I note that Mark Pack is trying to persuade the party to run many more candidates in local elections. He’s quite right. No-one, as far as I know, has suggested how you do this. In this article I offer my take on how to get candidates from scratch.
So, what do you do to get candidates? Ideally, you would have started this process at least 6 months before the election, but the methodology is the same. September is also a good time to start because we often have a useful boost in interest because of the party conference.
Forget the phone, email, text or any other sort of social media. In 40 years of candidate hunting I have recruited only one person using all these approaches. [and she’d already decided she wanted to stand] You have to go and call on people, unannounced and ask them. If you try any other approach, they will say no. Lots of people have not accepted the no contact in advance rule and wonder why they fail. “Oh, but it’s rude not to phone in advance, they might not be in, we may be wasting our time” or similar are all guaranteed to result in the person saying no. Believe me, as one of the most successful candidate recruiters in the country, I really do know what I’m talking about.
But how do you know who to ask? Mostly, you don’t. Connect and EARS both have functions that enable you to create lists of people who have been canvassed LIB DEM and voted at least twice recently. It may not be a big list, but it works for me. Secondly, look for activists in local causes or clubs and societies. Thirdly ask everyone you call on if they can think of some else to ask. Of the 13 people I recruited in 2019, only 3 were active party members at the time of asking. 3 were activists in local charities or organisations and the rest came from the lists of people who we thought had supported us.
So here you are, knocking on the door of someone you don’t know, who doesn’t know you are coming, who probably isn’t a party member, to ask them to stand for the council! Daunting isn’t it? I start by introducing myself and ask if I can come in for a chat. If they’re not LIB DEM, they will say no. Usually, they want to know why you have called and invite you in. I then tell them a story about the council I want them to stand for and explain that it’s my role to find new councillors. I tell them, honestly, what’s involved and then I ask if they’ve ever thought of standing? Mostly, they haven’t. If they start asking questions about the role, you’re nearly there. I then explain about the election campaign, the approval process and joining the party and if possible, sign them up then and there. [Hint: take your laptop or phone with you so you can sign them up as members online straight away]. I also weave into the conversation some crucial questions to test if they are Lib Dems! If they ask for more time give them 2 days max and go round again. Before you leave arrange a date for them to be approved as candidates.
Be prepared to knock on lots of doors and get many rejections. I reckon on a hit rate of about 25%.
Training your candidates.
So now you have a bunch of new candidates and they haven’t knocked on a single door or delivered a leaflet. In fact, they have almost no idea how an election campaign is run. So, get them together in an evening or at a weekend with an experienced trainer (ALDC may be able to help) and teach them. Ideally have a delivery or canvassing session to do right after the training. Finish up in a café or pub.
Get commitment from each candidate as to their availability for leafleting and canvassing. Tell them to book polling day as leave. Get them to take on election tasks.
I have used this method very successfully and have almost always recruited a full slate of candidates. This is especially important in multimember seats. If, for example, you have only one candidate in a 3-member ward, voters wanting to support the LibDems will vote for the sole Lib Dem and then, human nature being what it is, vote against the Lib Dems by supporting candidates from another party so they use all 3 of their votes. It is a lesson too many in our party have failed to learn.
* Dr Michael Taylor has been a party member since 1964. He is currently living in Greece.
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9 Comments
Thanks for picking up on my piece Mick and sharing your experiences of what works. There are materials available from the party too on finding candidates, with local parties who had elections this May having been sent some ahead of the elections. There’s also a video recording of an excellent training session with Daisy available via the training resources on the party website.
Interesting approach. But I’m not sure that this would be my prime method, although a useful way to discover new people in the community.
I had to find 48 electable candidates for our local elections in 2022. I say electable because in the event 44 of them did get elected. Some, of course, were standing again but I still had to find a substantial number of new people. My timetable began 2 years before!
My starting point has always been with members, especially those who have joined recently. I do totally agree that you have to ask people personally, and probably more than once. We hold new members evenings and treat anyone who attends as gold dust. They are asked how they would like to help and are introduced to all the local key people. And they are all followed up with coffee and a chat. We also do a members survey, and again follow each person up with a personal conversation. And, of course, get them campaigning straightaway.
A really good article, Mick, and very glad to see Mark Pack has read it. I’m impressed by your approach and abilities.
Years ago, recently out of university, I offered to help the local party in the town to which I’d just moved in a research capacity. They asked me, amongst other things, to research for and draw up a list of potential Liberal/SDP local candidates. I scoured the news and letter pages of the three local newspapers – one costed you, two were free – and various other local publications and came up with about 25 potential candidates. About 10 actually joined and became candidates. (Ten years later we took control of the district.)
Nowadays, this “research” work can be done at a distance through the web.
Should we not be setting up a dedicated unit at HQ with a couple of young volunteers to use this method to kick start LD parties in derelict areas of the country where we have no presence whatsoever?
@Mary Reid. Of course, ideally, you’d have members to approach (though I’d use exactly the same approach with them), but the truth is that very often that’s just not enough and you have to seek out candidates from people you don’t know.
My method works whoever you choose to approach. Try it and see!
I did something similar when I first became PPC in Lichfield in 1997. I instigated a members newsletter and delivered it myself by hand. It did mean consuming far more tea than I could cope with, but the result was that the armchair members became engaged and we were able to field more candidates. With newsletters now online this kind of activity has dropped off, but PPCs are probably the best placed to call on members for a chat.
Mick – Very helpful article. I am impressed with your hit rate of 25%. I also use the unanounced doorstep method but don’t get anywhere near that. I suspect that your personal charm is supplemented by good targeting of who to approach. Can you say more about how you do that? Also I have never tried asking to come in for a chat. Do you use any warm up questions before asking that? I also wonder if there might be regional differences in how acceptable that is?
Spot-on Mick! If you warn people you’re coming they worry about it and talk themselves out of it before you can speak with them, creating an uphill battle, and if you approach by phone, email or social media, forget it. The lazy approach does not pay!
If you use Connect or Ears, then set up a filter of people who have canvassed as definite Lib Dem AND who have voted in 2 recent elections, preferably local. [People who don’t vote won’t be likely candidates].
I say something like “I’m Mick Taylor from the Lib Dems, I wonder if I could come in for a chat”. I aim to intrigue. Then once I’m sat on the sofa, I start off with something like “You probably know about X council that deals with …., well there is an election next May and my job is to find enthusiastic people to become local councillors”. I then tell them more about how the council works and what the role of a councillor on it would be. If they let you get that far, then you have them at least interested in finding out more. Whatever you do, don’t minimise the work of a councillor. “Oh, it’s only a meeting a week…” Be honest and tell them exactly what is involved. Tell them about joining the party, being approved, campaigning for election and say that they may not get elected at all.
Do slip in something about Liberal values. I often say that we’re looking for a wide range of people to stand, men, women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+. If there is any sign that they are not happy about that, then they’re not right as candidates.
Hope that helps
Your last paragraph was very interesting, spelling out the reason to have the full slate ie 3 candidates even if 2 are ‘paper’ candidates for a 3 member seat so that voters don’t waste their votes on other parties.
It’s human nature if you have bothered to turn up to vote that you will use all your 3 votes and if there is only one LD candidate, will likely additionally choose the ‘lesser’ evils for the other two, or any familiar names, rather than using only one vote, I wonder how many seats we have lost that way?