Family? Yeah, fellas, that’s right! In case you haven’t noticed, family is important to me, even especially on the campaign trail. In fact, your wife should subscribe to this blog, because I often write for her, too. If you’re a single guy – lucky you, you can afford to be a workaholic so you can skip this post if you want.
But most candidates are married. And since most Republican candidates (any candidates, for that matter) are men, we’ll just assume for the purposes of this post you’re married to a woman (although not necessarily).
When it comes to the candidate’s schedule, the first thing a campaign manager or scheduler should do coordinate all the candidate’s household/family responsibilities in one place. You’ll need to coordinate directly with the candidate’s wife for this section, and here’s why: you need to know the real priorities of the family. If you ask the candidate what family time is sacred and what can be moved around, nine times out of ten they’ll say something like, “well we always have date night on Fridays, but if it’s really important, we can skip just one…”
And it’s a downward spiral from there. Kids go rogue. Marriages deteriorate. Divorces happen. It sucks, and you don’t want to be a part of that. So just talk to the wife. She’s the one who’ll tell you that Sally would be devastated if her dad missed her school play, or you absolutely must have a long weekend getaway over your anniversary, or she’s planning a surprise birthday party for him. This is also your opportunity to get to know the candidate’s wife and make clear the part she needs to play in the campaign (more info about that in the Campaign Planbook).
Family time is also important because it’s a part of your candidate’s positive image. People like to vote for a guy they identify with – a fellow husband, dad and family provider. Additionally, candidates (like anyone else) need life balance in order to be at peak productivity.
So here’s a checklist of tips you ought to keep in mind as you to pull together the family portion of the calendar:
- Collect little league game and ballet recital schedules, doctor’s appointments, dates of anniversaries and birthdays, and anything else you can think of.
- Work with the candidate and candidate’s spouse to strategically plan vacations during times you think the campaign will be slow – typically that’s the whole holiday season and most of January, and a dip after parade/fair season and before Labor Day weekend.
- Front-load vacation time in the winter months, then plan 2-3 vacations that are 3-4 days long, rather than a 2 week summer vacation. I also recommend taking 1 or 2 days here and there to spend exclusively with family.
- Keep family members in mind for campaign events and ask them to participate – campaign/family cross over helps them feel involved in the candidate’s life outside the home.
- Spread family time out evenly. Resist the urge to jam a couple extra family items in September so you can skip them in the crucial month of October.
After you’ve had a discussion with the appropriate family members and copied down the requisite appointments, set that calendar aside for now, and get ready to put together the next section!
