It's Never too Early to Start a Student Government Campaign

My daughter, Z, will be starting her new middle school next week. Obviously there's a lot of excitement, questions and concerns. The latest fell squarely into my forte: politics. Z was student body class president at her old school and hopes to continue her political career in middle school (yeah I'm pretty proud :-\ ). Of course, middle school means not only a wider field of candidates, but a larger electorate as well. And since there are a half dozen elementary schools feeding into this middle school she's looking for votes from a whole lot of new faces.

Of course, my first instinct is to have her run on an anarchist/libertarian platform endorsing smaller school administration and more student freedom. Unfortunately, the student government simply isn't that powerful, being more focused on subjects like the theme for the fall dance and whether to have "hat day" or "sweater day" to increase school spirit. So I went looking for a little focused help. Luckily I managed to find How To Win a High School Election : Advice and Ideas from Over 1,000 High School Seniors.

Although slightly dated (it was published in 1999) this book is jam packed with great advice. The author interviewd more than 1,000 student government leaders to get the inside tips and tricks that have actually worked to win elections. Categories include, deciding to run, posters, handouts, speeches, slogans, and advice on keeping the right attitude. While nothing can guarantee the rsults of a (legitimate) election, this book is the student body equivalent of having a professional campaign manager in your corner. Here's a few of my favorite tidbits:

- People who would be running against a popular opponent often forget that the "in" crowd typically makes up less than 10% of the student body. That still leaves 90% of the vote for the "normal" kids.

- If there are multiple candidates an underdog can easily sneak in and win. With three candidates and a 100 student electorate you could easily win with only 20 votes - 50% voter turnout means 50 votes cast - 15 - 15 - 20.

The most important piece of advice in this book is to start early. In fact it's never too early to start campaigning. With that in mind, the authors have now made the book available as an instant download as well from their website. We all want to give our kids an edge to succeed. This book is the first step to giving them the edge in any student election.