Hey, there! Log in / Register
If you need to advertise on Craigslist, are you really ready to run for City Council?
By adamg on Thu, 12/25/2008 - 11:12pm
Kevin McCrea reports on a Craigslist help-wanted ad for Scotland Willis, who apparently is running for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council next year. Seems Willis has posted immediate openings for 71 volunteer positions, including campaign manager, First Americans vote director, First Americans vote deputy director, director of Senate relations, lead e-mail writer and blogger.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
What's wrong with Craigslist?
Closer to the people, etc.
Sure, it's nothing a viable candidate for some higher office, say, president, would do. Nobody with any sense would ever try to appeal directly to their supporters without going through lots of middle-layers and so on (for example, no serious candidate would ever try to solicit donations from millions of small-time supporters. that'd just be wacky, eh?)
But there is something appealing about a candidate for PUBLIC office filling the positions in the campaign with - surprise - the PUBLIC.
Dunno a thing about this candidate, but maybe this sort of thing will catch on, in the distant future.
Ning
http://bostoncivic.ning.com/
Well I think its great that
Well I think its great that he is advertising on the internet for these positions. Good campaigns have committed staff but they also have a diverse group of people to choose from to staff their campaigns. If your very well known you can get that diverse pool, but if you are not famous its hard to get the word out to enough people by just oral networking alone. This is a good way to get as many people as possible to apply for these spots. Chances are he will just end up picking people he already knows anyway because I doubt qualified people will apply through craigslist but you never know.
I also think he is casting a wide net to get people anyway. I highly doubt he will have a staff (even if its just volunteer) made up of 70 people for this seat.
Numbers ain't his game
On the numbered list of volunteer jobs available, the Craigslist post skips a few numbers here and there, resulting in a mere 66 jobs available, not 71. Yes, I am so pathetic that I counted. (I shouldn't admit that out loud. Oops.)
Real change
Well, we constantly complain that our city offices are bought. So someone who has no money and needs volunteers comes along. And we complain about that. Welcome to Boston ;-)
We have unrealistic
We have unrealistic expectations of our elected officials, for some reason we think they should be super men and women incapable of doing any wrong or making mistakes. When they lie we get upset, when they tell the truth we get annoyed with the answer and say they are being in your face about it. If they spend alot of money we say they are spending too much money, and if they dont they are not viable. You just cant win, and thats why so many good people avoid that game. The pay is low (compared to what many of these people could be making) the ridicule is high, and god forbid you make any mistakes of any type.
Dont get me wrong, corruption and incompetence should be punished heavily, my complaint is more in the small stuff we hit these politicians with on a daily basis. Its almost like we want to make them pay for giving a damn about their local communities (I care more for the local politicians then people like Kennedy/Kerry who are worth a fortune and seem to be doing it just for sport.)
I think it's great that he
I think it's great that he used Craigslist! What an innovative way to connect with the pool of talented people who are looking for work because of the economic downturn. I met Scotland Willis, and found him to be very smart, sincere, and hard-working. I would guess that we'll hear a few months from now that he rallied an excellent team to help with his campaign.