Okay, so I'm walking through my district

[SheilaT]

(because I'm running for the Kansas State House) and you need to know that my district is very heavily Republican. Last time a Democrat bothered to run was in 1998 and he was creamed.

But I may actually have a chance. I'd say right around 20 percent of the people I speak with are clearly not going to vote for me because they're "conservative" which around here means far right. But for every one of those, there's at least one who will absolutely not vote for any Republican this year.

It's especially easy in my immediate neighborhood where people know me, but even in other parts of my district I mostly get a positive response.

Of course, it helps that the two Republicans running (the primary is August 3rd) seems to be walking the district trying to get votes. Probably a third to a half of the people are pleased that I'm going door to door. About the only problem I see is that I won't be able to knock on the same doors again later on in the election season, but hopefully they'll remember me. Especially if I can do a couple or four mailings to them.

[Cha]

1. Good on ya, Sheila! Does Democracy For America

know about you and your running for State House in Kansas?

[SheilaT]

5. I'm working on getting my information to them.

I got a very late start in this race. When the Democratic Party called me three days before the filing deadline and asked me to please consider running, I said yes.

What I have going for me is my willingness to walk and meet people, which I'm not sure either of the Republicans will do, and the fact that the Democratic party this year is doing a lot of training and support for us candidates.

I will post from time to time as to how I'm doing.

A lot depends on the primary results. If the right wing challenger wins, I'll almost certainly win, because the moderate Republicans for the most part will turn to me. If the incumbent (who truly is a good guy Republican) wins, it's far less likely to go my way. But again, even he'll lose votes he ought to get because of the people who simply won't vote for a Republican this year.

[kimchi]

2. Great job, Sheila!

My ex mother in law won that way; going to every house in her district. It is a rare thing these days, and you WILL be remembered. Keep on keepin' on!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Thank you for running, and the best of luck!

:-)

[rumguy]

4. Great job and good luck!

Keep us posted....

[sandnsea]

6. Cool!

I wonder, if you said something like "I just couldn't have run as a Republican because..." And then give them one of the Bush lies about anything; prescription drugs, medicare budget, torture called frat pranks, anything that would "resonate". (I'm hating that word)

Leaves people with the suggestion you're not against Republicans, specifically. You're not really saying you were ever a Republican or would ever be one, just that you couldn't run as one because of a variety of reasons, which is the literal truth.

[SheilaT]

7. The truth would be

I couldn't run as a Republican because I've been a Democrat all my life. And since the incumbent is a good guy Republican, it would make no sense to oppose him in the primary.

The time to have become a Republican and run for this seat would have been two years ago when the right-wing nut case one term incumbent (someone I knew personally, by the way, as we both had kids in the local elementary school a while back) needed defeating. That was when the current incumbent came out of retirement to defeat her -- he'd been in the state legislature 15 or 20 years ago.

What I am saying sometimes is that I want to reach out to moderate Republicans to build a coalition to get things done. What matters here in Kansas is school funding. In fact, the top three issues are school funding, school funding, and school funding. I'm not kidding. The legislature failed to pass a school funding bill this session, causing a judge to order the state not to fund any schools at all after June 30, and correct gross inequities across the state. That order was stayed, the state supreme court will look at this case next month, and who knows what will happen then. It's possible the legislature will be called back to deal with it, or, more likely, the new legislature will deal with this issue.

Yesterday, one woman on hearing I'm a Democrat (my party affiliation is not on my walking card) was thrilled, and asked me what I thought of the war. So I told her.

Anyway, if asked about the national issues, I will of course respond honestly, but most people understand that at the state level I won't have anything to do with them.

All this is a tremendous learning experience.