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USING A NOMINATION PETITION
IN LIEU OF A FILING FEE

Filing with a nomination petition does several very good things for your campaign:

It establishes your credibility as a hard working candidate.

It saves you a filing fee.

It gives you an excuse to campaign early.

It gives you a vehicle to build your organization.

It gives you an incredibly effective method to win votes.

And most import: A nomination gives you a head start identifying your supporters.

If you have a contested primary, you can almost lock it up by collecting enough signatures. Even if you are unopposed, which you won't know until the filing deadline, those voters who signed your petition will be the foundation of your campaign. Some will give you money and time. If you contact them on election day the great majority will vote for you.

In a sense collecting signatures for your petition is the purest campaign activity you will do all year. You or your supporters will have to contact voters and persuade them to support you enough to sign your petition.

It is important that you get into campaign mode real early. A petition drive is proof that you are a worker. One great hidden truth of politics is that most candidates don't work. They have this fantasy that elections are like the lottery. They believe that with luck they will catch on, maybe get discovered after giving great speeches.

The simple truth is that politics is exactly like life. Most people don't know what hard work is. And they blame everyone except themselves when they don't become successful. Those people who work hard in life, regardless of credentials or connections, usually wind up successful.

Campaigning is the same. Those candidates who work usually do very well. Most candidates confuse giving a few speeches and "planning" their campaigns with hard work. It isn't. Hard work is consistently meeting people and doing things that will win you votes. If you are a potential candidate this is a wonderful way of seeing if you like campaigning. If you lack the...

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