Quick Take
State Sen. John Laird – who has spent four decades in politics, starting with his first term on the Santa Cruz City Council in 1982 – offers his advice to those just elected. His rules offer insight into the political process as we sort through the Election Day aftermath.
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During a recent visit to Lookout, an editor jokingly mentioned it’s too bad there is no “guidebook” for new, local elected officials. I said I had actually written a “tips for new councilmembers” column 25 years ago – and still occasionally send it to new elected officials. She asked for a copy, and after reading it, said, “We need to publish this.”
So here are my tips for new elected officials, updated a bit, in the hope that newly elected leaders can learn the job without making some of the mistakes many of the rest of us have. To that end, I offer some basic political rules:
Rule 1. There’s a big difference between running for office and governing once you are elected. But those two things are very connected. Be careful not to promise something that is not possible to do once you’re elected. State-level candidates like to promise to cut taxes, not to cut spending, and balance the budget. That’s not possible once you get in the job.
Rule 2. You’ll get sworn in and be fired up and ready to achieve everything you just promised during the election campaign. But you typically will have four years to achieve your agenda. So, slow down. It is more important to make relationships with the staff, find a couple of simple but impactful issues to connect with the public, learn how to work with the press, and then attack the thornier issues after you’ve put in some time and learned the ropes.
Rule 3. When you go grocery shopping, get your frozen goods last. People will stop you in the aisles to talk about everything that is happening and your frozen goods will melt before you can get to the checkout line. So leave them to last – especially when this concerns ice cream.
Rule 4. No elected position is more important than maintaining your personal integrity. The first time you draw such a line might seem painful. It will probably come early in your term and will have to be succinctly explained, but will make the next time a lot easier. Constituents will take your measure in the first part of your term. This should be part of what they see.
Rule 5. Don’t confuse being serious of purpose with being serious. A sense of humor will help you achieve your political goals, as long as it isn’t directed personally at others. Humor will make it easier to navigate long meetings, contentious issues and differing personalities.
Rule 6. Try not to make permanent enemies. At different times, different alliances will be necessary to achieve what you were elected to do. A foe on one issue could make the difference for you on the next. In order to make tough decisions and build political will, you can’t afford to have a permanent angry faction. It can only grow larger.
Rule 7. “Dance With the One Who Brung Ya.” You have a strong voter base responsible for your election. You will want to keep them happy. If you ever want to forge a “political compromise,” it’s probably better to start with a proposal acceptable to your base and move other groups into the tent. Failure to follow this rule by your predecessors is probably one of the reasons some people reading this were elected.
Rule 8. When backed against a rhetorical wall, invoke the useful and powerful phrase “… the first principle.” For example, during a debate about roads, you can strengthen your position with the declarative, “The first principle of traffic planning is…” This has a good chance of carrying the day. But you can never do this more than once a year.
Rule 9. For some new elected officials, you might be there because the public’s perception was that your predecessors were not being transparent or doing most of the public business in public. Try to make sure any closed session of your council or board you participate in isn’t for policy issues that should be discussed in public. Guide matters to citizen commissions before final consideration. Have meetings in neighborhoods or on campus and at times convenient to the public. Have key materials available in languages that are right for your constituents.
Rule 10. Discourage the use of acronyms in staff presentations and public debate. If it is the public’s business, the public should understand what is being talked about. Saying “the CTC approved the multi-modal project in the RTP after an EIR was done” is not intelligible to the general public.
Rule 11. Don’t take your political advice from the staff of the city or other public agency to which you were elected to serve. You are the representatives of the people’s will in your government position, not the ambassadors of the staff from that government to the people. The staff are good, competent administrators who often actually have more facts than you about an issue. But they tend to be concerned about their view of your agency’s interests, which might be different from your interest as an elected official.
Rule 12. Never criticize staff members in public. They work hard, should want to support your direction and are a key to your success. Your goal is to get your agenda passed, and to do it you need their creativity and energy. You can express problems with individual staff members in private.
Rule 13. If there’s a nasty choice coming up, dragging it out more than one meeting will not make the choice any easier. Having to spend four different meetings arriving at a decision that you could have done in one meeting is bad politics and bad government.
Rule 14. Always be aware of election cycles. Divisive issues should not be left to a few weeks before an election. During my years on the city council, a police union contract expired in the month before the election, and most officers in uniform and their families came to a council meeting. Not a good time for that police contract to expire.
Rule 15. Efficient and civil meetings are good public relations. Public deliberations are not profound after 11 p.m. People should not have to wait three hours to speak. Time limits for each side and individuals are not anti-democratic, as long as no point of view goes unexpressed. And no matter how righteous your point is, the public hates rudeness between elected officials.
Rule 16. There is no public project unworthy of a ceremony. Along with the agony of the problems that come with building a project should come the ecstasy of a ceremony at completion. If you can’t come up with a suitable ceremony, you’re in the wrong business.
Rule 17. If you are a city councilmember (or other local elected official), only your world revolves around the city hall (or district office, etc.). The public will not always know what you’ve done, a lot of times won’t care and many times will not understand it, unless you make a conscious effort to explain it as often as you can. That’s part of your job.
Rule 18. A corollary to Rule 17 is that in communicating with the media, they can’t know what you don’t tell them, but they will surely write or broadcast what you do. Think before you speak and wait to call a reporter back until you’ve thought about an issue, while doing your best to honor whatever deadline they might have. Be succinct and clear. For questions about complicated matters, it’s fair to ask a reporter to completely explain a situation or otherwise provide context off the record before going on the record to answer the question.
Rule 19. Whenever you bring up an issue, you own the issue. When that issue arises in the natural order of things, you are able to do what you think is right in a less politicized manner. And as a corollary, be careful not to ask a question of the staff in public, unless you are fairly sure of the answer.
Rule 20. Responding to a political attack can give more attention and media coverage to the original attack than it would have otherwise received. A response also keeps a controversy going. And, heaven forbid, the person attacking you might actually be right. Don’t give them a forum to call repeated attention to it. Let it rest after the first exchange. Your job is to dampen hazardous controversies, not keep them going.
To new elected officials, I hope you learn from the mistakes of those who have come before you, don’t take it all personally, and do your best. It is harder than it looks from the outside. Appreciate the fact that you live in one of the world’s countries where you can vote, speak freely and get elected to act in the public’s interest.
Good luck, we’re counting on you.