At the end of the Cold War the United States Government commissioned a manual on running political campaigns for use in the former Soviet Union and other emerging Democracies. The idea seems to have been to make sure that nobody became so frustrated at not understanding how to run a political campaign that they resorted to armed force. Versions of the manual have made there way through a number of emerging democracies.
An English version of the National Democratic Institutes Political Campaign Planning Manual can be found at: www.ndi.org/… After having looked through the document this appears to be a very good and straight forward manual on how to run a political campaign. The main drawback is that is appears light on information about fundraising (which makes sense given the international context).
I’d recommend anyone involved in a progressive campaign check this out.