Despite the recent upheaval in public finance, the typical school district still approaches, organizes, and perceives a school finance referendum no differently than 40 years ago. Political strategy remains a rather shunned, undeveloped resource at a time when election success is most needed and when school administrators cannot take public support for granted. In Oregon, where over 50 percent of school district operating revenues come from local property taxes and tax levy support must be approved annually, successful campaigns are even more critical. The campaign strategy presented in this booklet strongly resembles the step-wise, goal-directed models used in business and political persuasion. The first chapter discusses the continuous school district efforts that lay the foundation for a successful campaign. Chapter 2 discusses the more technical aspects of scheduling and structuring a tax issue election. Chapter 3 focuses on organizing the district campaign team and includes a campaign calendar that plots the chronological events in a hypothetical school finance campaign. Chapter 4 covers the theoretical foundations underlying campaign strategy, and chapter 5 presents practical suggestions for conducting a successful campaign. This final chapter also includes numerous examples of campaign techniques used by school districts. Appendices contain a campaign planner, a generic enumeration polling script, a sample information fact sheet, a sample ballot, two case studies, sample citizen endorsements, and a precinct reporting sheet. (22 references) (MLH)