The end of the beginning of my campaign

Everything is in place for me to start campaigning seriously. Its meant a lot of running around but that pretty much comes to and end now.

I’ve got a new lawnsign designed and ready to order. I hate having to put up fallen signs and replacing stolen ones so there is no great hurry. If they show up five or six weeks before the general election that will be plenty of time. 500 will cost just under $1,000 and I’ve drawn the line at financing them myself. If the money doesn’t come in then they weren’t meant to be.

I have put in $800 as of today. I had spent $400 on a cell phone for my phone bank and a first printing of 1,800 fundraising letters. Today I put in another $400 for the postage. I’m treating the majority of this as a loan although it will only be a loan if too little comes in from donations. I’m not very worried about this.

This will require me to file a report with the School District soon because one is due a week or so after any local campaign raises or spends $750. The reports are very simple. Compared to a Congressional campaign spending report it like a math exercise. Even legislative campaign reports are a bit of a hassle.

My fundraising letter consists largely of the op ed piece I sent to the Duluth News Tribune. Its already prompted some very enthusiastic phone calls and a call from Loren Martell who I endorsed. I’d tried to give Loren a heads up by sending him an email. When he’d called he still hadn’t read it himself but was acting on a tip from someone else. That person had also told him they thought my op ed piece suggested I was about to throw in the towel. Au contraire, I plan on smoking the field in November.

I’ve not heard from the DFT about who they endorsed. Apparently not me. Big surprise. The DFT has done a masterful job over the past couple of decades endorsing rubber stampers who have let the School District down badly right up to the Red Plan’s near destruction of the teacher corps. There are 188 fewer DFT members today thanks to the timid foolishness of the union leadership.

I told them I was their teacher’s best hope. I mean to prove it.

About the author