Salary of a Local Campaign Manager

Local campaign managers help organize the grassroots electorate.

The ballooning political campaign spending during the 1980s expanded the need for campaign managers at all levels. Before that time, federal campaigns used public funds and limited fund-raising efforts. As campaigns expanded and the expenses grew, the duty of managers expanded to include raising local funds to support national candidates. Local campaign managers -- employed as volunteers, low-paid staff and, occasionally in states targeted by party leaders as "must win," as high-paid professional staff -- now promote local and national candidates.

Volunteer Managers

The majority of local campaign managers working in a small town or remote county level labor without wages, other than an occasional free lunch. The goal of this group of managers is to show a talent for organizing and recruiting volunteers to move up to a management level that pays a regular salary. Volunteer campaign managers typically receive a gas allowance to reimburse for mileage used in promoting the candidate. Large national campaigns also temporarily provide local managers with a telephone or a computer for use during the campaign months. National campaigns frequently offer the manager housing with local donors or pay for group housing at inexpensive hotels or motels.

Internships

Interns also assist in managing campaigns for local positions and ballot initiatives. The interns receive college or high school course credits for working on the campaigns. Some colleges allow students to take a semester away from school to work in the field. The classes use the campaign work as a hands-on learning experience for directed student assignments. The interns typically go without pay for the work, but the student receives valuable experience for future employment.

Manager Salary Ranges

Campaign managers help promote the candidate or the cause and have specialized skills to raise money and attract volunteers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the mean annual wage for managers working in advertising and promotions as $83,890 in 2010, but the local campaign manager received lesser wages, reported by the BLS for the bottom 10 percent of the career field as $41,480 for the same year.

Future Employment Prospects

Local campaign managers working in political races where the candidate moves to a position in Washington, D.C., or requires the officeholder to operate various neighborhood offices has the option of working with the campaign without any pay and then moving into a paid position once the candidate's bid for office is successful.

Charitable Campaign Manager Pay

Not-for-profit charities also hire local campaign managers, but most states, including Texas and Washington, regulate the pay with a set of statutes. Under the laws, the manager earns a salary based on a percentage of the funds collected. Some charities also pay managers a flat monthly or yearly salary that ranged between approximately $38,000 and $71,000 in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, depending on the geographic location of the job and specific assignments given to the manager.

References

• Washington State Legislature: WAC 240-10-060: Qualifications for Local Campaign Manager
• Texas Government Code -- Title 6. Public Officers and Employees: Subtitle B. State Officers and Employers: Chapter 659. Compensation
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Advertising and Public Relations Services
• Slate: How Much Do Campaign Staffers Make?
• Federal Election Commission: Federal Campaign Finance Laws
• Marketing Career Network; Job Detail -- Development Associate
• CNN Money: Midterm Elections 2010 -- Goodbye, Campaign Jobs
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Advocacy, Grantmaking, and Civic Organizations
• Slate: Biting the Hand That Doesn't Feed Me
• Federal Election Commission: The FEC and the Federal Campaign Finance Law