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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This manual was developed for use by progressive third party and independent candidates. The original focus was on local electoral races. As activists, a race covering a larger geographic area or a different level of office would have the same grassroots flavor and effectiveness.

As an educator and activist, it has been my desire to put together a campaign manual and experiential workshop for a long time. The impetus came as a part of the National Slate Task Force meeting of the Independent Progressive Politics Network (IPPN) in 1997. We were talking about how IPPN could support candidates on its National Slate. The IPPN National Slate is a listing of people running for office who can agree, in major part, with the Common Platform (see Appendix 9). We wanted to be able to offer concrete resources to progressives running for office. This was my opportunity to actually design and develop these materials.

In looking at other campaign material available, from mainstream books and web sites to those focused on a specific constituency group, I found that none of them were associated with a hands-on workshop. A workshop affords participants guided skills practice in a supportive environment and an opportunity to network with those who share some fundamental political values.

With the steadfast help of Ted Glick and Dan Coleman, my outline was transformed into narrative. I am very grateful to these two people who helped me focus my energy for this project.

Ted Glick is the National Coordinator of the IPPN and author of Future Hope: A Winning Strategy for a Just Society and a bi-weekly, nationally-distributed, Future Hope column. He has been active in progressive electoral campaigns since 1980.

Dan Coleman is a long-time Green Party activist. Since the mid-1980s, he has played a key role in a number of electoral campaigns including Green Party member Joyce Brown's three successful runs for the Chapel Hill Town Council. Dan is the author of two books: Ecopolitics: Building a Green Society, a discussion of green political theory; and The Anarchist, a historical novel based on the life of Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President William McKinley.

With the help and encouragement from Ted and Dan, the campaign manual and workshop were completed in 1998. It is currently in its fourth "edition". These revisions were based on experience with using the materials, feedback from participants of workshops and those who accessed the manual from the IPPN web site.

Many people have contributed campaign materials for the workshop. I've tried to gather examples from a diverse group of candidates in terms of party affiliation, geographic location, type of race run and demographics of the candidates. I thank these campaigns for being willing to share their experience and copies of their materials.

The IPPN National Slate Task Force and Steering Committee have been incredibly supportive of the development and use of these materials. Mostly, I want to thank workshop participants, who have skillfully and bravely jumped into the electoral arena with gusto and success.

Karen Kubby
January 2002

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