Some basics, in order.

Decide which party you are running with. Almost everyone in recent years runs as a Democrat, which means that if you get elected as another party you could have an entire caucus room to yourself.

Start with the Ann Arbor City Clerk. Get a packet of forms and petitions; this is called "pulling petitions". Get 100 to 200 qualified people to sign your petitions; "file petitions" for a party position for the primary by the deadline (last year, May 11, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.) or as an independent for the general election by the next deadline (last year, July 15, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.)

The clerk has a checklist you need to manage - you have to affirm your identity, you have campaign finance rules (of certain but unfathomable complexity) to manage, and there are other forms.

See also

• Yard signs
• Postcards
• Political mailing lists
• Door to door campaigning
• Campaign finance
• Campaign web sites

In the news

• Wiki Wednesday: Running for City Council, Ann Arbor Chronicle, April 2009

Or one could imagine a nice nuts-and-bolts rundown of the mechanics of an Ann Arbor city council campaign. That link currently leads to a page that doesn’t exist.