If I may refresh a few memories, at the risk of setting off some political PTSD, just after memorial day I was drafted, dragged, and gang pressed into running for state legislature on the democratic ticket. I hoped the party would come to their senses and recognize the error of their ways, but instead they gave my campaign enough money to qualify for a state campaign subsidy of even more money. So there’s been no escape, and I’ve wasted much of my summer on the campaign trail. I say wasted because normally I’d do a dozen or two parades with the sidecar outfits for the local candidates, ranging across several districts and even into neighboring states. But forced to focus on my district alone, I’m down to a half dozen or so parades, which the hack’d Guzzi Quota has handled handily.
So here I sit, just a couple weeks shy of Labor Day and but one parade on said Labor Day left on the schedule. The last county fair in my district was over yesterday, and all that’s on the calender is some weeknight meetings and a last fundraiser or three. As if I need another fundraiser… I’ve got more than enough money to campaign on an airhead budget, heck, don’t think I’ve spent even a thousand dollars so far. That leaves $5k to blow plus the $3k in state subsidy that’s on the way, in a district that would take $50k for a democrat to maybe win. The campaign finance laws won’t let me spend that largesse on additions to my motorcycle fleet, so essentially I have to blow a few thousand dollars on a loosing race… Which is a true waste. Worse yet, having a garage full of signs and literature with “Diana for House” sets me up to be drafted to run again in 2016…
Now with parade season winding down, the party is telling me that I should be out knocking on doors and talking to voters… I suspect the voters have a better term for this activity. Given that there are 30,000 or so voters in my 80 mile long district and only ’bout 75 days to the election, that means I have a mere 400 voters a day to talk to, and we’d have about a whole 2 minutes each to talk… I don’t this is gonna work out. Now in the competitive districts they got started on this back before the snow melted in May, and they’ve got a dozen or more volunteers and staffers to help with this chore. I’ve yet to have any staff assigned or have a volunteer offer to doorknock, and the party hasn’t sent anybody out here to do so either. Heck, I don’t even have a campaign chair or treasurer, never mind a fundraiser, volunteer coordinator, and a few computer gurus. So I’m back to my political SOP: If the party or anybody else wants to come out and doorknock, I’ll doorknock with them… Otherwise I know better than to even attempt that thankless task!
So I have to blow a few grand on advertising or something campaign related between now and the first tuesday in November, make a few weeknight appearances at candidate forums that my opponent will probably be a no show at, and this whole nonsense will mercifully be over in a couple months. That means I may have a chance to attend some fall rallies… This rally rat is ready to turn off the campaign trail and onto the road to the rallies!
GearheadGrrrl 