Middle School Election Tactics

Dominique is running for Student Body Officer this week, and we have been having some discussions about elections and campaigns.  A few weeks ago, she asked me to help her.  I agreed to be her campaign manager (an un-paid position, by the way).  She decided that she wanted her theme to coincide with something she could hand out...like candy, a bracelet, you get the point.

I came up with several bad ideas.  Then she really liked, "Don't be a sucker, vote for Dom."  We thought we could get suckers and use the label maker to put her slogan on labels and wrap them around suckers.  She said to me, "Let me check with my friends and see what they think before we decide."  Um, excuse me?  I said, "I don't mind being your campaign manager, but I don't need to vet all ideas through 'your people'!" Since I'm also funding the campaign (posters, suckers and supplies), I think my opinion counted a bit more than a group of 7th grade girls.

Do you know how much suckers cost?  There are 180 7th Graders at our school.  I thought...this is going to cost me 10 bucks or so.  Guess again.  A bag  of 18 suckers cost a whopping $3.00.  When did sucker prices go up so much????  Luckily, all suckers were on sale at Walgreens.  We spent $20.00 to get 190 suckers.  Then I spent about $45 on the cartridges for my label maker.  I have no idea what Dean spent on posters the week before, but I can tell you that the Sharpies used to color said posters have come up missing (or at least some of them have).  I'm guessing I'm out at least $100.00 on this campaign.

So, as we are adorning suckers last night with labels (Oh, and we got some Dum Dums...and I made the labels for those say, "Don't be a 'Dum Dum,' vote for Dom Dom."  Apparently, I'm the only one who thinks that is funny, but oh well...since I was in charge of the label maker....)

While doing our project, Dom says, "Is this what it's like when you run for President of the United States?"  I couldn't contain my laughter.  Can you imagine???  The Obamas with 300 million suckers and a label maker?  I said, "Yes, it's similar, but you don't give out suckers.  But you have a campaign manager, a budget, a slogan and a reason that people should vote for you."  Running for student body officer is a mini-life lesson....

Then I asked her what she thought her chances for winning were.  She says, "Oh, I plan on winning, because I'm going to make everyone pinky-swear to vote for me."  Can I tell you how proud I am! 

I hope she wins because she really, really wants it.  In the end, we might be out spent, and I know that we don't have the best slogan.  I'm holding out for the coercive "pinky-swear technique" to push her to the finish line.