Importance of Running for Local Political Office

Video Transcript

"Being involved in politics and elected office is really the most important thing that I think individuals can be involved with. I've been on the school board. I've run for state senate, I've run for U.S. Congress, and I've been in a primary for the governor of the state of Vermont. So I have a pretty good perspective for what it means to be engaged in politics. Local politics, which is running for a local office, like the school board, means that you're engaged in your community, and you're involved in your community. And we need to get more people to understand that that's a critical role and a responsibility of their citizenship is to be involved in local politics. Once you've done local politics, and you've been on a school board, you've been on a select board, you've done something at your local level, people inevitably want to do something bigger. Or at least, let's put it this way, we weed out people that then decide that they want to go on to a higher level, and they start running for elected office in terms of a house seat. Or for a state senate seat, which requires a whole different kind of a connection with their community to get elected. It is tough to put yourself out on the line, to go talk to people to say, "Please vote for me." It's just about as hard as asking somebody to make a charitable contribution to some organization. It takes a kind of internal fortitude to do that. I think we're very hard on politicians and people who make that effort. I think we have to encourage people, listen to them and not think that it's just somebody that we ought to criticize. It takes an awful lot to do that, and they're doing it because they're committed to it. Once they've done that, they then may look at a state level kind of office, if they've been successful, they like it, and it fits their personality."