“Congratulations! You have taken a courageous step in considering and/or declaring your candidacy for elected office.”
This is the first line in the handbook the town provides people who take out papers to become a candidate for an elected Plymouth position.
Courageous may have not been the first word that came to mind when I arrived home with my nomination papers [for Planning Board]. Overwhelmed maybe?
The decision to run for an elected position had been building over the last months. I saw South
Plymouth being rapidly developed without addressing issues such as roadways and infrastructure. Had we planned for this? I attended and watched multiple meetings of the steering committees, Planning Board, and ZBA and didn’t get the answers I was looking for.
Who do I ask?
“We need a representative from Cedarville!” a resident said at a Steering Committee meeting. This got me thinking: Who would run? Talking with friends and neighbors, no one knew of anyone. One morning, after an overnight shift I lay in bed listening to the cutting of trees, and I thought, “Maybe it could be me?” I am well established in my career and strive to be at the top of my game at all times. I’m in a leadership role – could I carry it over to the town?
There are plenty of committees and boards in town. I settled on the Planning Board. With my daughter getting older I knew I wanted to be sure she could enjoy the town as I had before her. I sat down, made a list of issues I saw in town, and how I would have liked to see them handled. I had a platform. Off to Town Hall.
Being unsure of navigating the process, I saw that there was a one-year position open and decided to run for that. Then came the administrative issues. I was told by the town clerk that as a municipal employee, I was not allowed to be my own treasurer. My wife was also excluded. I would need a campaign manager and a treasurer, so I had to deal with that.
To get on the ballot I needed to complete my nomination papers and get 50 signatures townwide (mostly friends and neighbors in a weekend of running around).
There are very few places to go to find out what needs to be done to run for office. Fortunately for me, as a union member there were those I could reach out to and I got some great guidance. I also reached out to members of the Planning Board and asked about their
responsibilities and why they ran for the board.
Next came the money.
I hadn’t planned to raise money for a one-year volunteer position, but it quickly became apparent that in a town as large as Plymouth there was no way for people to learn who I was and what I stood for without being able to reach out to large groups of people. Do you want signs? Do you do a mailing? Multiple? Are text messages a greener new way to reach the 52,899 registered voters in town?
I started thinking about how I have been solicited for votes and how I prefer to be reached. It seems unfair, but the system is definitely stacked against new voices, and again, as a municipal employee I was actually prevented from fundraising. So, I held a kick-off event where I met some great people who liked what I had to say and were willing to help support a newcomer.
From there it was a whirlwind; new faces (residents, business owners, board and committee members), [and] concerns from residents (the emails come fast, many overlap, and people are mostly polite, but everyone wants an individual response). There are a number of events (some invite you, others don’t, which is why a campaign staff tracking these things helps, again an advantage to those who regularly run for office).
Then to the forums. You are given an outline on how it works, and that you can give a closing statement. I worked on my closing statement until I was happy. It was only later that I learned that candidates could use notes (lesson learned, you don’t have to try and memorize every statistic).
Now one of the most surprising parts of this process was how the candidates themselves interacted. From the outside most people might assume it was a tooth and nail fight to the finish, but the overall feeling isn’t that at all. All conversations were cordial. While we don’t
agree on everything, there were good discussions as to why. A few candidates even asked me how I thought I was faring, as a newcomer. I was offered advice from seasoned members. It all started to make sense. The feeling wasn’t one versus another, it was all for the town, the best way they felt fit. I didn’t see any malice. Just people, like me, putting themselves out there to volunteer on a higher level.
No one can make everyone happy, all the time. Finding a balance would be the only way to survive. As one attendee to a very heated ZBA meeting told me – “just do the right thing, and you’ll be fine.” It stuck with me. Would my right thing always mirror theirs? I would hope so. My decisions have always come from a good place, and I would hope that even if I had to go against the current, it would be understood why.
Election day brought a new level of energy. My time chatting up strangers outside grocery stores and at meet- and-greets was over. It was time to see my impact. Working overnights, I got off shift early to be able to hit all the polling locations with signs, for my friends and supporters that volunteered their time to stand out for me. After eight hours of waving and smiling I collected my materials and made my way home. Being updated by spreadsheets slowly filling themselves in I watched the numbers unfold. While a victory was not in my favor, I was extremely proud that a complete unknown with two months of campaigning could garner 2,837 votes. It speaks volumes that someone with good intentions really has a chance to make their voice heard, and that people are ready to usher in fresh faces.
This doesn’t end my story. I will apply for a seat on a committee or two and try and use what I learned from the residents to help shape the town to meet their goals. I encourage everyone to go to the towns webpage and find a place to get involved. With open committee seats and Town Meeting member seats, we need more people to become actively involved. Through this process I have learned that everyone can make a difference. Please join me in helping craft a friendly, diverse, and hopeful group of people volunteering for the good of our community.
– Thomas Jacintho