Her margin of victory was only 45 votes out of more than 12,000 cast, winning 6,153 votes to opponent Bill Kroonen’s 6,108.  That’s only around one-third of one percent.

And it’s proof that putting in the hard work of knocking on doors, making phone calls and running a professional direct mail campaign to find, dig out and turn out votes can be the difference between victory or defeat.

The Libertarian National Campaign Committee congratulates City Councilwoman-Elect SusanMarie Weber.

Advice to Libertarians who wish to run for City Council:

You may or may not follow my path.  It’s a change of life and a lot of work.

Find a leadership area in your community that’s of interest to you.  Seek a volunteer or appointed position in a community organization such as PTA, charity, local committee, city board or commission.  Attend City Council and commission meetings regularly.  Know the agenda topics. Write and speak to the City Council. Write letters to the editor.  Establish name recognition.

After you have a community resume and some name recognition, start a city council campaign 6-12 months before the election.  Know approximately how many votes it takes to be elected and focus on getting those votes.  Votes are all that matter.

Form an organizing committee.  Recruit campaign committee members to coordinate volunteers, manage a bank account, file state forms, and prepare your printed material (brochure/door hanger, signs, newspaper ads, campaign mailer).  You the candidate must do fund raising (about $15,000 for my successful re-election campaign for the Nov 2012 election).  You also must develop your campaign priorities and platform to reach voters, answer questionnaires, attend press interviews, attend candidate forums and walk precincts to meet voters.

Those are the essentials.  As an elected official you do not need to preach everything that is contained in the Libertarian Party Platform. There are enough bad policies and squandered taxpayer dollars to reasonably argue against.   You must have complete command of the facts involving a wide range of Council agenda topics and just use common sense in policy making.

They had expected to be flush with cash pumped in by the online fundraising machine that helped Obama shatter fundraising records in 2008.

They had expected Mitt Romney to emerge from the Republican primaries irreparably damaged — defined in the minds of voters as an out-of-touch “vulture capitalist” who couldn’t relate to average voters.

Instead the Obama campaign was nearly broke, and most voters still hadn’t made up their mind just who Mitt Romney was.

Rather than wait, Obama and adviser David Axelrod went all in, gambling the campaign’s money on an early onslaught of attack ads that caught the Romney campaign by surprise.

Romney failed to react, eventually costing him the election as he was unable to shake the caricature the Obama campaign had painted of him.

You should do the same.

Don’t hesitate to attack your opponent.

In fact, relish it.

Voters may say they hate “negative advertising” but consultants keep doing it for one reason — it works.

And if your opponent has voted to raise taxes, explode spending, waste public funds, engage in unethical official behavior or other things that disqualify him in your mind, voters have a right it know that.

The earlier you bring it up, the better your odds will be of knocking him back on his heels.

That’s not to say you should call your opponent names, mock his or her physical appearance or bring up issues about his or her marriage or family.

Those are personal attacks.  And they often end up damaging you and helping your opponent.

Voters have a right to know why you are the best candidate, as well as why your opponent does not deserve to be in public office.

Attack your opponent early.

Attack your opponent often.

Attack your opponent with enthusiasm.

Most importantly, stick to the issues and make your attacks credible, believable and fully researched and documented.

My rule is “if Grandma would hate what I said more than what he did, don’t do it.”

Our freedom wasn’t won by people playing nice and sitting around a table “debating” each other.

Freedom must be fought for, and that’s how we will win it back.

But Obama coasted to a re-election victory last week.

How did he do it?

Simple.  As a former community organizer the Obama White House understands voter identification and mobilization like no other.

They understand you don’t need a majority of the people behind you to win — all you need is to get more people to the polls than the other guy.

That starts with identifying everyone who supports you.  The Obama campaign made that priority number one.

“Obama’s campaign probably spent $200 million to $250 million — a quarter of every dollar collected — to create a state-of-the-art voting profiling operation that allowed it to more accurately assess the electorate than standard polling,” POLITICO reports.

“Like generals with good intelligence, Obama campaign officials could move resources quickly around the battlefield — like the late deployment of volunteers to critical Cuyahoga County in Ohio.”

As he laid out in his 2005 book, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe took simple neighborhood-level political organizing and replicated it by an exponent of thousands to carry Obama to two historic election wins.

According to Obama adviser Jim Messina one Columbus, Ohio woman told him: “I know everybody in my neighborhood — the ones that will always vote, the ones who don’t — and what it takes to get them to vote,” the woman, a committed Obama volunteer since 2007, told him. She added, with a chuckle: “They just shipped in a Romney staffer a couple of weeks ago. … Who do you think is going to win around here?”

Do you know your neighborhood?

Can you walk down the street, point to each door and tell someone whether the residents are Libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, swing voters, inactive voters or not registered?

If not, you need to learn that.

1) Talk to your state or local Libertarian Party.

2) Make sure they have the voter registration database.

3) Use party registration or primary voting history to determine your Libertarians, Republicans and Democrats.

4) Use the party membership list to identify non-voting Libertarians.

5) Also take note of lawn signs or bumper stickers on cars in the driveway

In short, be like a beat cop.  Collect information.  Learn your neighbors.

That way, next November, you know which Libertarians and Libertarian-friendly voters you need to get to the polls to pad LP election numbers.

Email all of your supporters and remind them to vote.  Don’t just assume they know the election is Tuesday, or that they will even remember to vote for you.  Your supporters are intelligent, but they are also busy people with families, jobs and businesses.

Prepare your election night speech and press statement for three potential outcomes: a win, a loss and an inconclusive result.

Use your email, Twitter account and Facebook to post updates and tweets throughout the election day.

The minute the race is called, post a thank you note on your website, and any social media feeds, thanking your volunteers and donors.

Prepare list of people you must call after the results are announced.  The first should be your opponent to either congratulate (should he or she win) or thank (should you win.)   The next on the list should be your biggest donors.

BEFORE Election Day, contact an attorney experience in election law.  Let him know you may need his services should your voters or poll workers need assistance.

Speaking of which, if your race is called, and the margin is close enough to be in doubt, DO NOT CONCEDE!  Simply tell the press and your supporters very politely and professionally you will wait until all the votes are counted AND VERIFIED before declaring victory or defeat.  Immediately contact an attorney experienced in election law.

No matter the result, be gracious and professional.  Remind your supporters of the same.

“So how can a campaign with limited staff and financial resources get the voter data they need and radically increase the power of their field operations? Enter the Internet, and more specifically, affordable political software.”

Finding a good database program to manage the voter file could deliver tons of extra votes simply because you are better at identifying active, undecided voters than your opponent.

Having a good website that automatically loads content to social media networks could help you reach voters your opponent can’t.

Some programs available on iPad or iPhone allow you to update and automatically sync databases, allowing you to flag supporters and favorable voters for your Get Out The Vote from right there at their front door.

So talk to past candidates and political pros.  Ask what they use.  Try new programs. Find what works for you.  Political technology decides elections.

Why?  Because pretty much everyone who will be casting a ballot next year is showing up on Nov. 6.  You need to be at the polls to introduce yourself.

First, be sure to catch them on the way OUT.  They will have enough people wanting to talk to them as they walk in.

Second, start by thanking them for voting.  Then, quickly introduce yourself and offer them a card or brochure with some basic information on you.

Don’t give them a lecture on issues unless they ask for it.  Your first job as a candidate is to make sure people actually remember your name.  The average person needs to hear a candidate’

* If you have kids or a dog, bring them with you!  Voters will appreciate seeing a candidate with cute kids or pets.

* Don’t wear sunglasses.  Voters won’t trust someone they can’t make eye contact with.

* Don’t chew gum.

* Dress nicely.  Wear slacks and a dress shirt.  Remember, when you speak with a voter it’s a job interview.

* IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU.  Don’t talk to voters about issues you care about, speak with voters about issues they care about.  Stick to issues voters are concerned with and you agree with them on.

* Answer all questions fully and honestly.

In fact, even if you do have money, you go door to door.  Voters appreciate the personal contact and it allows you to build votes quickly.

LocalVictory.com tells you why:

Why is Door-to-Door So Important?

Door to door campaigning is so effective because it accomplishes four main campaign goals, all with minimal cost:

Name ID

Door to door campaigning builds name recognition for the candidate in a way that literature drops and paid ads cannot.  Personal contact with a voter, even if it is by a volunteer, builds a connection with the candidate that results is positive name identification.

Credibility

A door-to-door program builds credibility in two ways.  First, on the personal level, it builds credibility in the mind of the voter who is contacted because it shows that the campaign is a living, breathing organization, and that people (the volunteers) really are supporting the candidate. Second, on a larger scale, the program builds credibility by giving the impression that there is a large base of support for the candidate that is involved in a well-organized and formidable effort.

Turnout

Your door-to-door campaign is more effective than any other method for encouraging people to go to the polls.  While you will want to use telephones for the bulk of your turn out effort because of the time involved, going door-to-door in selected precincts can help turn out larger numbers of voters because of the personal connection it creates.

Support

Finally, door-to-door campaigning can be an useful means of building a volunteer organization by locating interested people, as well as locating donors and precinct captains, etc.

No matter how large your campaign, don’t skimp on your door-to-door efforts, even if your canvas is entirely volunteer driven and run.  Running a door-to-door canvas takes time and hard work, but you’ll be glad you made the effort when you see the results.

1. All bank accounts must be opened in the name of the committee using the committee’s Employer Identification Number (EIN).
2. The FEC recommends bank statements be reviewed and reconciled with accounting records once per month. (That’s the bare minimum. Our firm, for example, reviews the bank registers of clients every single day.)
3. Checks in excess of $1,000 and wire transfers should be authorized in writing by two individuals and those two individuals should be clearly identified by the campaign’s internal policies.
4. An individual who does not handle the committee’s banking should receive all incoming checks and monitor all incoming receipts.
5. Carefully control committee credit and debit cards. You can even ask the credit or debit card issuer to place dollar restrictions on the cards.