A Checklist for Candidates
____ My immediate family supports my efforts to run for office.
____ I make contact with people easily.
____ I have a good smile and use it at least occasionally.
____ I listen well and give thoughtful responses to what others say.
____ I have enough time and energy to make a significant number of campaign appearances between now and election day.
____ I can take major risks with my career: if I don’t win the election or win but then am not re-elected, I’ll be able to find work sufficient to support myself and my family.
I have written and practiced delivering 30-second, 1-minute, 2-minute, 5-minute, 10-minute and 15-minute statements of:
____ Why I’m running for office and what I plan to do after I’m elected.
____ How I plan to win the election.
____ I know the geography, demographics, and economy of my district very well.
____ I know who the other political leaders in my district are, and I know some of them personally.
____ I am familiar with the districts that border my own.
____ I have assembled or can assemble a team of campaign volunteers to help me, and I can lead them effectively.
____ I keep a log of my campaign activities.
____ I and my campaign treasurer keep good financial records on my campaign.
____ I am spending campaign money frugally and am comfortable asking for contributions.
____ I keep on hand a supply of note paper and postage stamps, and when I receive campaign contributions, I promptly send handwritten thank-you notes to the contributors.
____ I have studied the office for which I’m running and I know its authority (and the limits of its authority).
____ I have studied the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and a recent federal budget.
____ I have studied the New York State Constitution and a recent New York State budget.
____ I have studied the New York City Charter and a recent New York City budget.
____ I have managed a business, met payrolls on time, and complied with applicable regulations.
____ I have lined up some people with whom I can conduct practice debates.
September 9, 2022
Conservative Talk Shows on AM Radio in New York City
(These listings are accurate as of March 30, 2022.)
AM 710 – WOR
all of these are on weekdays:
6 – 10 am – Len Berman and Michael Riedel
10 am – noon – Mark Simone
Noon – 3 pm – Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
3 – 6 pm – Sean Hannity
6 – 9 pm – Jesse Kelly
9 pm – midnight – John Batchelor
AM 770 – WABC
weekdays:
Midnight – 1 am – Dominic Carter
1 – 5 am – Frank Morano
5 – 6 am – Frank Morano and Juliet Huddy
6 – 10 am – Bernie [McGuirk] and Sid [Rosenberg] in the Morning
10 am – noon – Brian Kilmead
Noon – 1 pm – Charlie Kirk
1 – 1:15 pm – Bill O’Reilly
1:15 – 3 pm – Greg Kelly
3 – 4 pm – Rudy Giuliani
4 – 5 pm – James Golden, a/k/a Bo Snerdley
5 – 6 pm – Cats at Night with John Catsimatidis
6 – 9 pm – Mark Levin
9 – 10 pm – Bill O’Reilly
10 pm – midnight – Rita Cosby
Saturdays:
8 – 10 am – James Golden, a/k/a Bo Snerdley
10 am – 1 pm – Larry Kudlow
1 – 2 pm – Stephen Moore
Sundays:
8:30 – 9 am – Cats[imatidis] Roundtable, Local Edition
9 – 10 am – Cats Roundtable, National Edition
10 – 11 am – Rudy Giuliani and Maria Ryan
11 am – noon – Judge Jeanine Pirro
Noon – 1 pm – Dick Morris
AM 970 – The Answer
all of these are on weekdays:
3 – 6 am – Hugh Hewitt
6 – 10 am – Joe Piscopo
10 am – 1 pm – Mike Gallagher
1 – 3 pm – Dennis Praeger
3 – 5 pm – Sebastian Gorka
5 – 6 pm – Ben Shapiro
6 – 7 pm – Jay Sekulow
7 – 8 pm – Kevin McCullough
8 – 10 pm – Larry Elder
11 pm – midnight – Eric Metaxas
December 7, 2021
For what it’s worth, here is my two cents worth about what the Republican Party needs:
– clear, vigorous advocacy of limited government, rule of law, and capitalism (including the point that New York City and State need to be made business-friendly)
– strong local organizations, with all basic leadership functions (president, treasurer, outreach, etc.) done well
– ongoing candidate search and recruitment
December 16, 2020
Invisible Machines
[This is a speech I gave in my Toastmasters Club c. 2/’20.]
Good evening!
This is Project no. 1, The Speech to Inform, from the Speaking to Inform advanced manual.
In modern American life, we see politics all around us – we see candidates, ads, debates, controversies – we see these everywhere. But where does all this come from? Does it just pop into existence, out of nothing?
Let’s do a little thought experiment.
Imagine that someone has some ideas for government policies that he’d like to see (let’s say it’s a guy) – that he’d like to see enacted into law, and he thinks the best way to do that would be to get elected to Congress and work on his proposals from there.
He knows that to get elected, he’ll have to get on the ballot, and to do that, he’ll have to collect signatures.
So he collects signatures, gets on the ballot, and then campaigns – he puts ads in the media and goes around making speeches.
And he gets elected.
Now let’s change the scenario just a little bit.
Everything is the same, except that as soon as this person decides to run for office, he finds some like-minded people who are willing to help him try to get elected.
They help him gather signatures, they contribute money for his campaign expenses, they help him place ads in the media, and they help him line up speaking engagements.
And he gets elected.
Now the second scenario is much more likely to happen than the first one is.
So where do candidates find people to help them?
Do they ask people randomly on the street if they’d like to help?
No – they go to places where people have already self-identified as being sympathetic to the candidate’s views.
These places are political party clubs, and they’re here, there, and everywhere.
But they get almost no press coverage, and only a small percentage of the population gets involved in them, so they are practically invisible.
And these clubs are sometimes called political machines.
That term is often used in a derisive way, as in, “Such-and-such terrible thing was done by a political machine.”
They’re practically invisible, and they’re political machines, so I call them “invisible machines.”
I think they’re interesting because so much of American political life happens in them, yet they fly under the radar most of the time.
Who joins these clubs?
In general, their members are people who would like to see certain values promoted in our society, but other than that, it’s impossible to generalize about them.
Some are well educated, some are not.
Some are articulate, some are not.
Some are wealthy, some are not.
And they come from all walks of life.
What goes on in these clubs?
They support candidates when they can, but generally they also have monthly meetings, and this will sound familiar to Toastmasters: They have speakers at their meetings.
They’re always looking for people who can come in and talk knowledgeably about issues that are of interest to them – education, law enforcement, programs to help the poor and the elderly, and on and on.
And when candidates turn up – either from inside or outside of a club – their members often volunteer to help them.
They help in all kinds of ways – collecting signatures, handing out literature, helping with campaign appearances, whatever it takes to promote their candidate and try to get people to vote for him or her.
And incidentally it’s when the candidates get on the ballot and start campaigning that they start getting press coverage – that’s when they become visible – but in general, the clubs remain invisible to the media.
There are several things that are good to understand about candidates.
First, they tend to be headstrong – sometimes that’s warranted and sometimes it isn’t. They’re convinced that their policy proposals will have the beneficial effects that they predict.
Also, they have to be thick-skinned. They go from one campaign appearance to another, and very often they have to face people who don’t like them and are quite vocal about it.
Candidates have to be able to keep on going in spite of occasional hostile receptions.
They have to be energetic. They have to have the physical and mental energy to do campaign appearances and other kinds of campaign work, during most of their waking hours for the duration of the campaign.
And they have to be risk-takers.
Most of them have good jobs when they’re running for office, and if they’re elected, they’ll have to quit their jobs, and then face uncertainty about what they’ll do after their term in office is up.
So they have to be willing to take major risks with their careers.
Now, we’ve often heard people say they’re disappointed in the choice of candidates we have.
But the candidates we have are, by definition, the ones who stepped forward and expressed their intention of running for office.
No one can be forced to run for office.
If we don’t have better candidates, that’s because you, you, you, and you aren’t running for office.
But don’t look at me – I don’t complain about the lack of good candidates.
There is one systematic way of finding good candidates.
Some clubs have candidate search committees – they try to identify and recruit good candidates, and that sometimes works.
So maybe I’ve gotten you interested in this – maybe you’d like to see for yourself these invisible machines.
Maybe you’d like to find a political club, go to a meeting, or a few meetings, and maybe even join one and get involved.
If you do that, that would be great.
But I just ask this of you – if you do that, I hope you’ll do it **in addition to** being in Toastmasters – I hope you won’t join a political club and leave Toastmasters behind.
Because Toastmasters is where improving your communication and leadership skills can be a wonderful life-long adventure.
Mr. Contest Chair. [this was done in a speech contest]