Last Call for Candidates for Framingham City Council and School Committee

If you ever contemplated running for City Council or for School Committee, now is the time to act.

The city is on a downslide in student performance, teacher retention, environmental action, road maintenance, roof replacements, water & sewer system maintenance, senior services, etc.

If you think everything is fine, read no further, but if you are very concerned about the state of affairs and want to do something about it, run for office.

All you have to do is collect 50 valid signatures in your district by July 15 at 5pm.

You simply go into the City Clerk's office and ask for nomination papers to run for office and they will tell you in a few minutes what to do. You can walk around your neighborhood and get the signatures in a few hours, best done on the weekend or on weekday evenings. Some people don't like to sign, but most are very happy to see competition in local elections.

The most important thing you can do once you get on the ballot is to generate discussions about the problems which need to be solved, and raise the community's awareness of the true state of affairs.

Do not worry that you have to have a 'political network'. If you go direct to voters, you will find that they are the ones who matter, not some bunch of establishment politicians who prefer to have no competition for their chosen candidates.

When I ran successfully for Framingham School Committee in the fall of 2017 as a complete unknown, I made no phone calls and did not knock on a single door. But I did put together a good flyer and dropped one at every door in my district. I also went to a candidates forum, and did have prior School Committee experience in Newton, which helped for sure. Plus, I sent a postcard to voters who actually vote in municipal elections in the week before the election.

What matters is commitment and engagement, not some special connections, big backers or secret political sauce. Nor do you have to have prior political experience. In fact, it's an advantage to have none, as then you will have an open mind and will bring fresh ideas.

The community is hungry for new faces and fresh approaches.

Framingham has been run by the same political clique for the last 25 years and it is time for a change.

The basic requirements for running an effective district race are:

1. Common sense.
2. The ability to read, and do arithmetic.
3. An inclination to ask questions and challenge authority.
4. A commitment to improving Framingham, based on facts and rational discussion.
5. $3,000 for yard signs, flyers and a postcard sent to voters in the week before the election.
6. An understanding that you only have to target voters who actually vote in municipal elections, with your flyer and postcard campaign. That is about 1 in 5 registered voters.

If you can come up with $3,000, lend it to your campaign and barrel ahead with a flyer drop.

If your campaign makes sense to voters, donations will come in.

Go ahead, give it a try. You will meet a lot of great people and get fitter when you walk around dropping flyers.

Most of all in this terrible, turbulent time, when Washington is a chaotic mess, you can feel good that you are trying to act locally to improve your city.

Finally, if you need help with any of the above, I am happy to provide help in getting you up to speed on anything. I have a database of registered voters, and a database of voters who vote in municipal elections. I am also pretty good at flyer design. The only condition I have is that you satisfy the first 4 requirements above. All advice is free.

Just email me at geoffreynepstein@gmail.com.