Many candidates for local office confuse having a campaign slogan with having a campaign platform.
The two are very different. A slogan fits on a bumper sticker. A campaign platform is defined as how a political party or candidate will address various law enforcement issues if they are elected.
Writing a campaign slogan is fairly easy. Creating a sheriff campaign platform is a lot tougher. It requires more detail and should provide potential solutions to real problems.
There are questions you’ll need to answer before you can create your candidate statement:
- Who are my targeted voters?
- And what issues and problems do they care most about?
- How you plan to serve your community?
- How can you use your office to improve the lives of the citizens and their relationship to the law enforcement departments?
- Here is a list of other common interview questions.
Those answers will help identify the important social and political issues related to law enforcement in your community. Use these issues to create planks for your own political platform. Those same issues can be used as a way to promote your campaign fundraising.
Typical issues for sheriff candidates and campaigns:
- Engagement of law enforcement in the community.
- Eliminating neighborhood conditions that create an environment which cultivates crime.
- Citizens involvement in and trust in their local sheriff office.
- Providing citizens with a law enforcement agency that is responsive to their needs.
- Inter-agency communication to improve crime prevention and control.
- Updating technology to improve communication and costs.
The order of your platform matters. Address the most important issues first. Often these issues are the main reasons why you running for office.
Often, candidates tend to regurgitate the standard positions of their political party. This keeps things simple for the majority of voters who don’t bother to read candidate platforms. To differentiate yourself, you’ll want to explain your own unique position, tailored to the situation of your community. What skills or experience do bring to address each issue? This is what help give voters a reason to support you.
A sheriff campaign platform can not only declare what you stand for, but it can be used to compare yourself to an opponent.
- Is the incumbent not handling an issue properly?
- How would you do it differently – and what would be the benefit to voters?
Your platform should be unique to you and your community. In local politics, one size does not fit all!
Time to start writing…