The Third Place First conference provided a great platform to talk about a whole range of topics relating to how we rebuild and win in the south of England – and, unsurprisingly, the workshop on ‘winning on limited resources’ was very popular!
After a valuable overview from Jude Robinson of her campaign to win in Camborne North to become the first Labour councillor on Cornwall council, the session heard from many members who shared their tips and best practice. Here is an overview of their thoughts:
1) Do a bit of fundraising
There will inevitably be small costs in any campaign – printing letters, out cards, day of poll leaflets et cetera. A pub quiz for friends can raise a few hundred pounds, as can a car boot sale – gather up all your friends’ junk and raise some cash that way! In addition, it is always a good idea to contact local union branches both for any available funds and for help with campaigning.
2) Get people involved
Volunteers will be your greatest asset – try to get as many people involved as possible. Many ward members (if you’re lucky enough to have them) will be very happy to deliver to streets around where they live, even if they are usually relatively inactive members. Word-of-mouth will be important in delivering victory. Contact neighbouring CLPs to ask for help, especially if your election is a by-election, or they don’t have elections on. And don’t be afraid to ask non-political friends to help out – they can be cajoled into leafleting at least! It’s also a good way of introducing them to the Labour party.
3) Be involved in the community
It’s not enough to deliver leaflets with pictures of you standing by street signs. If you’re selected early enough, talk to people on the doorstep and work out what people in each street are worried about. It will often be as simple as broken streetlights, potholes and so-called ‘grot-spots’. One of the successes of when I stood in Salford was looking around and noticing an alleyway that was used as a dumping ground – having got the council to clean it up, I wrote a letter to each of the households in the immediate area explaining that I’d worked to have it cleared. Simple, effective and cheap – and exactly what you’ll be doing if you’re elected as a councillor.
4) Lots of communication tools are now free
Build your own supporters’ network in the Siobhain McDonagh mould – collect email addresses to send a weekly or bi-weekly email about what you’ve been doing in the community. And remember that pictures are definitely worth a thousand words! Utilise Twitter to spread your key messages and discuss community issues with residents, and use Facebook to create groups of supporters and activists who can help out with the campaign.
5) Be effective with voter ID and GOTV
If you’ve had the time, you should pick up voter ID throughout the year – nothing is more effective at winning than knowing how many promises you have and targeting them on the day – it’s a much better use of your time and your support if you can target those people you know will be more inclined to vote for you.
These are some of the comments and ideas that came up in the session, but not by any means all. In particular, members were also very enthusiastic about the impact of Refounding Labour in helping them to campaign – much to the delight of Iain McNicol who popped into the session to listen to the discussions.
I’m sure Progress members and others have more innovative tips and solutions to running a winning campaign on a tight budget – comments below more than welcome!
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Steve Race is treasurer of the Young Fabians and leads their activity in the south-west