How to be a political candidate in Wise County

By D. A. Sharpe, 2009

Many citizens don’t know exactly how to become a political candidate in Wise County. This article is intended to help citizens decide if they should make that commitment for public service.  The article is written from a bi-partisan perspective, so it’s of use for candidates either in the Republican or the Democratic Parties.

The next primary elections for the Democratic and the Republican parties of Wise County are March 2, 2010. Yet preparing to run often begins more than a year earlier.  You may have already seen several public announcements from incumbents and intended challengers. 

Any qualified citizen (registered voter residing in Wise County) who aspires to an elected office should probably begin planning now or in the very near future. This article can serve as a road map for becoming a candidate.

First, you may be interested in the compensation paid this elected offices.  The current information is cited here, and is posted on Wise County Government web site.

The first official act to register as a candidate is to file a Campaign Treasurer Declaration with Wise County Elections Administrator, Mr. Lannie Noble, Office at 940-626-4453, e-mail:  Lannie.Noble@co.wise.tx.us.  Texas Election Law requires a form that declares your candidacy and names a person who will be your campaign treasurer.  You absolutely may not receive or expend any campaign funds before filing this document naming a treasurer.  The form,  “Appointment of a Campaign Treasurer by a Candidate,” is available from the Texas Ethics Commission at P.O. Box 12070, Austin, TX 78711-2070 or on the Web at  http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/.  The Wise County Elections Office (1555 West Highway 380, Decatur, 76234) also has the forms. 

By filing this form early, a candidate does not name the position for which he or she is running, nor is the Party identified yet. 

There are no requirements in the Election Code to be a candidate’s treasurer.  In fact, a candidate can be his or her own treasurer, although, typically, it is someone else. Incidentally, spouses are permitted to serve in this role.  Even though treasurers do the periodic financial filings with the Elections Administrator, it is the candidate ultimately who is responsible that the filings be done on a timely basis. It is the candidate who is penalized (pays the fines) in the event of late filings or errors.

The campaign treasurer filing usually occurs close to the same time that you provide a public news release to the media that you are a candidate.  The news release is written by the local party or may be issued directly by the candidate.  If the news release is issued by the local political party, the County Chairman will notify the state party headquarters as well at a prescribed time. If the candidate issues the news release, the Party Chairman should take notice and notify the state party headquarters.

The Texas Ethics Commission has a form entitled “Code of Fair Campaign Practices,” which is an optional form to file with the Wise Election Administrator at any time.  It basically pledges that the candidate will run a clean campaign and will deal directly only with the issues.  It is an effort to say that personal affronts will be avoided.   There are no teeth in the law to warrant against any perceived abuses of that promise.  It’s just a public relations asset that you have stated the value in a clean campaign.  If a candidate does not honor such a pledge, the voting public should notice such and make voting decisions accordingly.

The next official act is to file the form “Application for a Place on the (Democratic or Republican) Party General Primary Ballot” with the County Party Chairman. It is available from the Texas Secretary of State’s Office from the Web site, http://www.sos.state.tx.us. There’s a fairly narrow range of dates for filing that form. The date for the 2010 Primary Elections at earliest is Dec. 3, 2009 and the latest date is January 4, 2010 at 6 PM.

When you file this form and pay the fee to the Party Chairman, you also should submit photo copies of your voter registration card (make sure it’s signed), and your driver’s license, to confirm your residency and registered voter status.  You should submit a copy of your Treasurer’s appointment form for the information of the Chairman.  The check for the fee should be drawn from your campaign checking account, payable to the Wise County (Democratic or Republican) Party.  It should not be paid with a personal check.  It may be paid in Cash.  The fees are published on the reverse side of the filing form.

You may not have received enough political donations yet to pay your filing fee.  You may contribute that amount yourself to your campaign checking account, or make it a loan from you to your campaign checking account, which may be repaid to you as contributions come.  To be realistic, most local political campaigns at the county level are paid primarily by the candidate. 

Party County Chairmen, on the last day for filing, are supposed to be available at the courthouse up to the 6:00 PM deadline on January 4, or have a notice posted on the official Wise County Courthouse bulletin board to indicate where he or she is available in the County all that day.  That bulletin board is on the first floor on the east side of the Wise County Courthouse.  Usually the Party chairman is contacted at his or her home or office, and the candidate calls for an appointment to insure the chairman is home or in the office. 

What are the requirements to be a candidate? All Wise County offices require that the candidate be at least 18 years old, be a United States citizen, have been a Texas resident at least a year before the date of the November general election of your race, and a resident of the county or the district precinct the office serves for at least six months from the date of the general election.  County court-at-law and district judges, county attorneys and district attorneys must be licensed attorneys. Justices of the peace and the county judge do not need to be licensed attorneys.

What are the terms of office? All local offices are four-year terms. The winners in the 2010 November general election will take the oath of office Jan. 1, 2011. They will serve through Dec. 31, 2014, and may file for re-election in 2013.  There are no term limits (though I wish there were). When we have United States Senator candidates (which we don’t in 2010), those terms are six years.

Why are elections in March and again in November, you may ask?  The Political Parties conduct the March primary elections.  It is the way for parties to determine which candidates will represent the party on the November General Election ballot.  The party primary election is the first place incumbents may be challenged.  In November, you always have only one choice from each political party for each office. That election is conducted by Wise County, under the management of the Elections Administrator.  Any number of Independent Candidates may be on the ballot, but often they have no presence on the ballot. 

How does a candidate run a campaign?  There are lots of resources to help candidates.  Both the Republican and the Democratic parties offer candidate and campaign schools. Each candidate should create a campaign committee of friends and supporters. You would want people who will bring together particular segments of the voters.  Candidates need to seek every opportunity to appear and speak to organizations in the County.

Your campaign committee should have people on it whose positive reputations in the community are assets for your efforts.  However there also needs to be people who will help perform physical labor – stuffing and mailing campaign literature, phoning voters to allow political signs to be posted in their yards, and then posting those signs.

All political signs are supposed to be taken down within a few days after the election, another task for the candidate and supporters.  You should ask each person who gets a sign posted to be responsible to remove it after the election on a timely basis. You will also need people who can help you ask for financial political gifts. You will need help and be a strong presence in conducting fund-raising events.

You need to have someone of writing prowess who can edit your material before it goes public.  You need someone who knows grammar and the differences about splitting infinitives and ending sentences with prepositions.    Don’t say, “On these issues, here’s where I’m at.”   Say, “On these issues, here is where I am.”    Or “where I stand.”

How much money will you need? A countywide race typically costs between $7,000 and $20,000. A precinct level race may take $2,000 to $5,000.  There are strict reporting requirements that your treasurer must file periodically with the Texas Election Commission and the Wise County Elections Administrator.  That is public information.  So, the people who contribute to your campaign ($50 or more) may see their name in the newspaper as a contributor.  Newspapers often delight in listing donors giving to you. You need to make sure your donors understand that political gifts are not tax deductible as gifts.

The filing fees that you pay to your local political party primary fund are listed on the Texas Secretary of State’s Web site. Wise County elected offices scheduled for 2010 election requires a filing fee as follows: 

 District Judge 271^st District $1,500

Judge of a Statutory Court 1,500

County Judge 750

Justice of the Peace 375

All other county offices 750

Offices of our local Wise County will be:

Office Incmbent Party

County Judge Bill McElhaney R

County Clerk Sherry Parker-Lemon R

District Clerk Christy Fuqua D

County Treasurer Katherine Canova Hudson R

271^st District Judge John Fostel R

Court at Law Judge Melton Cude R

County Commissioner #2 Kevin Burns R

County Commissioner #4 Terry Ross R

Justice of the Peace #1 Jan Morrow D

Justice of the Peace #2 Terri Johnson R

Justice of the Peace #3 Mark Autry D

Justice of the Peace #4 Clay Poynor R

The usual run of state offices for this off year cycle will be on the ballot, including Texas Governor, All State Legislative Representatives and all Congressional Representatives. These all have higher filing fees and file with the State Headquarters of their respective Party. Besides the Democratic and Republican Parties, the Texas Secretary of State Office lists the only other registered party at the state level as the Libertarian Party. It has no organized or registered presence in Wise County as of now.

Candidates who wish to run for office in the 2010 party primary elections would be pitted against one of the incumbents cited above (and anyone else choosing to challenge), assuming all of these incumbents choose to run. So far, there have been a few announcements definitely of being a candidate. However, no public announcement has been seen at this writing by me of any incumbent office holders who were choosing not to run in 2010.

Filing fees are used to help pay the expenses of conducting the primary election in the 22 precinct voting locations in Wise County.  Most of the funds go to pay the election judges and election clerks.

You can file without paying a fee by filing a petition.  You must secure a “Petition In Lieu Of A Filing Fee” from the Secretary of State’s office or Web site. The petition requires a specific number of signatures of registered voters to endorse your candidacy.  It must be the lesser of 500 signatures or 2%  of the number of votes for that party’s gubernatorial candidate in its last race for that precinct or district.  There are strict requirements for those who sign the petition – the voter registration number must be included, and you should collect substantially more signatures than you think you need. Usually, after the petitions are turned in, a number of them are disqualified for one reason or another.  Also, these petition signers may not sign for any other candidate in that race, nor may they vote in the other party primary election.  There are many negatives associated with trying to get filed without paying money.  However the efforts are many and very time consuming.  In my opinion, it’s hardly ever worth it.  Pay the filing fee.  It helps pay for the election in which you hope the people will like you. 

What role does the party county chairman play for a candidate seeking office?  The law requires only that the Chairman receive the fees and filing applications.  The Chairman has three days to reply that a filing is inadequate in any way. So, don’t wait till January 4 file if you can help it.  In addition to receiving the filing forms and fees for candidacy, the Chairman should to be a source of information and help for the candidates – help in knowing how to organize and how to learn what is needed to conduct a campaign. This is optional and is the choice of the Chairman.

The chairman should be available as a mentor and encourager. That is why usually you do not see Party County Chairmen endorsing one candidate over another in the primary election.  However, the law does not restrain the Party County Chairman from primary election endorsing.  It’s just not wise to do so, in the eyes of many.  If it is done, it should reflect only very unusual circumstances. The Party Chairman also is responsible to manage the budget and finances of the primary election.

You are now equipped to become a candidate for local political office. Give it your serious consideration.

Allen Williamson is the Wise County Republican Chairman. He can be reached at 940-627-8308 (Office).  Mr. Williamson’s e-mail address is: awilliamson@sbplaw.com

The WCRP web site is:  http://www.wiserepublican.org/

Barbara Mote is the Wise County Democratic chairman. She can be reached at 940-683-2766. 

The Wise County Democratic Party Web site is:  http://www.wisedemocrats.com/

Ms. Mote’s e-mail address is: barbmote@aol.com

I hope this article encourages several citizens to become viable candidates for local office.

D. A. Sharpe

805 Derting Road East

Aurora, TX 76078-3712

H:  817-638-5560

C:  817-504-6508

E-Mail:  da@dasharpe.com

Web Site:   http://www.dasharpe.com/