Campaign 101Some of these comments may be a bit strong, but now that you are thenominee, you are going to be immersed in hard-core politics. You need tohave a thick skin. If you can master these, you will hands-down be the bestcandidate in the race. Follow these simple guidelines and you will be milesahead of your opponents.

1. Ask people for their voteYou need to give people a reason to vote for YOU. Urging people to voteagainst someone or something rarely ever works for a candidate. Fromhere on, your message should be:"I would really appreciate your vote on election day."It sounds simple, but many candidates from all parties forget to ask peopleto vote for them.

2. ALWAYS come prepared.Think of this as being a political preacher. A minister always has aprepared sermon because he has a message that he wants to get across.You should be the same way. It is your job to have a message that youwant to get across every time you speak. This allows you to control thedialogue. When you start off taking questions, you are at the mercy of thetopics that the audience brings up, instead of addressing your topics.

3. Dress to impressAlways make sure that you are dressed one notch better than the audiencethat you are addressing. For example, if you are addressing hog farmers inoveralls, you should wear an open-collar shirt and a casual jacket. If youare addressing any other group, you should almost always be in a jacketand a tie.

With that, the only acceptable colors for a suit should be navy, dark blue,black, charcoal, or gray. Ties should be solid color, usually red or blue.Shirts should be white or light blue.

4. Respond to all media within 24 hours.Even of candidates running for the smallest offices on the ballot, theLibertarian Party has the following requirements:-file all paperwork on time

-get a digital head and shoulder photo taken for the press and the stateoffice-respond to the newspaper questionnaire

This isn't much to ask. We fight so hard to get coverage that it puts us lightyears behind when we have a reporter who wants to cover us and wearen't organized enough to respond in a timely fashion.

5. Know your audienceIf you are speaking to Libertarians, speak like a libertarian. If you arespeaking to any other group, speak like a person. With this, don't getcaught up in discussing the finer points of your platform with Libertarians.Libertarians already know you, and will most likely vote for you. Don'tspend too much time going back and forth with them. They will exhaustyou, and you will have no more votes than you had to start with. Your timeis limited. You should speak to Libertarians to raise money and build theparty, but you should focus on getting in front of non-libertarian groups.

6. Have an entourageOften times, what is not said about your campaign means more than whatyou say. Try to never attend an event by yourself. If you go alone, peoplewill wonder if you have any support at all. If you can, invite everyLibertarian you can to non-libertarian events, and make sure that you havea handler. It should be the handler's job to make sure that the details aretaken care of for you so that you can concentrate on wooing the audience.That person can be your wife, or your kids, or even the neighbor kid thatyou paid five bucks to go with you.

7. Win your precinctThe most effective message that you can deliver is this:"I'm your neighbor. Vote for me. "If you knock on every door in your neighborhood, and then stand outside ofyour precinct on election day with that message, you are well on your wayto victory.

If you follow these seven rules of campaigning, you will set records for theLibertarian Party. This is our year to shine, and you are our star!