You might have seen it in the news, but if you didn’t, about 100 people gathered at Georgetown University for SEA’s Campaign Education Workshop last weekend making the event a huge success. Speakers from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, experienced campaigners like Dean Levitan from MSHC Partners, Joe Trippi, and Kevan Chapman, press secretary for Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI) all came together to teach the audience of scientists and engineers what it takes to run for office. (Ehlers happens to be one of only a few Ph.D. level scientists serving in Congress.) The workshop was co-sponsored by AAAS, ACS, AIP, APS, ASA, ASCE, COSSA, and IEEE-USA.
For those of you that didn’t make it, we’ve put together some highlights and most important takeaway points from this year’s workshop:
The day opened with Dean Levitan giving an amazing meat and potatoes introduction to starting and running campaigns. If you want to run a serious campaign: be prepared to be the candidate 24/7, and “plan, plan, plan.” Lay out your strategy, but know that you’ll be tweaking and changing it tomorrow and the next day and the day after that-your campaign must be organic and grow as you grow.
“Stay on message” says Kevan Chapman, press secretary for Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI), if it’s right for your district, play up the fact that you are a scientist or engineer and the skills that you will bring to the office you are running for.
Joe Trippi (pictured above) said that “now is the time for scientists to run.” Trippi’s point is simple and powerful; The public is looking for people who understand what facts are; they are tired of the old game of politics as usual. We are at an amazing point in time where everyone can get involved, because of the internet. Democracy 2.0 will be an interactive government.
Throughout the day veteran candidates including Jesse Jones, David Westerling, Louis Lanzerotti, and Nancy Cline shared their experiences running and serving in office. All of them spoke of the joy of doing something good for the people they served and their personal experiences campaigning. Students learned how to volunteer for campaigns and make the best use of their skills as scientists and engineers. For example, large campaigns can afford pollsters and political analysts to pour over statistics and polling data, however a small campaign can often use science and engineering students who understand how to analyze statistics.
As Brian Athey, a member of our Board of Directors, said: “the participants came from around the country and were brought together for a common goal: political activism, in the name of science and engineering, to make a difference at all levels of government.”
We’d like to thank all of our participants and co-sponsors for making the event a huge success.
If you missed the workshop, never fear; join SEA and we’ll tell you when we plan the next one. We also video taped it and are going to try to package it for distribution.
UPDATE: The event was hosted by the Georgetown University Program on Science in the public Interest.
