Hi All,
If you don’t know or haven’t guessed I lost the election for a seat on the Troy (Michigan) City Council. I now know why people suggest writing your “concession speech” before the election is over. Losing an election is depressing enough as it is and writing / talking about losing (even 6 months afterwards) is hard. Writing about it right after wards was a bit too hard for me apparently. I had also put into the election as much as I possibly could and so I was mentally and physically exhausted afterwards.
Running for office is the toughest personal endeavor I have ever undertaken. As a rehash my city has 80,00 people, 56,000 who were registered. About 14,700 people voted in the election. There were 3 spots on the Council up for election. The winners of those spots were Doug Tietz (not a candidate I supported) , Dave Henderson (not a candidate I supported), and a candidate I did support, Jim Campbell. The winner of the mayoral election was a local Tea Party activist named Janice Daniels.
When I saw that Mayor Daniels had won, I knew this election results was shaped by a backlash from the library millage. From the beginning I would have thought my election prospects dim in an election which the electorate chose her over a well qualified person at the time already on the City Council named Robin Beltramini. This showed the nature of the anti-incumbency mood, which likely hurt me a little bit, as I was distributing Robin’s literature along with mine.
Due to “statements Daniels made about homosexuality before and after she took office, perceived disregard of the city charter and City Council protocol, and her vote against the city’s transit center”, mayor Daniels will likely face a recall this November.”
This past election was close. If I had earned 1,500 more votes, or 3,6% of the total I would have won. On its own it’s not bad, especially if you consider the other 2 candidates who had not appeared on a city wide ballot before combined got less votes than I did.
It is even better when you consider I was also hit the hardest in the negative campaign ads by the local right wing extremists. The politicized a personal family tragedy. When they hit me, quite a few supporters were clearly uncomfortable with my marijuana reform activism. My opponents still think medical marijuana is a bad idea and most of them think that prison is a good way to deal with users of marijuana. They think my work to reform marijuana laws makes me unsuitable for office.
I believe not only that jail is a bad way to deal with with people who use marijuana but that we can better protect our young people and society from the undeniable negative effects that marijuana has on some people by legalizing Marijuana and regulating it. Reasonable people can disagree on what the best policy is, but most it seems clear to me from the book called the New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander that Marijuana Laws are essentially a tool by social conservatives to use fear for political advantage. It has been terribly successful historically, as it plays on the darkest elements of humanity. While my opponents claims this means I have questionable family values, I believe it is actually a testament to my family values and my commitment to my principles that I fight a battle I believe is right despite the unjust political wrath of social conservatives.
The reality is that Marijuana laws were not at the center of this campaign, but these right wing extremists tried and are still trying to impugn my character based on my advocacy against the failed Drug War. I tended to shy away from my advocacy for Marijuana reform during the campaign, something I now regret. At the time I was trying to keep together a fragile unofficial electoral slate of 2 Republicans, and 2 Democrats working in a non partisan fashion for the good of the city. In the end my opponents failed to capitalize on the issue. Indeed I it may have even helped me a bit, it is hard to say for sure.
I learned so very much from the process, and there were a lot of moral victories along the way. Clearly one of my favorite moments was being Boing Boined-ed. The happy mutant community was so very generous. I want to thank you all for the moral and financial support. You all should have received a hand written thank you note by now, if you donated to my campaign. If not I politely ask that you send me an email at neil{at}voteneil[dot]org, so I can thank you appropriately. It was really important for me to properly appreciate those who my efforts possible.
While the short term result was not what we had hoped for, I am optimistic about our ability to use this experience to enable our long term success in all sorts of endeavors. If any happy mutants would like some campaign advice feel free to shoot me an email.
While I was outspent, I believe my single biggest reason for losing was not enough time knocking on doors. I believe if I would have done that for 100 hours, instead of the 65 or 70, I would have made it. In addition to the 1500 or so doors I knocked on, I also called about 2000 people in the last week of the election in an effort to get out the vote.
The reality of the situation was that because my primary concern was winning the second library millage election, until about 100 days before hand I had a very shortened time frame to campaign. I was also working full time, helping raise 3 kids, coaching my 8 year old’s soccer team. I essentially devoted every weekend from 11 am to 6 pm for 4 months to knocking on doors. At times it can be a very unpleasant task, with people slamming their door in your face simply for running for an elected office.
Just after that though, you can meet an amazing public school teacher who completely gets what you are trying to do, and why you are trying to do it. I was so humbled when she offered $20 in support of my campaign, knowing she had recently taken a pay cut, but she recognized the importance of standing up for what you believe in and wanted to put her money where her mouth was, since I was standing up for what I believed in.
The best thing about running for office, despite the odds being against me was that I was an example to my kids that you need to stand up for what you believe in. You may not win, but you will never win if you don’t try. So I encourage you all to get more involved in the political process. There are all sorts of courageous examples across the democratic and non democratic worlds. You can make a difference, especially if you are in it for the long haul. You will be amazed at what you can get done if you sit through a few un-enteraining meetings for the sake of humanity. Thanks again for all your support!