​There is only one way to counter the effects of organized money: organized people.
The true keeper of this country’s democracy is its people, whether they decide to participate in the vote
or not. The ability to raise money is still considered the number one factor in
being able to win an election, but recently we have seen campaigns backed by informal
citizen groups show the potential of a people-powered campaign.

If you have actual relationships with people in your district you can create a
campaign that is fueled by sweat & shoe leather rather than money & consultants.

A people-powered campaign may not look as slick as a well-funded campaign, but being authentic and inclusive of your district will pay in creating a viable campaign.

Malia Lazu is founder of The Urban Labs and a Mel King Community Fellow at CoLab. 
In this blog feed, she chronicles The Urban Labs’ projects and processes. 
The Mission of The Urban Labs is to increase the effectiveness of community organizing
by integrating new media & mobile phone platforms to enhance connectivity & deepen relationships between individuals & community organizing. 

These posts originally appear on The Urban Labs Blog.

In the recent past there have been many examples of the mobilizing and organizing potential of networking platforms. One example, the Easter Sunday flash mobbing in Times Square, left me a little dumbfounded. The notion that a couple of hundred young black men were going to 42nd street because their networks on twitter suggested it as an activity for Easter Sunday, was intriguing and while I cannot condone the violence that occurred, the turn out impressed me. I created The Urban Labs because I want to see this type of organizing outcome coming from social justice organizations, not just gangs in these communities.