by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
So, your career at the neighborhood Dairee Freez has reached a plateau. Shoveling ice cream into waffle cones has lost the allure it had 10 years ago when you were a bright-eyed, eager young whippersnapper fresh out of graduate school ready to take the world by storm. You dream back to your college days when you were a barnstorming member of FLAP (Future Legislators of American Politics) and it hits you. You’re a likable, charming individual with a few good ideas and a notion how you could make them happen. Public office beckons. Whatever the reason for running, everyone must follow the same rules.
It takes more than good intentions and clever rhetoric to get your name on the ballot. Entire chapters of Florida law have been devoted to campaign do’s and don’ts. Step one to becoming a bona fide candidate is to march down to the Supervisor of Elections office at 105 E. Monroe St. and start the paperwork game.
Sign up and appoint a treasurer.
“If you want to run for office, the first thing you would do is file your intent to run,” says Frankie Knight, candidate and records director for the Supervisor of Elections Office. “You appoint a campaign treasurer and designate a campaign depository.”
If nothing else, the money needs to be accounted for — but not necessarily by the candidate. According to some campaign veterans, smart candidates let someone else keep track of the money.
“If the campaign candidate is in charge to be the campaign treasurer, that’s not where your focus should be,” says Mike Hightower, a member of mayoral hopeful John Peyton’s campaign finance committee and lobbyist for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. “You should be out there being the candidate stating what your policies are. You shouldn’t be worrying about the books.”
No special qualifications are required for campaign treasurers other than he or she must be a registered Florida voter.
What does the treasurer do?
All money coming into or leaving the campaign account must be diligently tracked. All contributions and expenditures must be itemized. Campaign finance reports are generally due to the Supervisor of Elections 10 days after the end of a quarter. For example, the current quarter ends March 31. Finance reports are due April 10.
What if the campaign finance report is late?
Finance reports are due in the Supervisor of Elections office or postmarked by 5 p.m. on the due date. Late reports will cost the candidate $50 a day for the first three days and $500 each day after, not to exceed 25 percent of total receipts, whichever is greater.
Who can give and how much?
Anyone can give to your campaign so long as it doesn’t exceed $500. This goes for cash and in-kind contributions.
“Say if someone had some printing done for you. They would have to give you fair market value for that printing and it cannot exceed $500,” adds Knight.
When accepting donations, be sure to get the giver’s name, address and occupation for future documentation. Clever donors have found ways around the $500 individual limit. Businesses have given donations under various company names, the owners’ individual names, spouses’ names and other relatives’ names. One word of caution: dependents under 18 cannot make contributions of more than $100.
Also, you cannot accept cash donations of more than $100.
“You can’t trace it,” adds Hightower. “It’s not appropriate. If you take the mystique away from fundraising, then people understand who gave and people can make their own conclusions of why you gave.”
Additionally, contributions cannot be accepted inside a government building such as City Hall, the Florida Theater building or standing in the driver’s license line at the tax collector’s office.
How to jump start a campaign
financially.
A candidate can loan an unlimited amount of money to his or her campaign. Future campaign contributions can be used to pay that loan back.
How to do a fundraiser
Fundraisers are a popular method to harvest as many donations as possible with the least amount of effort. Be careful with them, though. A fundraiser is just that. Make sure guests know what they’re getting into. If you decide to sponsor a fish fry, any tickets, solicitations for donations or other methods of collecting money must have a disclaimer essentially saying, “The purchase of a ticket for, or a contribution to, the campaign fund raiser is a contribution of Hanover Fisk. Paid political advertisement approved by Hanover Fisk.”
Like other donations, keep impeccable records of who gives you what. An empty jar for people to drop money into anonymously doesn’t cut it.
“You can’t have a fundraiser and have a jar or box that people throw money into,” says Knight. “If they do, that money would have to go to a charity. If you cannot document where that money came from, who gave it to you and how much, then it has to go to a charity.”
Your campaign, incidentally, is not considered a charity.
How much is the qualifying fee?
The qualifying fee separates the finalists from the fodder. How much you pay depends on which office you covet. If you’re running a partisan campaign, you pay a qualifying fee of 6 percent of that position’s annual salary. A non-partisan ticket pays 4 percent. For example, a Republican mayoral candidate must pay 6 percent of $140,643 — the mayor’s annual salary. That comes to $8,438. If you don’t pay, your name won’t be on the ballot in November. The qualifying fee can be paid from your campaign account.
To waive the fee, you must generate a petition and get the signatures of 1 percent of your potential constituents. If you’re running for mayor where you would rule county-wide, you would need 4,188 signatures. If you’re running for City Council District 2, for example, you would only need 1 percent of that district’s voters, which happens to be 373.
Although election campaigns are often big dollar affairs, Knight says that most candidates opt for petitions to qualify (two-thirds did so in the last general election).
“Every signature must be verified,” she warns. “You can opt to pay the 10 cents for us to look up each signature or you can file an undue burden, which means you can’t afford it.”
Qualifying dates for the 2002 elections are July 15 through July 19, 2002 for federal seats, July 22 through July 26, 2002 for state and county positions. Qualifying dates for the 2003 elections are Feb. 25 through March 3, 2003.
How do I advertise?
It’s easier to answer how not to advertise. Despite what you may have seen in the past, political advertisements are not permitted along publicly owned right-of-ways. Your level of advertising hinges on how effective of a fundraiser you are. Any advertising agency will be more than happy to come up with an advertising strategy for you. The evolution of the Internet could bring a fresh twist to campaign advertising.
“I think this campaign is going to show us some new ways of campaigning,” says Susan Wiles, volunteer for mayoral candidate Mike Weinstein and a lobbyist. “In a local election, we haven’t done much cyber-campaigning. I think you’re going to see that, at least out of our campaign.”