When You Run For Congress: 10 Steps To Remember.

For all of our Democratic friends who have decided that running for Congress is for them, here are a few quick tips:

1. Politics is about the voter, not you. People want to hear that you know about their problems — they really don’t care to hear about yours.

2. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best, and it bears repeating. “You win at politics by saying what you are for.”

3. Don’t look for the squishy middle. Be clear. As the late, great political writer Molly Ivins points out, “The only thing in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead armadillos.” People won’t always agree with you, but you get elected when they can gauge how much they disagree or agree with you. Say where you stand, so they can know where they stand in relation to you.

4. Democrats, i.e., you, represent a party that was born with the country, survived the Civil War, more economic depressions than anyone can remember, and elected Presidents that defeated totalitarianism twice, communism once, gave women the right to vote, workers the 40 hour work week, unions the right to organize, African Americans the right to vote, and gay couples the right to marry. Republicans made money and bitched about the poor. Cede nothing. When in doubt, use the catch phrase, “We are Democrats….”

5. Harry Truman famously said, “If you want in friend in Washington, get a dog.” If you have a dog, use him or her. EVERYONE loves dogs. If they are waffling, and remember that you are nice to your cute dog, you win.

6. Louis Howe, who was Franklin Roosevelt’s Karl Rove, told Eleanor Roosevelt, when she was starting out giving speeches, “Know what you want to say, say it, and sit down.”

7. The late, great Tip O’Neil, one of the greatest politicians of the 20th century, always told the story about how at the very end of every campaign for his House seat, which he held from 1952 until he retired in 1987, he would go up and down the block where he and his mother and wife lived, and ask all the neighbors for their vote. He would then go back the day after the election and thank them. “People like to be asked, and like to be thanked.” That will take you a long way in ANY campaign.

8. You, as a Democrat, represent the party of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. If you can’t find anything to say, read their speeches, and adapt. Cede nothing to Republicans.

9. Governor Ann Richards, the late Governor of Texas, was funny. She was hilarious. And, she used it. She could bring down a room with a line. If you are funny, be funny. Everyone likes to laugh — even on the campaign trail. Democrats are funny, damnit.

10. No one is perfect. You will have everything that you ever worried about yourself brought to the fore. Embrace it. Hit it all head on. When you need help, ask for it.