The ten days of my father-in-law’s visit are over. We took him to the Twin Cities to meet his son where Dad will continue his travels. He’s been housebound in Florida for many years taking care of his recently departed wife who was in failing health. It had been sixteen years since his last visit so I felt duty bound to put my campaign on the back burner. I didn’t completely abandon my quest and Dad was gracious enough to pitch in and help me with The Spirit Valley Days Parade when I got the idea to participate 48 hours before it began.
Dad’s stay was not a time of complete indolence for me. I did a little blogging although my time to catch up on the news was much more limited. More importantly I used the last week and a half to ruminate on how this campaign could grow so that I could start being taken seriously.
My gut instinct tells me that even if I didn’t campaign anymore I’d pick up at least 15% of the vote. Floyd Henspetter and I split 10% in 1992 when the public was out of sorts about politics but not particularly focused on Congress. This year the Congress is in everyone’s sights and I won’t have to split the vote with any other third party candidate.
Although my name is unknown to the major Minnesota Pundits in the Twin Cities, my eight years on the Duluth School Board and other attention-getting activities of mine make me one of the best known personalities in the largest city in the Eighth District. In addition, my campaign website is the only substantive website among the three candididates and I doubt that either Grams or Oberstar will attempt to put anything of consequence on their websites. Certainly they will not bother to write anything themselves but are likely to have hired pros to put some bland nostrums up for the public to yawn at. Oh, and Grams’s site is finally up. Take a look.
I’m not a standard-issue politician and I suspect that any visitor to my website will quickly conclude that of the three candidates only I would be likely to shake up a dithering Congress. I believe voters take pride in sending people to Congress who will make a difference. If they send Oberstar they’ll get pork our children can’t afford and if they send Grams they’ll get a guy who’s promising not to do what he spent eight years doing in Washington the first time he was there – be a Republican claque.
If I can present this choice and these likely outcomes to at least 75% of the voters(about the number who have internet access) I will do far better than 15%. This little holiday has given me time to think about how to accomplish this. The parade simply confirmed what I already suspected – that a lot of people in Duluth like me. Will they vote for me or would they prefer a 32-year back bencher or a has-been who tried to remove a President of the United States for dubious reasons?
I’m not the sharpest pencil in the box but I know how I’d vote.
