Heads Up to Local Candidates: Your words now matter.

It is easy to criticize.  It's fun. It seems harmless. 

And then you file for public office.  

Everything changes.

New people are getting involved in politics, inspired by the heightened polarization and interest in politics. And some of those people are filing for local offices, city and county government, school boards, and special service districts.

New candidates need to learn something and adjust their thinking.

1. If you say it in front of a TV camera you might see yourself on TV that evening saying what you just said. If you say it in front of a someone planning to amplify it by quoting you, then you may read your own words the next morning. In either case, you may not like it.

Making every mistake in 1982

2. When you criticize the decisions or motives of people in local government, you are talking about real people, your neighbors. They probably will not like reading that you think they are foolish or corrupt, so you had better think carefully about what you say. 

This blog's readership has gone up dramatically during some recent posts about people running for local office. There is a shortage of coverage of local candidates and I am attempting to step in. So I am giving unsolicited advice for all candidates running for local office. I had to learn these lessons myself 40 years ago when I was an aide to a Congressman and a candidate and officeholder. I made mistakes. I had to learn.

Talking to a reporter is different from talking to other people. Casual, throw-away jokes and offhand comments are part of natural conversation. But if there is a TV camera or a note-taking reporter, stop. If you say it, you own it. Particularly dangerous are complex sentences, ones with subordinate clauses. Tentative candidates hoping to appear "reasonable" and willing to see all sides of issues often make this mistake. A candidate might lay out a position and then say, "that said" and then make their real point, the opposite of the original thought. That is dangerous. 

Here's an example: "I want to show compassion and empathy for homeless people sleeping on our streets and parks, but we cannot tolerate them using our sidewalks as a toilet."

Sounds reasonable, right?

Heads up to candidates: There are two thoughts in that sentence, and you might read your words or see yourself on TV described as "Candidate Jane Doe expressed the need for compassion and empathy for people who use your doorstep as a toilet."  

More common is the problem of a candidate wanting to say punchy, somewhat provocative things. Knock heads. Rampant waste. No talent. What sounds OK to the ear in common speech looks different in print, especially when thousands of other people read it. In print "knock heads" might seem violent. The candidate may have said it in a temperate tone. But "knock heads" is what a candidate said.  If the candidate wanted to be quoted saying "make careful changes, as needed" then he or she needs to have said that.  

In politics people don't know the "real you." They won't have had a chance to have had dinner with you, see that you actually are gentle and respectful and see all sides of many issues. They will know the vivid things you said.

When you criticize local government you are criticizing real identifiable people, your neighbors, people whose kids play with your kids.  These are people whose feelings get hurt.

Politically interested people talk about politics with friends. Careless criticism is easy, especially when it is about people we see on the national news. Examples: Hillary is a crook. Trump is childish. Roy Moore is a child molester. Politicians are on the take.

Easy to say. 

But once you file for office everything changes.  A candidate might say "City Hall is full of self- interested corrupt politicians who ignore flagrant waste" or "the school board has sold out children because they are paid off by the teachers unions." Watch out.

People say things like that so often without consequence they may not see the peril once they run for office. Think a moment. Candidate Doe just said the 8 real people on each board are corrupt or "paid off." It is an insult to those neighbors, and it makes a charge of immorality and malfeasance. 

They won't like it. Their friends wont like it. 

Moreover, you yourself as a candidate might not like how it looks.

You may wake up in the morning and read words that seemed so harmless when uttered the previous day, for example that the "politicians on the Council are bad," and all of a sudden you see yourself as others see you, as a person throwing out casual insults and accusations of neighbors. "But I am a nice person," the candidate might think to herself. "I am a concerned citizen, just trying to make the city or schools better. That comment makes me look nasty. That's not the real me."

But apparently it is. As a candidate, reported on radio or TV or in print, you just told thousands of people you think your neighbors in public office are guilty of dishonesty and malfeasance.  People have a right to know what you think, and if you think the City Council or School Board is corrupt or foolish, they have a right to know. Maybe you are right. Maybe you have a case to make. The reporter did the public and you a favor. He or she described what you said. You got your message out.

If that isn't your message, or how you want your message to be read by third parties, then don't say it aloud to someone who plans to quote you.

A final note: I am a slow note taker, and as an independent blogger I realize I have no institutional credibility. So when I talk with candidates I take notes slowly. I stop them from time to time, rapidly write out what I just heard, and then read the words back to the candidate verbatim. "Did I get you correctly?"  I happily let people revise what I heard them say, to fix the grammar, change words to get the tone and content right, let them write their own quotes, and then I read it back to them another time. I don't put quote marks around it until the interviewee says, "OK." Then I have something I feel comfortable quoting. That's how I work.