It used to be that I didn’t think about running for Congress because I’ve led an unconventional life that doesn’t fit the profile of an officeholder. I also thought I’d never be able to raise the money even if I wanted to, which I didn’t. Finally, I’m terrible with names and basically too introverted to be good at going around and building support for a campaign.
Trump blew up the idea that you can’t have an unconventional life or a record of intemperate Tweets. And I’m not so sure I couldn’t raise the money I’d need.
But I’m still too introverted.
So, unless there’s some kind of massive #DraftBooman movement, I won’t be taking advantage of the DCCC’s decision to start early organizing in my PA-06 district.
I do get the feeling more often these days, though, that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
#DraftBooman
I ran for State Senate in my fly-over state in 2012, and communicated with you, Booman, on this issue.
I encourage you to consider it carefully. In PA, State Senate is probably an expensive seat to run for first time – I spent about $4500, mostly out of my own pocket.
I was not successful:
I learned a lot about politics, however.
Find others who have run. Talk to your local D pols. Run for something achievable. Possibly city council, possibly library board, county board. Had I a better platform my results might have been better.
Something has shifted in this country. A friend from Tuscon, a Turkish ex-pat who was very well connected there, had spent time in political prison and was once friends with Erdoğan and his contemporaries (before they became corrupt), is moving to New Jersey to run for congress. He’s actually resettling near Princeton.
I was struck by why this man, of all people, an attorney, an intellectual who still publishes books in Turkish and whose life is in danger — very much if he returns to Turkey and even potentially on this side of the world — would set out to become a politician.
It is the desperate state of our politics. He’s a very capable man who believes he might have something to offer, and he’s gotten tired of waiting for others to do it for him.
“He’s a very capable man who believes he might have something to offer”
He should run, we need his type.
.
You should fucking do it.
Sounds like a good opening statement for your candidacy. People might respond favorably to the refreshing candor and anti-typical pol quality of your profile. Many of us are sick of the highly polished, slick personality types who run for office having never done anything that wasn’t politically safe.
In the meantime, why not venture out a bit into electronic media — I never see you (or anyone from WashMo) on the telly, no radio or podcast appearances that I’ve come across, and a YT search recently turned up nothing on you.
Probably help if I even knew what a YT search is.
Youtube.
yeah, I’ve done quite a bit of radio but no television and only a couple of podcasts.
Well, I’d like to hear some of them but don’t know where to look. So far however, you exist for me only in print form, which is fine enough, but not entirely satisfying. Ditto for a few of your colleagues at WashMo.
You can train yourself to be less introverted. But I’d definitely start locally if I were you. We ignore the minor leagues too often when you need them to build a good show team.
Problem there is that our State Senator is a competent and well-liked Democrat with seniority and out State Rep is an extremely popular Republican who would be harder to beat than Rep. Ryan Costello.
Excellent points all. RFK, to take a famous example, was rather introverted and had to force himself to go out into the public and get better; he did. And even Al Gore, coming from another famous political family, apparently was never good at remembering names.
Jerry Brown, current CA gov in his fourth term overall, from still another famous Dem political family, started out on the LA School Bd, if dim memory serves.
Booman, to polish the apple a bit, has the political knowledge, the intelligence and some experience, as well as the passion and the (relative) youth factor going for him. That’s quite a lot and more than adequate for offering himself Congress or local/state office.
I would do it myself except I’m much older and much more prone to blurt out something in public I shouldn’t — probably to do with overpopulation, religion, immigration, or gun-toting ignorant nut jobs.
Do it!
You should do it, BooMan.
Do it. It would be nice to have something positive to work on.
#DraftBooman
Campaign in jeans. Be you. Authenticity is a rare commodity.
Go Martin!
It’s a tough district to win, but if anyone can tailor a message and a winning campaign there, I think it would be you. Believe in yourself. I’ll donate money and time.
Hope you decide to.
I would seriously donate more coin that I can. I’d empty the coffers.
Hold me to this.
Damn right, #draftbooman! And you should totally run AS booman.
My husband spent countless hours and a lot of money trying to help a friend run against Boehner in 2004. His friend was an unknown, a smart and dedicated Dem who threw everything he had into the race.
Of course he didn’t win. He had no name recognition and very little money. He garnered 29% of the vote.
If you have to be persuaded to run, you won’t stand a chance. You’re smart, very well educated and you have connections in politics. But you have to open your life to endless scrutiny and maintain a relentless schedule. People who run for office at any level do so because they are committed a hundred percent and know the sacrifices will be immense.
I’m not saying you wouldn’t be brilliant at it, but you can’t harbor any doubts. It’s all or nothing, and no guarantees.
Yep. 100% of what I found when I ran. My district is smaller than Boehner’s obviously (I live in Flyover country). Every afternoon, from 3-6, I knocked on doors. I must have knocked on 1500-2000. My daughter drove me around.
I did not knock on every door, but on many. I talked to a lot of people.
It requires a big committment. I did it out of pocket. If you need more than $5000, you need contributors. Can you line up folks who will pay money to see you spend it on politics?
I think you should do it Bernie-style. Long-form conversations. Educate the public. This can be done on a shoe-string and wouldn’t tether you to a phone. (Which I think that you would hate.)
Website, meet-the-candidate events.
Lots of people are now extremely engaged. Hundreds, not the usual tens are showing up at events all over Philadelphia.
Also, take a look at what my new state rep (aka AfroNetizen) just did. He crushed his primary opponent against all odds. Great social media and word of mouth campaign. Most humble campaigner I’ve ever met. Insanely humane.
I tried to run for Congress back in 2010. I didn’t have much money and my family and friends were not in much better position.
That’s the reality a lot of times is if you don’t have the money or the network to tap it’s almost impossible to win at that level. It’s better to start lower but like you said those people are fairly solid in your district.
You can check state law, you don’t always have to live in the district you represent. Each state seems to be different.
Congrats to Booman for being mentioned by name in a cite and not unfavorably, by Bill Moyers no less at Consortiumnews.com, for Mr Longman’s recent post at WashMo about Trump
I keep reading about how the Republican offices are being inundated with complaints about what they and Trump are doing. What better time would there be than when people are awake, aware, and aghast at the current situation?
Talking to a black friend today who voted for the first time at age 43 for Obama in 2008 and then 2012 and for Hillary in 2016. She said those 20 years before when she could have been voting, her mama would try to get her to come in and vote and she would stay in the car – it had nothing to do with her, she thought. She’s vowed, after Trump, to always vote from now on.
As someone else said, something is going on and we can lead, follow or stand still and get run over, but doing nothing is no longer an option. My moniker indicates where I am.
Organize the 175,000 you need; then let them pick the candidate with a warning to keep checking with the folks back home. Win without big donors so one person does not control the elected officials views but the actual consensus of at least 175,000.
No figure out how the organization and grassroots communications can do that with that number of people.
If you succeed, the candidate will seem to win coming out of nowhere.
I don’t think the GOP’s hesitancy is due to fear of Trump, because in truth they could get rid of him tomorrow if they wanted to. Their hesitancy is due to the fact that, while he is doing great harm (even to them), he is also a big help to them. A lot of his agenda is an extreme version of their own. Not the overt racism, the anti-Muslim crusade, the really crazy stuff you’re talking about, but the other stuff which is just as crazy, but more “acceptable” — most of his cabinet, the anti-environmental agenda, the job creation (actually the two are closely related), the deregulation, the lowering of taxes for the rich, the repeal of Obamacare (though it’s probably not feasible even for these maniacs) etc. And there’s a good reason for this — it’s the part of his agenda that they put in, but he has the popular support to implement. Whereas Pence, who was not even elected and doesn’t have the same kind of base, might not.
The GOP want him in as long as needed to get that agenda up and running, and once it is they will be more than happy to get rid of him. The thing is, what’s the cutoff point? I don’t know, and I doubt they know either, because the longer they can keep him in the more they benefit, but they also know things are getting more and more dangerous (even for them, politically speaking). I’m trying to think of a metaphor for this, maybe burning the candle at both ends is it. At some point your going to have to drop ithat candle, but you want to hold onto it as long as possible.
Nuts, I put this on the wrong thread. Will put it on the right one.
I got a kick out of reading your comment about being an introvert Booman. I studied Jungian psychology for about five years straight, even traveling to Zurich, Switzerland at the Jungian Institute for summer intensives. My speciality was introversion/extroversion which Jung coined the phrase for and the Stanford Binet Test is based on. From reading the comments on this blog, I’m convinced most of its members are introverts. Which is to say, if ever there was a meet up like the army of Dailykos extroverts hosts each year, it would be soft spoken, pensive discussion until the booze flowed, or until members resorted to hauling out their Smart Phones and Pads, and began communicating with people across the table that way.
to that assessment.
I’d make contributions to your campaign.
You’ll decide what is the best decision for you, your family, and CD 6.
I’d contribute.