What is Community Organizing

Organizing with Champions: Tips for Your Campaign

April 2004

People who have passed strong policies know that having a champion is valuable. Some of us are lucky to find a great champion on our city council or board of supervisors and others are not as fortunate. This article will suggest some tips for finding a good champion; how to work with your champion; and what to do if you can't find a champion.

A champion is an advocate and tough negotiator for your ordinance on the council or board. They are much more than just simply a supporter or a “yes” vote.

Recently the City of Sacramento passed a strong licensing ordinance (see related article). The Sacramento Tobacco Control Coalition had a great champion, Vice Mayor Sandy Sheedy. She is very committed to tobacco issues and to retail licensing and like many of us, her family has experienced the tragedy of tobacco-related illness and death. So she was a passionate and strong advocate. Her telephone call to the Sacramento Lung Association last June and her interest in retail licensing caused the Coalition's newly formed Tobacco Retail Licensing Task Force, to focus their campaign on the City of Sacramento. Her strong ongoing advocacy on behalf of the ordinance makes her a great example of a champion.

Tip #1 – Find your Champion.

Some times finding a champion can be easy - someone you've worked with on other tobacco control policies. For example, in Sacramento Councilwoman Sheedy had strongly supported the Smoke-free Entryway ordinance. If you are unsure of who has been supportive in the past, look at voting records and public comments to help you identify a champion.

More often you will have to meet with several council members or supervisors and evaluate which is the most supportive. But before asking someone to be your champion consider if they are well respected by the other council members or supervisors and other community groups. Ideally, you'll know this out before meeting with them.

Tip #2 – Work with your Champion.

A champion should work with you to pass your ordinance. The champion will advocate and negotiate on your behalf with the council or board. Do not compromise on your ordinance before you get to the champion. Let your champion help you judge whether there are provisions that need to be modified and compromises that must be made.

Throughout the campaign your champion should give you advice on what to do to help your ordinance pass – which council members or supervisors you need to talk to, which council members or supervisors support your ordinance, what arguments you should use, which endorsements you need to get, and what tactics would be most well received. The champion should help you work with the city or county attorneys and other city or county staff. In return, you need to think about how you can help support your champion – for example, by getting political support for them, by getting them good press, or by bringing lots of community support to council meetings.

In the Sacramento campaign Vice Mayor Sheedy did a lot to move the ordinance forward. She provides us with a good example of what a champion should do. Either she or her Administrative Assistant came to all the meetings of the Retail Licensing Taskforce of the Sacramento Tobacco Control Coalition; she brought Code Enforcement and a city attorney to a key meeting with Randy Kline of TALC; she organized a public forum and sent out 400 invitations and coordinated the agenda with the Licensing Task Force; she provided valuable advice on advocacy and talked with other council members; and she helped the ordinance withstand weakening amendments after discussing the proposals with the Task Force. Although the Coalition support proved strong and effective, she sought additional support such as the County Medical Association and from the Teen Advisors to Council members. It was a mutually beneficial collaboration with excellent communication from inception to victory.

o what is your role as a campaign organizer? Your job is to prepare the champion for likely arguments and challenges. You need to make it clear what you are unwilling to compromise on (for example, in licensing, the fee and the enforcement). Because sometimes elected officials say one thing to you and do another, it is a good idea to check with an independent insider to confirm that your champion is truly working on your behalf.

It is important to have an ongoing presence in front of your champion. Show up to community events where your champion is and say a few words to them. Continue to meet with them to talk about the strategy. Invite them to your campaign meetings. That continuing presence keeps the issue alive in the mind of the champion. It gives you a chance to keep the champion current on recent news from the campaign and it gives the champion an opportunity to pass along important inside information you wouldn't otherwise know.

Tip #3 – Can't find a Champion?

Sometimes, we are not able to get a council member or supervisor who is as supportive in our communities as council member Sheedy was in Sacramento. Maybe you have council members or supervisors who agree on the issue, but are not willing to champion an ordinance either because of the work involved, lack of connection with the issue, or the political risk. In this case ask if they can do activities to lend support in a less direct way. For example, they could hold a public hearing on the issue or request a study or advise the campaign team on how to approach other elected officials who will support the ordinance. At the very least you will need a council member or supervisor who will introduce your ordinance.

If you are dealing with a council member that is not enthusiastically supportive or a little nervous about your ordinance, be careful about the information that you share with them. Again, a supporter is NOT the same as a champion.

Of course if a champion is just not available or can't be developed, the campaign will need to rely more heavily on other community organizing strategies and tactics that produce the leverage necessary to pass the policy.

Just as we bring together partner organizations to form powerful coalitions to fight tobacco, finding and working in partnership with a champion can increase the efficacy and impact of our campaigns. In some cases, their presence and participation can mean victory or defeat. Tobacco control is important to our communities, and finding champions who will advocate for us will increase the chances that only the strongest ordinances will pass.