[jyl]

Curious if anyone here, or a family member, has gotten involved in politics.

About three years ago, I started leading an effort to designate my neighborhood a historic district. That turned into a 3 year, 200 volunteer, 20,000 person hour, $70K project, but we succeeded. Because everything in Portland is politicized and this particular effort got caught up with zoning, housing, and equity issues, I ended up getting involved with city officials, state legislators, and non-profit groups. I built webpages, email lists, organized volunteers for fundraising and canvassing and events, coordinated email and testimony at different hearings, and started leading a weekly meeting of activists and advocates, as well as working with other advocates.

Some people have been asking me to run for an elected office at the city council level. Others have been asking for my involvement in building a more formal structure for some of the advocacy, to and including starting a 501c4 and associated PAC.

I'm far from reaching any decisions, but wanted to see what experiences folks here have had. Anyone run for office, start or run an advocacy group, start a 501c4 or similar?