Topic: Election 2008
Running Unopposed If you want to make a change, quit whining, run for office. It's not as hard as you think.by DigitalBob
(Libertarian)
Friday, August 8, 2008
This week I won my seat as a precinct delegate to my county's Republican convention. It wasn't hard to do, since I had no opposition. In fact you can take a look at my precinct's ballot here: [link edited for length]. The only two offices contested were the drain commissioner and the state district representative (congratulations Sharon Tyler!). Those two offices were on the Republican side. None of the Democratic seats had more than one contestant.
This was Michigan's second primary this year. Back in January, the State funded the primary elections for the Democratic and Republican Parties for President. For $30 million dollars, the taxpayers didn't get their monies' worth. The Republicans only will seat half the delegates from that election, and the Democrats can't figure out if they will seat any of them. This past primary took about the same amount of effort and cost, and was probably more important, since there were more offices available.
In my precinct, City of Niles #4, there are 2425 registered voters. A precinct in Michigan is defined as a political boundary that contains up to 3,000 registered voters. According to Voter Magic, only 240, 9.9% of the voters in the precinct, bothered to go. With the recent change in the law, I only needed one vote to win, instead of three. Lucky me.
Last April I was hesitant to put my name on a ballot, because I thought politics was the domain of professional politicians (My Precinct Delegate Quandary). However, I got to the point where I felt that voices of the Ron Paul supporters were being marginalized by apparatchik of the Republican Party. When the call went out for Paul supporters to become "precinct leaders" I figured there were plenty of folks jumping on the bandwagon to make it happen. I figured I was going to be one of dozens in line at the City Clerk's office, handing in our forms. Nope, just me.
What's even sillier is that I don't always vote Republican nor had any great desire to seek political office. My wife has voted Democratic almost her entire life, but made an exception for me this week. Her father is active in the next county's Democratic Party. During the 1990s I was a big supporter of the Reform Party of Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan. After seeing the infighting which led to its implosion, I was soured on politics completely.
But this past year was different. I got to be part of a movement that wanted to make a positive change. I attended one of the big Ron Paul rallies in my region (Ron Paul Spends Cinco de Mayo with 1500 Hoosiers), which cemented my dedication to a wonderful vision of the future. It was a great feeling to know that I wasn't alone.
Shortly after voting, I saw the name of another Paul supporter in a Meetup group blog, who won her precinct on the other side of our city. We emailed back and forth. Again, I realized that I'm not alone. She and I will work for the causes of liberty over the new two years within the machinery of the Republican Party. In one of our emails, I mentioned that we will need allies.
Next Thursday, I will attend my first county GOP convention. There we will pick delegates to the state convention, held the following week. There state delegates will pick delegates to the national convention for the first week of September.
Precinct delegate is a two-year office. Hopefully I'll get to steer the Party in the right direction. It will be like a tugboat nudging an iceberg where you want it to go.
I look at this past election as a learning experience. This is my first elected office. It didn't require huge expenditures of time and money. In any case, it is a win. Hopefully, it's the first of many.
.
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2008 DigitalBob, all rights reserved.
Published: Friday, August 8, 2008
Last modified: Friday, August 8, 2008
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Congratulations. I am glad to see Paul supporters still continuing the "Delegate Wars" fight -- I was afraid the repeated kicks in the balls the RNC gave it in June & July was the end. Of course it isn't -- as Paul has made clear, cleaning up the GOP is a long-term project.
Please let us know how things go at your county and state conventions. (I hope you get to the state one, and even that you make it to the RNC -- that'll get you into the Rally for the Republic for free, you know 8)
I won one of two Republican County Central Committee Member seats for my district. There was no one else besides me running until after I signed up. Then, two other people added their names to vie for the two seats.
I received a phone call from the County Committee Chairman, who, firstly, wished to congratulate me on my winning the election, and who, secondly, wanted to pick my brain to get an idea of what my views were.
When he asked me point blank if I was one of those many who were attracted by all that "Ron Paul" excitement, what could I say but, "Yes."
With that response, I might have already thrown this battle. But, the R[ƎVO˩]UTION shall wage on long after November 4th has passed.
P.S. Please vote for Most Important Issue in the Presidential Campaign at:
http://www.vcrcc.org/committee/index.cfm
I didn't see that the Republicans offered a radio button for Individual Liberties, so I voted for Fiscal Responsibility which seems to be the least of the voter's concerns.
I won one of two Republican County Central Committee Member seats for my district. There was no one else besides me running until after I signed up. Then, two other people added their names to vie for the two seats.
I received a phone call from the County Committee Chairman, who, firstly, wished to congratulate me on my winning the election, and who, secondly, wanted to pick my brain to get an idea of what my views were.
When he asked me point blank if I was one of those many who were attracted by all that "Ron Paul" excitement, what could I say but, "Yes."
With that response, I might have already thrown this battle. But, the R[ƎVO˩]UTION shall wage on long after November 4th has passed.
P.S. Please vote for Most Important Issue in the Presidential Campaign (it is a poll in the left hand column). I didn't see that the Republicans offered a radio button for Individual Liberties, so I voted for Fiscal Responsibility which seems to be the least of the voter's concerns.
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2008 DigitalBob, all rights reserved.