Down the road, not for a while anyways, I am interested in running for
office.  Aside from reading about great leaders and there habits,
practices, etc. I am interested in learning the tricks of the trade
without actually jumping right into, say, being the mayor or such. 
Are there any classes (besides going to college), lectures, training
seminars what have you for prospective politicos?

Hello.

Yes, there are indeed many classes, lectures and seminars for
prospective political candidates.

Some seminars are basically non-partisan and would probably be
appropriate for people of all political persuasions.  Here are some
examples:

National Campaign Training Seminar
"Renowned training program for candidates, campaign managers and
staff, consultants, party activists and issue advocates."
http://www.campaignline.com/seminar2.pdf

Sorensen Candidate Training
"The Candidate Training Program is a 3-day long training for
first-time state and local candidates in the fundamentals of running a
winning campaign with an emphasis on ethics "
http://www.ccps.virginia.edu/sorensen/candtrain/default.html

"Laszlo & Associates, Inc skills training programs for candidates,
officials, campaign professionals, corporations, political parties,
and associations."
http://www5.smart.net/~laszlo/campaign1.html

Center for Campaign Leadership seminars
http://campaigns.berkeley.edu/seminars.htm


Many programs emphasize a particular political orientation (e.g.,
Republicans, Democrats, etc.), or are designed for potential
candidates of a particular type (e.g., women, Latinos, etc.). Here are
some examples:

Leadership Institute (for "conservatives")
http://leadershipinstitute.org/02TRAINING/training.htm

YDA Candidate Training (for "young" Democrats)
http://www.yda.org/about/

GOPAC Training (for Republicans)
http://www.gopac.org/gopac/training/

Interguru (for women)
http://www.interguru.com/fiftyplusone/upcoming.htm

Emilys List (for Democratic "pro-choice" women)
http://www.emilyslist.org/training/campaign/program.phtml

Pipeline to Politics (for women)
http://www.umsl.edu/~iwpl/prgrms.htm

Women's Campaign School at Yale
http://www.wcsyale.org/

AMPCA (for people in the medical community)
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/4220.html

NAACP Leadership Institute (for African Americans)
http://www.naacp.org/work/voter/leadership_institute.shtml

NALEO Campaign Training (for Latinos)
http://www.naleo.org/regional_campaign.htm


Your local political parties (Democratic, Republican, Libertarian,
Green, etc.) may have classes and workshops as well.

search strategy:
"candidate training", "candidate trainings"
"campaign training", "campaign trainings", candidates
political, candidates, training, seminars


I hope this gives you an approximate idea of the sort of programs that
are available. If you need additional information, please use the
"request clarification" feature.  Thank you, and good luck if you
decide to run!

Great work!  Prompt and thorough, thank you.

CSPAN airs a couple seminars from the American University Campaign
Management and Lobbying Institue (among others).  You may find that
they help to shed light on various considerations, and may give you a
broad understanding of where you would like to further develop your
knowledge.  You can also watch them online.

American University Campaign Management Seminars
http://www.c-span.org/Search/basic.asp?BasicQueryText=American+University+Campaign+Management


You might also enjoy CSPAN shows, such as Road to the Whitehouse,
which tend to include numerous outtakes that give you a
"behind-the-scenes" view of various candidate activities.  Watch as
they shake hands and pretend to remember everyone they meet.  Watch as
they choke down another dry piece of chicken at a fundraiser.  Watch
as the staff briefs and debriefs the candidate at each stage of an
event.
Road to the Whitehouse
http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Rot_Cat_CD=RWH&Rot_HT=205


You may also be interested in the CSPAN "Students and Leaders" series:
http://www.studentsandleaders.org/lessons/


I'm not sure where you are in your consideration process, but, you may
want to consider the following broad outline:
1.  Understand the basis for your political philosophy.  Why do you
hold the views you hold?  What drives your understanding of an issue? 
How would you describe your political thinking to others?  Are there
books classical political thinkers that might help to deepen your
understanding of your political philosophy and origins.

2.  Understand your political objectives.  What do you hope to
accomplish in office?  What issues take priority for you?  Will those
be issues that are also of interest to your constituents, or will you
campaign on other issues that are more important to the voters than
they are to you?

3.  How will you finance your campaign?  Do you have views about
campaign finance that may influence the way you raise money?  Are
there groups or people that you would not accept money from?

4.  How will you staff your campaign?  Party operatives?  Political
consultants?  Influential friends and volunteers?

5.  What is your message, and what communication strategy will you
employ to translate that message into votes on election day?  How will
your personal story and track record be a help (or burden) to your
campaign?

If you have an idea you want to run for office down the road, while
seminars and the like might provide you an overview, there is nothing
like hitting the ground and working on a campaign.  One of the
toughest things a candidate has to do is build credibility among the
different competing community and political organizations who will
help turn out voters for or against you in the election.  Working on a
campaign will show you how difficult it is to run for office or you
may find out that you like the rough and tumble of the whole thing. 
You will also find out whether you're really a people person or
someone who wants the power, but not terribly interested in doing the
work. While that may sound strange, many candidates absolutely hate
pressing the flesh and asking for votes.  You build your campaign
around your strengths and your weaknesses. Much like anything else,
the doing of the thing is always better than the theory of the doing
of the thing. The other important item is that people who run for
office and WIN generally have support and backing of one of the
political parties, which means you have been in the trenches working
within the party.  Running for office costs lots of money these days
and you will need a network of relationships to build a cache of money
that will allow you to be a competive candidate. Deciding to run for
office requires as much strategic planning as far out as possible to
build the credibility and the relationships that are critical for a
well financed and well run campaign.