Dear Snarky – How Can We Tell a Family Member Not to Run for Public Office?

Dear Snarky,

My niece announced to the family that she wants to run for public office and quite frankly a lot of us think it might just be the worst idea ever. She’s young, has no experience and has problems handling a day job. It’s so bad we have an over under on how long she’ll last at each job she gets

I admire her enthusiasm and her wanting to “be the change” but I think she needs to at least volunteer on a political campaign or stay at a job longer than three months before she just throws herself out there.

Our biggest worry is that she got some insurance money from a car accident and she wants to spend it to fund her campaign. Anyone in the family over the age of 30 told her she needs to use the money to pay off her college loans.

Do you have any advice on how we can get her to change her mind without creating major family drama?

Signed, Worried & Concerned

Dear Worried

Lately my solution to most of my letter writers has been to tell them to mind their own business. But today I’m not going to do that. I’m going to tell you to get involved. This is the mom of young adults in me talking but your niece needs to hear that she should be very conservative with how she spends that insurance money.

I’ll give her huge props for no wanting to blow it on designer handbags or a sweet new ride and wanting to run for office can be a noble endeavor but she still needs to very seriously ponder spending that money to self finance a campaign.

Handling your niece with love and respect (i.e. don’t talk down to her) suggest that she needs to enlist a firm to do an exploratory study on her running for office where everything from her chances of winning to how much money and time she’s going to have to invest to be considered a contender will be examined.

This should be a g-i-g-a-n-t-i-c eye opener and I’m betting it’s not the amount of money that’s required that’s going to make her reconsider but the time that she’ll have to spend. Based on her employment record I’m guessing, umm how can I put this nicely, that she gets bored easily and once she sees the amount of effort and the hard and sometimes very tedious work it takes to get elected to almost any office she might cool off on this idea.

If she doesn’t be positive and wish her luck. Maybe this is her calling and she’ll surprise everyone.

If you have a question for Dear Snarky – advice with an attitude – email me at snarkyinthesuburbs@gmail.com. 😉

2Comments

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1

Jason on November 8, 2019 at 11:28 am

I ran for city council in a small town and you would think that wouldn’t be an especially difficult endeavor. Let me tell you it kicked my ass. All the Rotary and Lion’s club lunches, the parades, the door knocking and candidate forums. It was non stop for six months and expensive. Those four color yard signs don’t come cheap. I think the advice you gave was spot on. This young woman needs to know what she’s getting into and then make an informed decision.
2

Granny M. on November 8, 2019 at 8:48 pm

Your niece needs to be told not to use her own money for a campaign! She can fundraise etc but the money she got from her car wreck should be used to pay off any debts like college loans. I don’t mean to sound like an old lady but a chunk of change is hard to come by and it needs to be treated accordingly.