Great post, and I hope folks will consider it carefully. I was thinking of writing up my thoughts on how to field better candidates, and points 1-4 cover what I would have written. (And do it really thoroughly, nice job Daniel_Eth!)
One thing about all of those points: they’re not just about optics or voter preferences. They’re proxies for being prepared to do the job. You don’t just need to live in the district for a while before you run so you won’t get called a carpetbagger, you need it to know what’s going on. You need local connections to get support, but also to know who to call on when new issues come up. Experience in local office doesn’t just look good on the bio, it shows that you’ve got experience with committee meetings and all the other basic blocking and tackling on a local level. And so on—these are matters of substance not just optics.
It would be great to see more long-term thinking in Congress, and I think if you all back candidates that would be viable without their EA connection and also add that perspective, you could do a lot of good.
I hope Mr. Flynn also considers running for local or state office. There’s been a lot of churn in the Oregon state legislature recently, and that’s likely to continue. He’d be a strong candidate for state rep in the next cycle.
Great post, and I hope folks will consider it carefully. I was thinking of writing up my thoughts on how to field better candidates, and points 1-4 cover what I would have written. (And do it really thoroughly, nice job Daniel_Eth!)
One thing about all of those points: they’re not just about optics or voter preferences. They’re proxies for being prepared to do the job. You don’t just need to live in the district for a while before you run so you won’t get called a carpetbagger, you need it to know what’s going on. You need local connections to get support, but also to know who to call on when new issues come up. Experience in local office doesn’t just look good on the bio, it shows that you’ve got experience with committee meetings and all the other basic blocking and tackling on a local level. And so on—these are matters of substance not just optics.
It would be great to see more long-term thinking in Congress, and I think if you all back candidates that would be viable without their EA connection and also add that perspective, you could do a lot of good.
I hope Mr. Flynn also considers running for local or state office. There’s been a lot of churn in the Oregon state legislature recently, and that’s likely to continue. He’d be a strong candidate for state rep in the next cycle.