The Starting Blocks

I am, for the first time in my life, actively involved in a political campaign.
I shall try not to boor you with specifics of this particular race, but expected that topics of a more general interest might occur as a result.

Lo-and-behold, it has already come to pass. (At least I HOPE it might be of interest… ;->)

Tomorrow, I will be attending the first foray into the urban core portion of the congressional district. This will be a particularily interesting contest. My former ‘representative’ (not once did I ever hear the woman espouse my particular political beliefs) opted out of running for re-election. Seems there was some problems of a financial nature… (big surprise, financial scandal and national politics…)

Thusly, there is no incumbent. The Democrats had two contenders of note in the recent primary. One, a young former aide in the Clinton administration. The other, the former Mayor of Kansas City who also happens to be a Methodist minister. They fought a bloody advertising battle wherein the young upstart made mighty dents in his Reverend Honor’s seemingly Teflon armor at the cost of very high negatives in polled perception of the upstarts ‘negative’ campaign.

(Negative campaigning has come to mean pointing out inconsistencies in your opponent’s positions. Especially if that candidate is the darling of the liberal party/press. As this is usually the purview of the challenger to any incumbent, the office-holder has a preternatural advantage in the ‘righteousness’ of his/her position in any political contest. (As if the very use of the word ‘righteousness’ does not turn any sentence on politics into an oxy-moron, Clerical status of one of the candidate not-withstanding…)

The result, his Rev.-Hon. Is still the 900lb. Canary in the middle of the room. He has name-recognition that is through the roof. He also has negatives that were only worsened by the fight within his own party. I was a bit careful with this particular metaphorical animal reference. His R-H is an African-American, and I wished no taint of racist innuendo that might be attributed to the more common simian reference when one finds a large creature in the middle of the space you currently occupy you find impossible to ignore. Besides, I like the what the Canary conjures up. They are pleasant to the eye. They sing sweetly. It is easy to ignore the nature of this particular bird. Like all their feathered cousins, they are carnivores. Always remember that. It is just easy to forget, since we out-mass them. Predatory nature masked by size alone...

My candidate breezed through the primary with more contestants, but no real challenge in the media markets. Thusly, she built name-recognition and positives from virtually nothing to a very respectable set of numbers in post-election polls.

She is a Wealthy White Woman. Hard-earned entrepreneurial wealth brought about with her husband, wherein she ran the marketing for one of the areas largest employer’s, a health-care industry technology firm. She is the classic American-Dream success-story. Believe me, I hold no illusions that the WWW label will be painted on in bold broad brush-strokes. To add to this, she has no governmental experience. Her opponent has these credentials in mammoth proportions. Personally, NOT being a career politician is a BIG positive, but the bulk of the electorate may not be as enlightened as I… ;-)

Still, given re-districting, I believe she/we have a legitimate chance. And given the nature of incumbency, even without the added advantage the politicos managed to sneak by in the guise of ‘campaign-finance reform’, this is the last chance for perhaps a very long time.

And too be honest, his Hon. the Rev. really ticked me off. (I suppose it is a case of beware the Old-Fat-Guy(tm) scorned... ;->)

And so, I will walk and talk and work phones. I will make my voice heard in whatever way will contribute, be it spoken word or song.

For if we cannot see the opportunity and seize the day, we have no right to lament it’s passing.

Actor’s have, in various countries, methods of wishing there fellow Thespians well without invoking the ill-will of fate. I hold little thought of the benefits in this case.

If I was truly lucky, I wouldn’t have to worry so much in the first place about the damn Federales and their long arm of influence on my life. Given that self-same electorate seems unwilling or unable to envision such a perfect world…

Wish me luck…