Politics can be intimidating, especially the thought of participating in a campaign. Fund-raising, mud slinging and baby kissing seem to dominate the field, but running for a local office may be easier than it seems.
With 25 signatures and a little paperwork, anyone can get his or her name on the ballot for the seven open seats in Eugene city government. The candidate must have lived in the city or ward for which they are applying for at least one year, he or she must be a registered voter and the signatures must belong to citizens of the area.
Campaigns are beginning to gear up for the primary elections, but there is still time to file for the positions.
“I don’t think it’s very complicated,” Deputy City Recorder Kris Aanderud said.
Candidates must file completed paperwork by 5 p.m. March 4 with the city recorder to qualify to run for mayor, city councilor in wards 1, 2, 7 or 8, or one of three seats on the Eugene Water and Electric Board of Commissioners.
City councilors govern the city, making policy decisions and approving budgets, as paid representatives of the areas they serve. The mayor holds the tie-breaking vote on the City Council and serves as the figurehead of the city. This position is paid. EWEB commissioners, who are unpaid, govern EWEB itself.
Candidates filing for positions must have an appointment with the City Recorder’s Office before they can begin gathering signatures, but the city does not charge a filing fee to run for office.
Aanderud said the length people take to complete their paperwork varies, but she said she has seen the whole process take as few as two days.
“It depends on how busy we are,” she said.
Seventeen people have filed to run for the different positions, with the most candidates flooding the mayoral race. Seven people, including Ward 8 City Councilor Nancy Nathanson and former state representative Kitty Piercy, are vying for the position. No one has filed for the EWEB Ward 2 and 3 position as of Feb. 2.
But this is an anomaly. When a seat in the city government opens up, there is usually someone eager to fill it.
“There seems to be a lot of interest,” Aanderud said. “We’ve had several people call today and ask about packets of information. We’ve had several people stop by and get information. You just never know who’s going to actually file.”
University student Adam Walsh, a 20-year-old history major, is running for the Ward 1 City Council spot against incumbent Bonny Bettman. He filed in the beginning of December.
Walsh said after watching City Council meetings on television, he came to the conclusion that the Council doesn’t listen to the people of the city.
“If something was going to happen, I needed to do it,” he said.
After coming to that conclusion, Walsh said he quickly decided to file. He canvassed his neighborhood for signatures, finding that most people he talked to didn’t even know who their city councilor was. The whole filing process gave him no problems, he said.
“Everybody that I talked to signed my petition,” he said. “It was really easy.”
Walsh’s campaign is still in its early stages. He said he just started writing fund-raising letters and spreading the word about his candidacy. He plans to invest in yard signs, bumper stickers and other campaign paraphernalia closer to the May 18 primary date.
Though the native Eugenean’s only political experience prior to this was holding office as high school class president, he feels good about his political future.
“I think I have just as good of chance as anybody else,” he said.
Blues musician Willie Nicholas also filed for office.
“The process of how many candidates running is a bit crazy,” he said.
The campaign itself, though, is easy.
“It doesn’t really take up a lot of time, actually,” he said.
Nicholas, who ran for mayor of Springfield in 2000, said the stage is his pulpit. He plays in the band Forest T. Black and gathered most of his signatures during gigs around town.
“The working poor need someone to represent them in city government,” he said.
Nicholas said he doesn’t plan to run a big campaign, though he said he is thinking about creating television commercials as he did in his previous run for mayor of Springfield. Even with the television ads, however, the process is not expensive.
“I think during my entire 2000 campaign I spent $700, and I took 30 percent of the vote,” he said.
Information about filing for candidacy is available at the City Recorder’s Office in Room 105 of Eugene City Hall at 777 Pearl St. or online at http://www.ci.eugene.or.us/cityreco/Elections/index.htm.