All the important conversations at the Liberty Forum happen outside Fiesta's Restaurant on smoking breaks. I don't smoke, but if I stand upwind, I can still participate without getting a nicotine buzz.
Last Thursday, as we were standing on the sidewalk, I was asking questions about our possible candidate for the 3rd Congressional District and the 1st. I made the offhand comment that I had once thought about running for office, and next thing I knew we were talking about my exploratory committee for a run for the New Mexico State House, District 22.
At the Albuquerque Tea Party on July 4th, I talked to some people about their issues and concerns as I passed out Libertarian literature (my favorite: the fake 1 million dollar bill with the legend, "this is what your government is spending every 5 seconds") and I got favorable comments. On Wednesday night at our New Mexicans for Liberty 9-12er group meeting, I floated the idea and got a positively enthusiastic response. One of the movers and shakers of that group quickly contacted the libertarian owner of one of our AM radio stations, who said that he'd be happy to teach me how to get free media coverage.
The "I might run" has transmuted into the "I am forming an exploratory committee" blindingly fast. And that is probably necessary, because, if I am going to run, I have to get signatures on petitions by next January in order to get on the ballot. And the NM Libertarian Party chair says I need to be making public appearances by August.
Next step: conferences with the state LP chair and the Bernalillo County Chair on strategy and issues. I want to run as a Libertarian in order to give the party more visibility in New Mexico, and help us win back our minor party status in the state. This means that I need to frame the issues based on local concerns and libertarian ideas. I have to think about fundraising.
As a Libertarian, I have been told, one ought to do what one does for fun and/or profit.
Being third party (and honest) running for office cannot be done for profit. So I'll be doing for fun.
The thought that came to me as the NMFL people were starting to think about how to support me was this: What if I win?
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6 comments:
Best of luck!
Wow! I can't wait to read about any experiences you decide to share. Should be an interesting experience, at the very least! :o)
WOW! You are trodding in an exciting new direction. Kudos to you. With people like you committing themselves to the campaign process, we may eventually get a viable multi-party system in this country.
Sounds exciting!
Deborah
Yes you need to think about what if you win.
Good luck with the decision.
I was elected to town council in my 20s. I learned life lessons there. Like government works differently than is generally stated or believed to be in this country. But I'll not get into that.
I wanted to share this blog post of a friend of mine with photos from a Brooklyn small grocery market, in case you want a little peek at NYC today.
http://pollycastor.com/Pollys_Blog/Entries/2009/7/10_Photos_of_the_Garden_of_Eden.html
Have a great day!
I'm going to see if you are on TWitter yet. Optional is put a thing in your blog sidebar to share your last 1-5 tweets. I have that on my blog.
How exciting! I look forward to reading more about this adventure!
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