Thursday, August 30, 2007

Cautious Comfort or Challenging Campaign?

A young friend has a dillema and I thought the political junkies on this site might have some thoughts. Here's the question:

I was recently approached with an opportunity to work full-time on a Congressional primary campaign for the next six months. The candidate is running against an incumbent Congressman. He appears to be quite well known in the district, and it could be a winnable campaign for him. I have done a little research on this gentleman and while he seems to have an interest in transportation, I’m not sure where he stands on other issues and I don’t know if he’s someone I could even support.

I don’t know a thing about running a campaign. I've never worked on a campaign, let alone volunteered on a campaign before. My political experience is limited to voting in the general election - I’ve never even voted in a primary election. And because I was called about this while I was at work, I wasn't able to ask the important questions - how much money, can I still have a life, what would the work be like, what happens if he loses, what happens if he wins, what will I do on a daily basis, why would he want to hire someone with zero campaign experience, etc. My knee-jerk reaction would be to stay in my happy little guaranteed 40 hour a week bubble, but I wonder if this might be a good risk to take at this point in my life. I'm in my mid-twenties and not challenged or well paid at my current job. Any thoughts/advice/suggestions anyone might have are appreciated.

So what do you think? Should she stay with cautious comfort or risk a challenging campaign?

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