Countdown 40 days Pt. A – July 4th and my 21st campaign

I put up my flag before daybreak this morning. Clouds were beginning to roll over Duluth and the forecast suggest the fireworks will be rained out tonight. I left my windows open through the little of the night that I slept and miraculously I heard no late night firecrackers. That’s a first. There are more than enough of them in our campaign with two damp presidential candidates sizzling under a non stop drizzle.

Yesterday a passel of kids across 4th Street were having a party under beautiful skies. When I emerged from the back with my weed trimmer one hailed HARRY and I waved my trimmer at him. He beckoned me and I crossed the street where Jackson asked if I wouldn’t give the group a sign. Of Course I was happy to answer his wish and we walked back to my store of them in the garage. As I left the group I told them to behave themselves and one told me I ought to behave as well. “I’m old enough not to.” I shouted back.

The two unaccounted for days of the countdown were consumed with plotting out how I will get around the vast 8th District as efficiently as possible to spread my signs and bookmarks. Yesterday I went through likely people to hit up for a fundraising mailing something I’ve always done much earlier in campaigns of less consequence. I was struck how aging of my “base” and distance from former fundraising has removed me from likely donors. I also made a discovery about a forgotten race for the Duluth School Board in between my first two protest filings against Pete Stauber in 2018 and 2020 when I only poked at the congressman from my rarely visited blog. In 2019 I filed to run against an incumbent David Kirby for the School Board having been tossed off it following the uproar of Trump’s election to the Presidency. I was the wrong gender and I had irritated some prominent females on the Duluth School Board and I was swept aside because I wasn’t a woman candidate even though no one had been a more ferocious critic of Don Trump than me.

This year I had the good sense to write such a book before I filed for Congress. But in 2019 I offered to write a book for donors but was too daunted by teh subject and so I sent them apologies. I’d forgotten this until I found the apology letter in a file for donors of that election.

Having just finished a book which contained some comments about education for this election I composed and mailed mailed the following letter to most of the 75 donors who had ordered the never written book for that 2019 school board campaign. This is it:

2024-07-04_08-55-27

And as you can see this letter answered a question I’d been wrestling with. Hadn’t I already run for public office 20 times before 2024. I could only remember filing for office 19 times. I’d completely forgotten the 2019 race for the Duluth School Board. Yes, I had run for office before this year’s 21st campaign.

About the author

Harry is a ferociously good natured eccentric in Duluth Minnesota who detests traitors dressed up as Uncle Sam. You can find somewhat better edited writings of his at the Duluth Reader "contributors." page. The URL is:

https://duluthreader.com/contributors/h/84/284-harry-welty