Candidate Guidelines and Agreements
The Democratic Party is dedicated to supporting all its candidates. Our goal during the election cycle is to get out the Democratic vote and ELECT DEMOCRATS. During the primary season, fairness demands certain limitations, and limited space and human resources constrain what the party headquarters can do in the run-up to the general election. With that in mind, we ask that all Democratic candidates understand and respect exactly what the county party can and cannot do to support their campaigns. Our goal is to support Democratic candidates to the greatest extent possible throughout the upcoming election cycle and to avoid disappointment and frustration by being very clear from the beginning.
PARTY SUPPORT
The party can only support Democratic candidates. The term “Democratic Candidate” for purposes of the Coconino County Democratic party, means a person who is:
- Running for a public office for which any voter in Coconino County is entitled to vote, and;
- Who is running for such office as a Democrat, or who is running for a nonpartisan office but whose personal voter registration is maintained as a Democrat throughout all times during which party support or endorsement is sought by the candidate.
During the primary season, the party remains neutral among Democratic candidates absent extraordinary circumstances. Although individual party activists may, in fact, work for any candidate that they choose, they must do so as individuals and not as officers of the party. This means the party office does not work for any one candidate or prominently display primary candidate posters. We will have very limited space for candidate materials that will be available to voters at the voters’ request. However, we cannot accommodate boxes of materials or display space for posters, petitions and the like. If candidates have websites or Facebook pages, we will provide one link per candidate from our party website in a section that begins with this explanation of the party’s role.
If candidates wish to discuss general strategy for their campaigns, the County Chair is designated as the first contact. If candidates wish to purchase access to the Democratic Party’s database, they should initiate contact with the Arizona Democratic Party. The county party cannot provide services to candidates for any federal office until after the primary election. The party does not automatically provide workers or materials to candidates. It is more work than we can assume.
Candidates are welcome at all party events. Opportunities to meet with Democratic voters include the Independence Day parade, the annual Monsoon picnic, and the county fair booth. We also invite candidates to introduce themselves at our monthly County Party meetings. If you would like to speak, please write to .
Candidates are encouraged to notify our office of their intention to run for office and to provide the information we need to help support your campaign. At the very minimum, we need your website URL, phone numbers, email and snail mail addresses for you and your staff.
The County Party has a substantial email list that is used to mail information to Democrats twice per month. For the information of our readers, we will include announcements of candidate events if those announcements are provided by the 10th of each month for the mid-month mailing and 5 days before the end of the month for the end of month mailing.
SPACE
The county party leases office space for its activities and all space is currently in use. However, with advance reservations, the county party meeting area in the office can be available to candidates for small meetings as it is available to other community groups. Please contact the Office Manager at 928-214-0393 at least one week in advance of your meeting. Regularly scheduled county party meetings will continue to be our first priority for use of the meeting space. Candidates will need to arrange for campaign volunteers to open, close, and clean up the office after meetings. Candidates may make phone calls from our office using their own campaign or personal cell phones, as long as arrangements are made in advance. The county party has a copy machine, but we will need to charge for its use by candidates. Candidates will be expected to make advance arrangements to use the equipment and to provide labor for their jobs.
PETITIONS AND QUALIFYING CONTRIBUTION FORMS
We will maintain copies of your forms and petitions in our office while you are collecting signatures and contributions; however, you must mail or courier-deliver them to us. We cannot take responsibility for printing petitions sent to us by email because of the new statutory rules as well as the burden on our staff time and monetary resources. Furthermore, our spending resources directly on behalf of candidates could be construed as in-kind contributions that would be reportable both by us and by the candidates. Our mailing address is Coconino County Democratic Party, POB 701, Flagstaff, AZ 86002.
PERSONNEL
The Office Manager for the Coconino County Party has a full job for her hours at work and cannot be available to provide free services to candidates. It is the responsibility of candidates to build a campaign staff and cadre of volunteers. There are far more candidates than we can possibly assist. County party officials and volunteers may individually choose to work for a candidate, but campaigns should not assume that party officers are available to manage candidate events and activities.
VOTER DATABASE
The ADPVAN database is available for purchase from the Arizona Democratic Party. Another option for smaller campaigns is to purchase an Excel spreadsheet that is just Coconino County voters. The current price is $30 for the entire list without any sorting. If you would like us to do some initial work such as limiting the data to Democrats and/or to a specific district or sorting the data, the cost is $40. You will need to provide a memory stick for this service.
MONEY
Sadly, there is never enough money. The county party works hard all year to raise money to support our efforts. Successful campaigns must raise money for their own candidates. Legal restrictions prevent us from contributing funds or in-kind support to primary campaigns, and we will be working in the general election to support all Democrats.
SUPPLIES
Paper and office supplies cost money. Please do not use county party supplies without prior arrangement and a plan for reimbursement.
SIGNS
The county party does not have a committee to put up candidate signs and we do not have space in our office to store them. We expect campaigns to have their own sign management teams and to obtain rental space for storage if needed. As a party, we will help with distribution only to the extent that, after the primary, candidates may leave six signs for walk-in requests and an additional, but limited, number of signs at the office for prearranged pick-up by individuals.
Candidates should make themselves aware of the City of Flagstaff “Sign-Free Zones” and state law requirements. The County Elections Office has provided us with this compilaton of state, county, and city sign laws.
IN CONCLUSION
We wish all candidates our very best and, as individuals, we will work for your campaigns. We look forward to collaborating with all of our Democratic candidates and with the state coordinating campaign. And we look forward to celebrating Democratic victories! Guidelines are subject to change without formal notice.
Newsletter, Blog, and Event Posting Guidelines
- Email newsletters will be sent on approximately the 15th and the last day of each month. Priority will be given to Coconino County Democratic Party news.
- We encourage Democratic clubs and groups to send notices of upcoming events for inclusion on our website, Facebook Page, and/or newsletters. We will also consider publishing public meetings, town hall meetings and forums, as well as public events for seated officials and groups whose causes are consistent with our County Party agenda. These will be published at our discretion. Depending on the nature of the event, we may choose to publish an article rather than a calendar entry.
- We will post other community group events that may be of interest to our members so long as they are consistent with our Mission Statement.
- To ensure inclusion in the newsletter, posting requests should be sent to at least 5 days prior to the publishing date. Although we will attempt to post late notices, this may not always be possible. On rare occasions and for good cause, a separate mailing will be considered.
- Events are generally added to our website calendar within 2 business days of receiving the request. It is to your advantage to send your request well in advance of the event.
- All Democratic candidates have the same opportunity to have their events posted. We will not accept political statements, op-eds, or advertisements from candidates until after the primary election unless the candidate is clearly unopposed in the Democratic primary.
- It is up to the requester to provide the information in a format compatible with our systems, png, jpeg or pdf are preferred. Although an attempt will be made to reproduce the notice as sent, the event may be reformatted as needed.
- Please ensure accuracy before sending your request! Proofing the flier is your responsibility.