Running Against an Incumbent
Friday
May 8, 2009
Running against an incumbent creates some special challenges. You will most likely become disillusioned with some people you thought would be your allies because they will side with an incumbent they know should be replaced. Most people who do this consider themselves pragmatic. They don’t want to cross the person in power and they don’t believe you can win.
Ironically, it is often the most politically active people who will be alarmed at the thought of offending an officeholder. They will try to talk you out of running simply because they do not want to be put in the position of having to make a difficult choice. Folks who aren’t politically active are much more willing to take a chance on a candidate who is challenging an incumbent.
I worked for one candidate who had a decades-long friendship with a local mayor. The mayor refused to support my candidate when he ran against a local officeholder because he didn’t think he could win. In fact, the incumbent lost, receiving less than one-third of the vote. The guy who insisted my candidate “couldn’t win” was on the phone the morning after the election looking to mend fences.
In another race, I worked for a city council candidate who was running against an incumbent. When my candidate won, one of his old friends who had dodged his phone calls for months showed up the morning after the election with a check for a campaign donation that he said he had “forgotten” to mail.
There is little question that most incumbents have a big advantage when it comes to fundraising. There are plenty of people who do business with the government who will give them the maximum contribution. Meanwhile, if you’re running against an incumbent, you will tend to get checks in amounts slightly below the reporting limit from people who want to help, but don’t want to risk the incumbent seeing their names on your list of contributors.
The one advantage to running against an incumbent is that they have a clear, and usually extensive, record. They have voted on enough issues that you have plenty of material to challenge them on. They have most likely also offended some groups of voters who are pretty easily identified. Anyone who serves in public office will have to make choices that will inevitably alienate some voters. Depending on their personality and political skills, they can end up creating a substantial pool of voters who are ready to vote against them.
If you are interested in running against an incumbent, try to identify these groups early on, preferably months or even years before the election. In a local race, you should be attending council or board meetings and talking to the people who are there to oppose or support specific issues. At the state office level, you should be tracking legislative votes and talking to interest groups who agree with you and oppose the incumbent.
By the way, some of those interest groups, especially those oriented toward business or professional interests also have a tendency to be “pragmatic.” They will tell you that they don’t like the incumbent, but they want to be sure they “have an open door” so they will have access to him. You are simply going to have to win without people like this. They see the world very differently than those who are willing to get out and take a risk to try to improve the quality of life in their community or their state.
