Thank you!

 

Election Day Has Come and Gone

 

Well, I am no longer a candidate for office. Election Day has passed me by. But that’s ok, it taught me a lot of lessons as it ran me over.

Before I begin, let me thank you for your support and interest. Running for office was an amazing, POSTIVE experience. Thank you.  

Ok, that being said, I’m not going to make a lot of excuses about the pandemic keeping me inside during campaign season. It is what it is and it affected everyone equally. I’d have loved to have gotten out and been able to meet more people, but it wasn’t possible. Not this time, anyway.

- SOLUTION: Start getting out and meeting people NOW! Don’t wait until 2022 or 2024. Do it NOW!

 

Second lesson, I was unprepared. I did not  intend to run this season, but when the Democrats failed to put up a candidate and the Republicans (no surprise) failed to primary the incumbent, I felt that I had no option. Elections should be about giving voters a choice, and without me and my Libertarian ballot buddy there was no choice other than the incumbent.

- SOLUTION: We have got to cultivate, develop, and train candidates NOW to be ready to run in every election. There should be a Republican, a Democrat and as many Libertarians and Independents on every ticket as possible.

          The 5^th Senate district covers SIX counties. At primary time there should be a Republican and a Democrat from each county on the ballot. The same for every House district!

 

Third lesson, I cannot be both a full-time public-school teacher and a serious political candidate at the same time. Maybe others can, but I cannot. I owe my students more than being their distracted teacher. Honestly, the pandemic saved me there, it gave me time to campaign virtually.

- SOLUTION:  There is no question about it, if I decide to run again I am going to have to retire from teaching. It’s the only way to be fair to my students and the campaign.

 

There are other lessons I learned, but those are the big ones. I need to better budget my campaign. I need to do a better job of learning how to talk about myself. I need to be bolder asking people for campaign donations.

 

In closing, I would like to wish the incumbent wisdom, courage and patience in his next four years as our elected representative.