Finding the Right Campaign Manager: The Secret to Your Success
Democratic Nominee fo D.C. Shadow Senator Ankit Jain and Campaign Manager Mary Ellen Golcheski
I started this month in my happy place, a small surfing village nestled in the jungle off the Pacific coast of Mexico. But, it wasn’t just another day in paradise as Mexico made history with their elections on Sunday, June 2nd. Both left and right-leaning national parties nominated female candidates, and at least one of them was expected to win. In an attempt to curb civil unrest, alcohol sales were halted at midnight Saturday morning and the prohibition of sales continued through the end of Sunday, Election Day.
On Monday morning, June 3rd, I finally woke up in a country that had a female President-Elect in Claudia Sheinbaum.
It was an amazing feeling.
Sadly, that feeling was fleeting as just a few hours later I boarded a plane in Puerto Vallarta to return to my native dystopia that forces victims of child rape to carry to term. God Bless America.
After a long layover in Atlanta, I arrived at BWI in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, June 4th at 12:45 am and collapsed on my bed in Baltimore around 1:15 am.
Fast forward eight hours of hard sleep, and I woke up around 9:00 am Tuesday for another Election Day, June 4th, in Washington, D.C.
I first contacted Ankit Jain in September of last year, and I caught him at a time when I wish I could catch every candidate . . . before he announced his run for D.C. Shadow Senator. (If you want to know what a D.C. Shadow Senator does, that’s a whole other blog post).
Ankit had experience working on campaigns in the past, so he wasn’t green. He knew the ropes enough to know when he needed help. Initially, I was supposed to get him through his launch but ended up staying on as his general consultant. Our team ran an outstanding campaign, and his hard work paid off with a victory in what has been called, “the most surprising result from election night”
Ankit made a lot of good decisions, one of which was hiring the right campaign manager. He made an excellent choice by choosing someone who knew the ins and outs of D.C. politics. As his campaign manager, Mary Ellen Golcheski, was able to offer strategic advice and boots on the ground to complement my years of experience.
Congratulations to Ankit Jain on becoming the Democratic nominee for D.C. Shadow Senator. If elected in November, Ankit will make history as the first Indian American elected to citywide office in Washington, D.C. It was an honor and pleasure to be part of his winning team!
Running for office is similar to solving a giant puzzle. Choosing the right campaign manager is one of the most integral pieces of running your campaign. It can literally make or break your campaign. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I was a campaign manager across the country at almost every level for a decade. And I would like to think I was a damn good one even though my win record is much better as a consultant. I’ve been doing this long enough to know what constitutes a good campaign manager and a bad one.
If you are thinking of running for office, do not make a knee-jerk reaction and hire the first resume that someone puts in front of you. You are putting your campaign in this person’s hands, and trust is of the utmost importance.
Here are some of the Dos and Don’ts.
DON’T HIRE YOUR FRIENDS
One of my mentors once said that politics is one of the few industries, where everyone thinks they are a professional. Sally’s cousin Marvin has watched “Veep” a few times, so Marvin knows politics, right? WRONG! Depending on the type of office you are running for, you will need someone with at least one cycle of professional campaign experience in some capacity.
I’ll be honest, the first time I managed a campaign I had no idea what I was doing, but I did have prior experience on gubernatorial and congressional campaigns doing field and finance. If you are running for a lower-level race such as school board or town council, you might be able to find an eager person who has volunteered on campaigns in the past. But, just because Bill down the street watches MSNBC all the time and once shook Obama’s hand does not qualify Bill to be your campaign manager.
INTERVIEW THOROUGHLY AND CHECK REFERENCES
Working in politics can be very political. You have your vultures and sharks, and then you have your flat-out grifters. And by checking references, I mean beyond the three they give you. No one is going to hand over a list of names of people who are not going to say nice things about them.
One of the first things I do when I come across resumes is I look to see if we have any Facebook friends or LinkedIn connections in common. Most likely we have at least one or two mutual friends, and I will reach out and ask about Jill Q. Campaign Manager. However, I would take into consideration when your mutual friend might have worked with your potential campaign manager. I know my level of work quality and experience was drastically different between 2011 and 2019.
Call the right people and ask the right questions.
Just a few starter questions for your potential campaign manager are:
Can they be relied upon to consistently meet deadlines?
Are they a team player and how do they handle conflict and disagreement?
Do they have sharp attention to detail?
YOUR MANAGER CANNOT EFFECTIVELY RUN YOUR CAMPAIGN REMOTELY
If you know me, you know I am a big fan of remote work. I’ve been working remotely since the beginning of the pandemic, and I have never been more productive. Your general consultant can work remotely. Your digital and mail firms can work remotely. Even your finance director and in some cases your communications director can work remotely.
But, you CANNOT run your best campaign with a remote campaign manager. I’ve seen candidates try to do it, and it always ends in a disaster.
I’ve landed a few clients, including Ankit, because they were looking for campaign managers. I am upfront with them that I cannot be their campaign manager, but I can help them find one. Your campaign manager must be on the ground and consulting with you on a daily basis. There are no exceptions. Believe me, there is likely talent where you live if you look around hard enough. And if someone isn’t ready to move for you, then maybe that’s not the right person.
HIRE A DOER, NOT A TALKER
Some of the worst campaign managers I’ve ever seen are the ones who wake up every morning and walk into the campaign office like they’re stepping into a West Wing episode. You know the type of person who likes to prop their feet on the desk and wax poetic on policy day and night. Winning is about doing. And I know this might be a controversial take, but I would much rather get 10 things done and out the door in a day that are 80% perfect than five things out the door that are 100% perfect.
Before I became a jaded professional, I managed a campaign and upon returning to the office at 10:00 pm from knocking on doors, I would thumb through the local obituaries and mark people as “deceased” in votebuilder. In hindsight, that was probably not the best use of my time, but there’s a reason I named my company Workhorse Strategies.
Hire someone “scrappy” over someone “yappy.”
HIRE SOMEONE YOU LIKE
This might seem like a no-brainer, but if you are running your campaign the right way, you are going to be spending A LOT of time with your campaign manager. Whether it is the DCCC or the DSCC or any other entity, you don’t have to hire the first person the establishment sends you. Yes, your campaign manager’s resume is important, but more important than that is chemistry.
I’ve had the privilege of managing many candidates from a wide variety of diverse backgrounds. I’ve managed a farmer’s daughter, a physics professor, LGBTQ+ candidates, and a number of first-generation immigrants.
A candidate once told me that I knew when to push him and when not to, and I’m not sure that is something one can learn. I consider myself to be a pretty easygoing person until you give me a reason not to be, and I still maintain contact with a number of the candidates I’ve managed.
You don’t have to be best friends with your campaign manager, but you do need to have some modicum of mutual respect. And you absolutely MUST be able to trust them. Hiring the right manager, after your commitment to fundraising, is the single most important decision you can make as a candidate. Hire someone you get along with, who has experience, and knows how to get things done.
I appreciate your time and thank you for reading. As always, any and all referrals are welcome.
Until next time . . . Awevo!
Email monica@workhorsestrategies.com, and let’s get started.
GO HEELS!
Monica Biddix
Workhorse Strategies, LLC
Principal and Founder
