There are more than half a million elected offices in the United States, ranging from a town clerk to the President of the United States. Broome County has several hundred such offices, ranging from town assessor, supervisor, mayor, highway superintendent and village or school board trustee to county legislator, county executive, state Assembly member and state Senator. If you decided to run for these offices, would you know what to do?
You can get a sense of what running for office entails at our annual workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 10, on the SUNY Broome campus in Decker Health Sciences Building Room 201.
This year’s workshop puts more emphasis on the whole range of elected positions, rather than just the “glamour” seats like those of the local State legislators, major mayors, the County Executive and the county legislature. The workshop will also include a special session for women interested in running for elected office.
The workshop schedule is set up as follows:
- 8:30-9 a.m.: Registration with coffee and snacks
- 9-10:10 a.m.: A bipartisan Roundtable Discussion of why individuals decided to run for public office in Broome County
- 10:15 to noon: Learn the nuts and bolts of getting on the ballot and running a campaign. This session will also include short presentations on submitting petitions and financial reports, fundraising, and the use of print materials, websites and social media
- Noon to 1:10 p.m.: Light lunch and an opportunity to talk to political party representatives of your choice, including Republicans, Democrats, Working Families and the Green Party.
- 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.: A series of short presentations focusing on campaign ethics, how to understand budgets, preparing for public office prior to running, listening to your constituents after the campaign, and the citizen retreat from democracy and the road back
- 2:50 to 3:50 p.m.: A “Run Sister Run” roundtable of women who have run for office and what they have learned.
This event is sponsored by the SUNY Broomee Center for Civic Engagement, the college’s Student Assembly and the college’s History/Philosophy/Social Sciences Department.
People who wish to sign up in advance may call the college’s Continuing Education office at 778-5012 and enroll in CS086-01: “So You Want to Run for Political Office and Make a Difference.” We would especially encourage high school students, college students, young people and women to attend.
Even if running for office is not in your immediate plans, understanding what a candidate does is worth finding out and you may decide to work on an upcoming campaign. Democracy is always a work in progress, but for it to work at solving the great problems of our times it requires a critical mass of engaged citizens. Newcomers and old hands are equally encouraged to attend and there is no cost.
For more information, contact Lisa Strahley at strahleyla@sunybroome.edu or Doug Garnar at garnardc@sunybroome.edu.
