Voters and political organizers experience an election cycle differently.
For the voter, an election cycle begins once the political ads start interrupting our radio or tv or social media time; once the mailers start filling our mail box. The election cycle ends when the polls close. For those who participate in the primaries, an election lasts longer than for those who show up only for the general election. But the point is that for the average voter, whose democratic engagement is limited to perhaps researching, but certainly marking and casting a ballot, an election cycle might last only a few days, perhaps weeks if there are debates to pay attention to.
For political organizers, our experience is much different. For those of us who organize here in the United States, the General Election cycle runs slightly more than two years. It begins the moment the polls close on the preceding election cycle. It continues past the date that the polls close on the next election cycle. An election cycle ends only once the results of that election have been certified and the judicial challenges to those results have been resolved.
Not all candidates are the same.
Thinking back to the Winter of 2005-2006, while I was visiting family up North in Canada, the Parliament in Ottawa rejected Prime Minister Harper's budget. Their action triggered the dissolution of Parliament and a call for a by-election. For the non-Canadians reading this, a by-election is any election outside their normal three year election cycle, usually to fill a vacancy created by a death or resignation, but apparently also when the Parliament dissolves itself by dissenting from the PM's budget. We call them special elections here in Georgia.
Organizing as a Green from South of the border, my experience has been that we fight and petition and litigate for ballot access for each and every candidate we field. North of the border, however, our counterparts who would run as the nominee of the Canadian Green Party purchase their way onto the ballot with a qualifying fee and some paperwork, pretty much as would the nominees of the corporate parties here in the United States.
Apparently for many years it has been the strategy of the Green Party of Canada to offer a candidate to run in EVERY federal riding, what the Brits call a constituency, what we call in this country a district. And when I say run, what I mostly mean is 'stand for election', rather than running an actual campaign to win. The strategy is to provide every Canadian, regardless of their riding, an opportunity to vote for a Green candidate. It provides a means for measuring a base level of support across the 7 provinces and 3 territories. And it provides a vehicle to attract Green voters, campaign donors, volunteers and supporters; and an opportunity for those candidates recruited to stand, to instead step up and run for public office.
Setting aside for the moment, the also-rans, and those who stand for election, without running a campaign to win. For most candidates or at least the operatives who enroll them and organize their campaigns, we experience an election cycle as a two year (and some change) long event.
By the time I sat that night watching the news on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation station to learn that a by-election had been called, the election cycle for the Canadian Green Party was already well under way. When I went that night and visited the GP's website to learn how I might pitch in, the Party Leader and his staff had already been touring the nation and had signed up a slate of 308 candidates, enough to contest every riding in Canada. By the time I browsed to their site, the party staff in Ottawa had already built an application which allowed me in a minute or less to translate a postal code into a riding, a candidate's name, address, email and phone number.
By the time I was visiting family in British Columbia that Winter, I had been actively engaged in the work of building the Green Party here in Georgia since 1989. For over thirty years now, my experience of an election has been far more comprehensive and time consuming then that of a voter who drops by the polls on my way home from work.
That cold night in late 2005, having just learned which candidate was seeking election in my family's riding, I picked up the phone and made a call. It was clear that I was interrupting the evening of the candidate on the other end of the call. He seemed distracted. Honestly, I was a bit annoyed in that moment. I had to interrupt him and insist that he mute the TV long enough for a brief conversation.
My message to him on that call was that he had only two tasks over the next few days, which was (1) to collect the name, phone number and email addresses of everyone who reached out to him to ask how we could help his campaign; and (2) to organize a meeting which could bring us together to meet one another and to organize a campaign in support of his candidacy.
He accepted that assignment and perhaps six or ten days later a dozen of us were gathered in a classroom at a local community center.
He would tell us later that he had been recruited by the Party Leader to 'stand for election', to be one of 308 candidates making it possible for the GPC to offer Green candidates to every voter in Canada.
But we worked him hard. The Southern Interior Riding is in the rural Eastern end of British Columbia and is an eight hour drive from one end to the other. Only the Northern Territories have ridings which are larger geographically. Our candidate made campaign appearances in every population center of the riding. We worked a pre-dawn shift change in sub-zero weather at a local lumber mill which had just announced they were shuttering the business and laying off the entire workforce. (The Canucks were far better prepared for that than was this Georgia boy). We raised over $10k, opened a physical office in the business district of one of the two largest towns, hosted rallies and media events featuring visits from the Federal Party Leader and later the Provincial Party Leader, put out one or two press releases every week, garnered media attention in multiple local newspapers, on multiple radio programs and participated in three all-candidate forums, two of them televised.
Our candidate who had signed on to 'stand for election' wrapped up his campaign with election night results which made him the fourth highest vote getter among the entire slate of 308 Green candidates the party had fielded for that election.
If memory serves, that entire election was six weeks from the writ calling the election, until the close of the polls. Our campaign team had only five weeks from the time we met one another that afternoon. But for the Party Leader and his staff, that election season had begun when the polls had closed on the previous election cycle. They had a slate of 308 candidates to offer when the writ dropped because they had done their homework.
For our candidate it had begun earlier than it had for us. And if he had gotten started earlier still and with an intention, not to 'stand for election', but to actually win, he might have done far better than the 11.32% he took that evening. At 30%, he could have won a plurality in that four way race and perhaps a seat in Ottawa.
The 2024 election cycle begins at 7:00 pm three weeks from last night.
For anyone who takes seriously the IPCC climate crisis tipping point predictions in the 1.5c report, there is not a moment to lose. For anyone committed to ending U.S. imperialism, knowing that every day means more people dying abroad with the expenditure of our national treasure, we have not a minute to waste. For those ready to stop the theft of the wealth created by our labor for the benefit of those who own the capital, who would put an end to the medical bankruptcy, who would emancipate our neighbors from student debt peonage, who would prosecute the banksters too big to fail while providing bailouts for those they left homeless with their predatory lending practices, the next best time to get started is today.
The election cycle may be two years long, but for those running to win, there is not a moment to waste.
On November 18th, I will be inaugurating a weekend long challenge program called, Before You Qualify: Essential First Steps Before Your Run for Public Office. Registration will open on election day, Tuesday, November 8th, at 7pm Eastern. That campaign described above in the 2006 Canadian by-election is one of dozens of campaigns I have participated with and learned from since 1989. I will bring that experience to bear supporting registrants ready to gain clarity on whether a run for public office is right for them at this time; to provide a framework for the launch of your campaign should you choose to run.