it against all odds. Robert went on to win his first and second reelections for mayor by record landslides in his city. Robert has been involved in five elections personally, winning three out of the five. He had been involved in dozens of other campaigns and has advised hundreds of candidates around the country. In October of 2006, he was hired to speak at a session for the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association. The A.U.M.A. was founded in 1905 and they represent Alberta, Canada's 284 urban municipalities including cities, towns, villages and other specialized municipalities. Robert was the only American on the seven-member panel. He received the most questions, and spoke the longest. One of the comments at the end of the session came from an attendee of the session and his comment was, I was surprised to come to this event and discover that I learned more about running a local campaign from the only American on the panel. Robert is retired now and continues to write. He has written another political book titled How to Stay in Public Office which is available on Amazon.com. He has written three western novels and continues to advise political campaigns and candidates around the country.