Mohave County Candidate Support Guidelines
The Mohave County Democratic Partys’ goal during the 2023-2024 election cycle is to get out the Democratic vote and ELECT DEMOCRATS. During the primary season, fairness demands certain limitations, including legal limits. Limited space and human resources constrain what the local 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 what the county party can and cannot do to support their campaigns. Our objective is to avoid candidates experiencing disappointment or 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 Mohave County Democratic party, means a person who is:
1. Running for a public office for which any voter in Mohave County is entitled to vote; and
2. 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, for legal reasons, the party remains neutral among Democratic candidates, absent extraordinary circumstances. This means the party office does not work for any one candidate or prominently display primary candidate posters. All Democratic candidates in the primary will receive the same support.
CANDIDATE MATERIALS: We have limited space in our office for candidate materials that will be available to voters at events we attend. Therefore, we cannot accommodate large quantities of materials. If candidates have websites or social media 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. The Mohave County party cannot provide services to candidates until after the primary election.
Candidates are welcome at all party events. Opportunities to meet with Democratic voters include our regularly scheduled events such as the President’s Day Dinner in February, the Party Picnic in May, and the upcoming Mohave County Fair or other city events within the County. We also invite candidates to introduce themselves at one or two of our monthly County Party meetings. If you would like to speak at a countywide meeting, please email the Chair at: Chair@mohavedemocrats.org. Our meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month. Coordination with the Chair at least two weeks in advance is requested. 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 political bio, your website URL, phone numbers, email and mailing addresses for you and your staff. Name and contact information for your campaign manager is also appreciated as soon as possible. We will do our best to communicate with you about our events, but it is up to you to let us know what you are interested in attending.
The Mohave County Party has a substantial email list that is used to mail information to at least once per month. For the information of our readers, we will include announcements of candidate events if those announcements are provided by the 20th of the month prior. Newsletters go out the first of the month. We will also share on our Facebook page any event we are notified about it at least 36 hours in advance. If you would like to get on our mailing list, please let us know!
PETITIONS AND QUALIFYING CONTRIBUTION FORMS: We highly recommend using EQUAL for petition signatures. If you need to know more about EQUAL, you may contact the clerk of the board at the city/county. We will encourage all voters to use EQUAL to sign petitions, if available. In addition, we will maintain copies of your information and petitions in our office while you are collecting signatures and contributions. We have a dedicated candidate information section on the wall in our office where clear, wall mounted, 9 x 12 plexiglass display cases are available for all of the candidates. It will house your handouts, flyers, and clip board with your petitions for anyone to read and sign. We will also take them with us to any of our events. However, you must mail or deliver a supply of petitions 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 Mohave County Democratic Central Committee, 212B North 5th St, Kingman, AZ 86401. We will also need the contact information for the person who needs to receive completed petitions for your campaign.
PERSONNEL: The Executive Officers and volunteers that work for the Mohave County Party cannot be available to provide services to candidates. It is the responsibility of candidates to build a campaign staff and a cadre of volunteers. 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.
MEETING AND OFFICE SPACE: The county party leases office space in Kingman for its activities and all space is currently in use. However, with advanced 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 at 928-753-0006, or the Chair by email above, at least two weeks in advance of your meeting. Regularly scheduled county party meetings will continue to be our first priority for use of the space. Candidates will need to coordinate for volunteers to set up and clean up the office before/after meetings, and for someone within our local party to open and close the office. Candidates may make phone calls from our office using their own campaign or personal cell phones, as long as arrangements are made in advance.
MONETARY SUPPORT: The county party works hard all year to raise money to support our efforts. Candidate’s campaigns must raise money for their own candidates. Legal restrictions prevent us from contributing funds or in-kind support or supplies to primary campaigns, and we will be working in the general election to support all Democrats.
SIGNS: If provided, the county party will do their best to put up candidate signs within the county. Candidates should make themselves aware of any state and individual city law requirements regarding candidate sign placement if you are going to be in the county placing signs.
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 our Democratic candidates and with the state coordinated campaign. And we look forward to celebrating Democratic victories! If you have any questions regarding these guidelines, please contact the Mohave County Chair at: Chair@mohavedemocrats.org. For federal and state races, you should reach out to Arizona Democratic Party’s Political Director, Michael Ruff, in Phoenix at (602) 298-4200. For Legislative races, you should reach out to the Arizona Democratic Legislative Central Committee (ADLCC), Jillian Schimmel at (267)481-0614.