YES, if your campaign works hard and has a good message.
For all the shade that most people throw to political parties, it seems party politics rule the day. Free thinking, independent people that truly want what is best for their community are rarely elected. Even in a small city, there are larger forces working against the small time grass roots campaign.
The only way to overcome the forces against those of us that are community-centric is to band together. I was fortunate enough to have several hard working and dedicated people that believed in me. We were outspent by over 10 to 1 in my first campaign and 6 to 1 on my reelection. In both cases, our team won overwhelmingly.
I have had many battles with local, regional, state and federal officials. I figure if I win on out of 20 then I am doing better than the average politician.
I have many stories about the things that I have witnessed as an elected official, but those are for private conversations and maybe future posts.