By Bill Rauch
So, you live in Beaufort and you’re thinking about running for mayor … here are 10 things to consider.
One, incumbency is a big advantage. So, with Stephen Murray stepping down, the chances are the special December election will be the best time this decade to run and win. But make up your mind. Time’s short already.
Two, the job is way more satisfying if you go into it with a list of things you sincerely want to get accomplished that you know the city needs. We have had mayors who worked hard to get the job because they were under the impression that if they were the mayor, they would be loved. Yes, there’s some love during the honeymoon. But the electorate wants you to get things done that benefit them.
If you are unable to move forward through controversy, then you will become increasingly unloved. Stephen Murray had such a list, and to his credit he delivered on it. But then, at least according to what he wrote in his resignation post, he got fed up with the controversy.
Three, businessmen typically find government frustrating. Mayor Murray who runs two businesses is a great example. Business-owners are accustomed to giving orders unilaterally and having their orders followed explicitly. Government at the policy-making level doesn’t work that way. There are checks and balances.
There are the interests of constituencies to be considered. There are power brokers. Yes, even in Beaufort. And there are committees, boards and commissions, some of which wield real power. Yes, you make appointments, but your appointees don’t always vote the way you think they should, even after you have instructed them.
It’s a fitting tribute to businessman-mayor Murray that in the last council meeting over which he presided council was primarily engaged in removing various powers from three of its boards and bringing those powers closer to council.
Four, it helps if you actually like people. Some elected officials prefer helping people in the abstract. These elected officials have a hard time at the grocery store or in restaurants or on the sidewalk when they are stopped just for a chat by one of their constituents.
Casting one’s vote for someone is a personal message. Many of those who vote for you feel entitled by that vote to speak with you directly. Once you are elected, or even if you run and lose, you will have given up some of your privacy. That’s why it’s called “public life.”
Five, you will need physical vigor. Door-to-door campaigning – which is essential to winning – requires that you make up a brochure and start walking neighborhoods passing out your brochure and talking to the voters … today, and on every clear evening and weekend between now and December 11.
Here again, it helps if you actually like people. People like people who seem to like them. If you convey that you are snooty, or arrogant, or a know-it-all, it’s going to be tougher to earn that vote. But worst of all is not showing up at all.
Six, it helps if you enjoy the human comedy. There is no way I could count on my fingers and toes the number of times when I was mayor that I thought silently to myself, “This is better than going to the movies.”
Seven, your public life will be simpler if in your private life you have nothing whatsoever to do with selling real estate or facilitating real estate development. That goes for your spouse – if you have one – too. Henry Chambers and Billy Keyserling were both realtors and both had to endure the slings and arrows of conspiracists who saw – whether actual, perceived or imagined – conflicts of interest between their work and their public service. With the instant communication that is facilitated by social media outlets today, this terrain is far harsher now than it was for them.
Eight, it helps if you are comfortable in conflict. Henry was and Billy wasn’t. Henry forged ahead through the controversy and got big stuff done. Billy demurred.
Nine, it will help if you have some background in design or city planning. With what Jay Weidner called at the last council meeting “Soviet-style architecture” proliferating along the Boundary Street corridor, and elsewhere, the constituency is becoming uneasy that Beaufort is losing its signature style, that the city’s once-unique built environment is slipping and sliding toward Airport Loop USA.
This at-present political squall will inevitably pick up wind speed when the steel for the new hotel and parking garage starts going up downtown. With Scott Street about to close for construction, Mayor Murray surely saw this storm coming. Weathering it, and credibly explaining you will be taking Beaufort in a new — more consistent with its heritage – direction will make the next mayor’s public life more comfortable.
Ten, and finally, I hope you have a few spare bucks in your pocket that you are can spend on your campaign. You will need to pay for the filing fee, a website, a list of registered voters, a poll, some online and print advertising, a TV spot or two, and 200-plus signs of various sizes. A good staffer or two will save you time for retail campaigning. And that’s important because, again, time is short.
Yes, you can bank contributions up to $1,000 per contributor per cycle. But even if you are able to raise all the money you need, with time as short as it is, in its early days you will probably need to loan your campaign at least some of the money it will need to get up and running.
But here’s the good news. If you run and win, you will have the time of your life. And the accomplishments you leave behind will for many many years bring joy to your life and to the lives of many many others.
Bill Rauch was the Mayor of Beaufort from 1999 to 2008 and has twice won awards from the S.C. Press Association for his Island News columns. He can be reached at The RauchReport@gmail.com.
