The campaign is finished. The campaigners aren’t.

Nobody is recruiting candidates for the 2005 Lawrence City Commission election quite yet. But the success last week of the Progressive Lawrence Campaign political action committee in electing its entire slate of candidates — Mike Rundle, Dennis “Boog” Highberger and David Schauner — means work on the next campaign will probably start earlier than usual.

And political action committees, a rarity in the city’s recent political history, probably are here to stay.

“I don’t think PLC’s going away,” said former Mayor Erv Hodges, who helped form the Truth for a Better Lawrence PAC late in the campaign to counter Progressive Lawrence. “I think they’ve discovered they can gain considerable power and influence … that pretty well directs the campaign that anyone else running for City Commission will run.”

But Karl Brooks, Progressive Lawrence chairman, said his group would probably pay closer attention to governing than to campaigning in the near future.

“I have a feeling that members of the PLC will probably care more about learning to watch the City Commission in action, learning how to stay informed, learning how to bring neighborhood views in front of the commission,” Brooks said.

‘Good organization’

The creation last summer of Progressive Lawrence went almost unnoticed, but the founders said they were intent on creating an organization that could counter the influence of developers in city politics.

“We want to give the vast majority of citizens a voice in city government,” co-founder Jason Fizell said at the time. “We definitely hope to affect City Commission elections and how planning decisions are made.”

The organization’s effectiveness was apparent early in the campaign. The three PLC-backed candidates easily outpaced their rivals in fund-raising early on, and one of the Progressive Lawrence candidate’s yard signs was rarely seen without the other two right next to it.

“They organized early, and they had a good organization,” Hodges said. “You’ve got to give them credit.”

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Many observers were stunned Feb. 25 when the Progressive Lawrence trio swept the top three spots in the primary election. Hodges and former Mayor Bob Walters announced Truth PAC’s formation barely two weeks before the April 1 general election.

It was too late. The three Progressive Lawrence candidates were elected and, along with incumbent Commissioner David Dunfield, will form a “smart-growth” supermajority on the commission that has the power to dictate the city’s planning decisions.

Lessons of 2003

The lessons of 2003 will probably be remembered by all sides as the 2005 election approaches.

“Those I’ve talked to agree they’ll have to be better organized,” Hodges said. “And that means a PAC.”

That’s a fact that could mean the days of “nonpartisan” elections could be over, in reality if not officially.

“I feel the days of independent candidates are probably gone, at least for the immediate future,” Hodges said. “I think every candidate now is going to have to have an organization that extends beyond his steering committee and supporters … the independence of candidates may be limited.”

But talk of early and ongoing organizing doesn’t mean Lawrence politics is entering the era of “permanent campaign,” Brooks said.

“The problems of a city like Lawrence are always interesting and will always motivate a lot of people to stay involved,” he said. “To me, that doesn’t mean permanent campaign. It just means interested and involved citizens.”