In fact, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent election night calling unsuccessful candidates to tell them to not stop campaigning — because the next election is just 24 months away.

“Literally on election night 2012, I was calling candidates who fell short and urging them to run in 2014,” the DCCC chairman, Congressman Israel, told BuzzFeed. “We literally started recruiting before the election was over.”

While some political parties and groups spent the morning after the election clucking about things on websites, just hours after the polls closed Israel was already “holding the first in a series of recruitment meetings designed to replenish his ranks.”

“The game’s not over until the bottom of the ninth, and even then you go for extra endings,” Israel says, “If you grew up like I did, even if you’re up 20 runs you don’t stop man.”

Have you started yet?

Are you contacting Libertarians urging them to run in local, state and federal elections next year and in 2014?

Are you calling your friends and family asking them to make a major donation to a Libertarian candidate?

Are you going door to door to identify potential new Libertarian voters?

Will you be greeting voters as they leave the polls during the upcoming local elections in 2013?

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.

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.

There’s no such thing as Election “Day.”

Thanks to more states opening up early and absentee voting, the use of mail-in ballots in states like Colorado and Oregon and because of our increasingly busy lives, in many elections more than half the votes counted on Election Night are cast in the weeks ahead of Election Day.

That while it’s a good idea not to spend all your money in the early days of a campaign, it means campaigns must hit mailboxes, phones and doors earlier than ever.

If you’re a Libertarian candidate, or running a Libertarian campaign, find out when absentee and early voting begin.

Make sure the voter registration list you purchase has the voter’s history on it.  Most voter registration lists also mark who cast an absentee ballot or voted early in person.  Make sure your campaign has contacted those voters as soon as early voting begins.

[Make sure you spend all of your volunteer's time only mailing, calling or knocking on the door of people who are 1) Registered to vote. 2) Show up to vote and 3) Aren't supporting your opponent(s.)  Don't waste time contacting people who don't show up to vote, knocking on every door, "converting" your opponents or doing voter registration drives.  There's a reason they didn't bother to register to begin with.]

In many places you may contact election officials, who will agree to send you a list of voters who have requested mail-in ballots.  Have someone devoted specifically to knocking on their doors to hand them a flyer or call them on the phone as soon as possible.

There’s no such thing as Election “Day” anymore.  Many, if not most, of the votes cast in your race will already be cast by the time Election “Day” comes.  Make sure you are specifically contacting those voters as soon as voting opens, and BEFORE they cast their early vote.

“Colorado may legalize marijuana on a state level this November. Oregon and Washington will hold referendums on the subject as well. Meanwhile, six states and the District of Columbia currently recognize same-sex marriage. Maryland and Washington state each passed laws legalizing same-sex marriage this year, but opponents managed to delay enactment until after referendums. One more state, Maine, will also hold a referendum this November. It is therefore possible that by the end of the year, nine states, or almost 20 percent of the nation, will have full marriage equality.”

“The Libertarian Party is gaining ground on a national level as well. For the first time ever, they have a presidential candidate with previous executive experience – former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. With a former governor running on the Libertarian Party line, it is clear that their ideas have gone mainstream.”

The western office will direct efforts for U.S. Senate candidate Paul Passarelli and 5th District Congressional candidate Robert Lombardo, according to Reale.

The Eastern Connecticut office will be staffed fulltime, he said. The party will be getting an official phone number, something it hasn’t had since 2005. A phone bank is expected to fully operational by October, Reale said. Acquisition of a campaign bus is being considered, he said.

“It’s been a great year,” Reale said by telephone. “We’re getting ambitious. We’re looking to buy a bus.”

The Connecticut branch of the party has broken its annual fundraising record by collecting more than $40,000 this year, Reale said. The party is looking to hire additional fundraisers, he said.

“They did. They gave us five tax proposals — plus one change to the criminal code — that every one of them could support wholeheartedly, from left to right.”

What were they?

1. Eliminate the mortgage tax deduction
2. End tax deductions for health-care
3. Eliminate the corporate income tax
4. Eliminate all income and payroll taxes
5. Drop the income tax, tax consumption
6. Legalize marijuana

Libertarians are the only party dedicated to eliminating income taxes and ending costly drug prohibition, and many Libertarian officeholders