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Yes I am running for City Council in the city of Duluth Mn. Just thought I would put a link up to my site and see if anyone wanted to run through it. Comment on it, let me know about mistakes errors, or suggestions you might have. I will be gone for work starting the 21st but will return on the 24th and will make sure to read all your suggestions and e-mails when I get back. Thanks.
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You need to look at your grammar across the board. While it's not bad, there are definitely frequent lapses that make things slightly difficult to understand or somewhat clumsy in expression. Posts: 2945 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Such as? I coded most of that site between 11 pm and 4 am Saturday morning. So a few mistakes have certainly been made and some have been corrected by others who have noticed them.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jun 2003
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They're littered throughout the "Issues" section. As I said, they're not bad - just read back over it all carefully and you'll pick them up. For example, I think there is an incomplete sentence at the start of your "Jobs & business" blurb. *shrug*
Posts: 2945 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Ok thanks I will look at those more closly. Hmm that is the only section I did while I was more awake. Nuts anyway there goes my excuse.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I'm sorry, Krosch, but he's right; the site is littered with grammar errors. Do you have anyone on staff to proof and design the page for you, or are you a one-man campaign at the moment?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Bone -- I agree with the idea of working on the flow of your writing. It's a bit less than clear in a few spots.
What is the nature of your race? Are you going for an open seat, or are you facing an incumbent? How many people are on your campaign committee right now? Okay, I dug around and found the news item and you're facing an incumbent. That makes it (a lot) tougher, but might make the primary fight a bit simpler.
I think you're going to want to be pretty creative here. Local races generally hinge on name id and experience, and the incumbent has you on both of those. You can work your age and lack of experience to your benefit if you don't come across as a know-it-all kid. Do a lot of doorbelling (if you haven't started, start now). You should be out shaking hands, handing out literature, and talking to people every day for hours a day. A hand you've shaken is more likely to vote for you than one that hasn't.
You're also going to need a pretty substantial organization to pull this off. People who can handle most of the work of the campaign so you can be off meeting voters and raising money.
Your issues are going to need some work -- they're pretty vague on your issues page, and are pretty susceptible to being chewed up by an opponent who's familiar with those issues. Get some folks who can help you tighten them up into realistic plans that you can stump with.
Talk about your youth, and make the point that you're not going to just represent the young people of Duluth -- that you are ready to work with all of the people in Duluth. And put some walk behind that talk. Get together with advocates for the elderly, with business groups, etc. Even if they aren't apt to support you, speaking with them will give you useful feedback and experience.
Campaigning is long, hard, tough work. Let us know how it goes.
Posts: 35 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Public Safety - Crime will not be tolerated in Duluth, our neighborhoods need to be protected and residents should feel safe in our neighborhoods. In doing this we need to keep police on the streets and laying off or eliminating positions is counter productive. Fire Fighters also protect the public and making sure they can properly protect the community is very important. I would also encourage city government to work closely with neighborhood groups in an important partnership keeping Duluth a safe place to live. To start you off. -First sentence is a run-on. Break it into two. -Second sentence. Rephrase the opening; something like "To achieve this we need to. . ." Put a period after "on the streets," drop "and," then make "Laying off" the beginning of a new sentence. -Third sentence. I thought 'firefighter' was one word, but if it isn't, the word "fighter" isn't capitalized, for the same reason "lawyer" or "doctor" isn't. Don't use the word "protect" repeatedly; try a synonym or rephrase. -Last sentence. "In an" may not be the phrase you want right after "neighborhood groups." Try "to create an" or something like that. You're missing a word right after "partnership," and you want to change the tense of "keeping."
In any case, good luck. Work, work, work, because, like Blain said, that's what'll take.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Thanks guys I will be looking over and editing my site a bit further tommorrow. I am running in a district that combines expensive lake shore property with a lower income part of the city. I am running agaisted a seated city counciler and I have a decent campaign plan in place so far. Again thanks for the help I will be making corrections in the near future.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Not a bad website. Tips: 1) More pictures on the home page and in general. Take dynamic photos of yourself, maybe knocking on doors, shaking hands, addressing a crowd on the courthouse steps or anywhere, whatever. Also put in group shots of you with family or friends or campaigners, with camp. posters or stuff in background. A photo of you on the phone taking notes and looking solemn might work. I'd say take LOTS of photos in the next week or so, then pick the best and upload. 2)You might use formdesk to get comments as well as voulenteers. 3)Dig up some dirt on your opponents. Not neccesarily real skeletons in the closet, but something you can use in your campaign. You may want to run a clean campaign, but it never hurts to have ammo in reserve. Also, challenging an incumbant is an uphill battle, and it may be next to impossible to win without attacking him. Remember, his public voting record is always fair game. Comb through that for ammo. Try to use a light touch with humor in most attacks, people remember it longer then. Campaigns often get ugliest in their finals weeks. Ask friendly long-time residents about your opponents. They'll probably remember stupid stuff your opponents have done. Dig in Duluth newspaper archives as well. If you have any dirt on yourself, you may consider putting it out in public so you can get in front of it and defuse it. This can be tricky, though. LBJ was notorious for his dirty campigns. He once accused his opponent in a Texas race of sleeping with pigs. His campaign manager was aghast and said " We can't accuse him of that! No one will believe it!" LBJ replied,"Yeah, but we'll make him deny it!" 4) You could make that bullet-list of issues on your home page into links, either to elsewhere in your setup or to some other webpage that shows how you view an issue. 5)Press relations can really make or break you. You need name recognition. Try to get advice from someone who knows the local press. Barring that, give interviews to local TV, radio or print reporters and make sure they are invited to most campaign events, or where ever you can look good. You can also issue press releases or issue papers via fax or other ways to the press, which may or may not get you some good ink. Good luck! And definitely more photos! Morbo
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Thanks again guys I will be going through a big edit this weekend I think and then working on my lit peice I will be using when I door knock. Also just got me a big fund raising list so the money is likly to start rolling in soon.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Good luck. Duluth is a beautiful town with its own symphony. It deserves the best leadership possible. I'm a little worried that it's a small town with a good sized University and you don't mention education, but that's neither here nor there.
You should probably start by making your bullet points parrallel.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Well I might have to change that and mention the Universities. I certainly want to work with UMD and the others in the city to improve their campuses as well nearby business and housing. I am also a student at the University of Minnesota - Duluth getting close to graduation with a degree in Anthropology.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Bone -- tell me about your committee. You need to be getting the core of your committee together asap. The most important person to add first is your scheduler, and then a treasurer, and then a campaign manager, and then a fundraising chair, and then you can fill from there. You need people who can do anything for you that you don't absolutely have to, so that you can do as much of those things as you can.
From my experience, money never pours it -- mostly, it trickles. You should know by now how many votes you are going to need to win, and how much money you're going to need to do that (in round figures). If you don't, find out. You can't reach a goal if you don't know what the goal is.
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I will throw out more details on my committee this week I plan to place everyone into slots soon. They are mostly a mix of College Democrats and Republicans with a few other friends mixed in. I made my vice chair of the CR's my first appointment as my treasurer last week and opened my account.
Posts: 134 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I forwarded your webpage to my aunt who lives in Duluth and she wishes you luck, warning that in Duluth they tend to have their councilmen for lunch *smile*
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
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