Not a lot, as it turns out. Aside from being at least 25 years old and a citizen, you need:
- $1740 (1% of current Congressional salary)
- 40 nomination signatures
That’s it. If you collect up to 2000 signatures by an earlier deadline you can even avoid some or all of the $1740.
There was a bit to sort out, but the fine folks at the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters were responsive and helpful throughout the process. Here’s a shout out to Will, Troy, and Kamari, who guided me along, and to Evelyn Mendez, our new Registrar, who administered my oath (see below).
To me, civil servants like these are the real heroes who keep democracy running smoothly — all without a whiff of the corruption and graft that, from what I’ve seen, is routine in so many places around the world. There is bureaucracy in our government, and yes, some corruption, but I really believe most staff just want to keep things running as well as they can. It’s an area I would love to explore in more depth as your representative.
I also decided to go ahead and set up a Campaign Committee with the FEC, for cleaner accounting of my limited expenses, and in case I end up raising more than the $5000 threshold. That was also pretty simple, just filing Form 2 and Form 1 at the FEC, then getting EIN from the IRS. It’s all online and only mildly confusing. With a little help from my AI Consultant (mostly Grok), it only took a few hours. Getting a bank account, on the other hand, well, I’m still working on that as of April 10; it’s messier than I’d hoped.