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.
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 5th
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.
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