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GREENSBORO — You may not know Sidney Gray.

Ordinarily, that's not a problem.

But when he's among the 13 candidates gunning for one of three City Council seats elected by the entire city of Greensboro, for Gray and others like him, it's a problem.

It's never easy for lesser-known candidates to compete against those who already enjoy name recognition — or who have the money to buy it.

And with such a crowded field this year — including an incumbent, two high-profile former elected officials and two candidates who have hauled in more than $30,000 each — the difficulties they face are exponentially greater.

For Gray, who debated whether to enter the race until the last day, that has meant spending nights running around the city to speak in front of whatever group will let him.

Sometimes, he shows up at meetings only to find out he doesn't get a chance to speak. But compared with the money needed for other forms of advertising, face-to-face contact has one advantage: It's free.

"It's been a tremendous challenge," he said. "Basically, all I can do is talk to people, talk to any group that I've been invited to."

Lacking the funds to spend on ads, some candidates are doing an end run around the traditional media.

Greg Woodard, another at-large candidate, posted a short video on YouTube and advertised on a local Web site.

"When you don't have a lot of money, you have to look for other resources," he said.

YouTube is more well-known for videos about wacky cat antics or comics rapping about "The Chronicles of Narnia" than it is for candidates delivering position statements.

But Woodard said his video did get attention when he put out the word.

According to YouTube, the video has been watched more than 250 times. In a race in which the winning candidates might receive more than 10,000 votes, that's not a huge number, but it's still face time.

Woodard also prints fliers off his computer and distributes them whenever he gets a chance, which means, like Gray, he's constantly on the hunt for any meeting he can find.

Although the frugal approach saves money, it eats time.

"I have to do everything myself," Woodard said. "The guys with the money, they just hire an ad agency and just go back to what they normally do."

In local elections, where yard signs with nothing more than a candidate's last name are a time-honored technique, name recognition is critical.

Getting that recognition is the hard part, at-large candidate Donna Riechmann said.

"There's sort of a Catch-22," she said. "If you're not well-known, you have to buy publicity. If you have to buy publicity, you have to have contributions. If people don't know who you are, they're less likely to contribute."

Riechmann goes door-to-door and plans to do a mailing. But that's not cheap either. Several thousand postcards might cost a few thousand dollars, she said.

Reichmann advocates some sort of public financing system to level the playing field. The idea, she said, is to limit the advantage enjoyed by candidates who appeal to well-heeled interest groups.

"It should be about the best candidate," she said.

Candidates also express some frustration with media coverage they say sometimes is tilted toward incumbents and those who accumulate a large campaign fund.

That kind of attention "becomes like a de facto endorsement," at-large candidate Joel Landau said.

He and others singled out coverage of fundraising as a particularly aggravating trend. That tends to benefit candidates who already have an advantage by being tied to contributors with money to burn, they say.

Although the Internet is increasingly a useful tool, it has its limits.

"It's a great way to talk to people and get your name and issues out," Gray said. "Unfortunately, it just hits a small number of people."

Gray created a blog for his campaign, and though he enjoys it, it's not a solution by itself. "I've got to rely on the established media to be fair," he said.

Even getting the blog up and running was a bit of a hurdle. Blogging was a new experience for him. "Fortunately, I have a son-in-law and son who are a lot more intelligent on that than I am," he said.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jhardin@news-record.com