I had to run or I had to shut up.

[John N Morgan]

Since nobody and I mean nobody was going to run. I filed. And, I have walked and talked and drove till I'm tired.

I just want to make the point that we cannot complain about Republican controlled state legislatures unless there is at least a choice on the ballot.

So, I did this, because I am a Dean Democrat and I cannot allow a Republican winger to go unopposed.

How is it in your district?

What you may not know is that the election is over in May or June if a candidate doesn't qualify for the ballot. I didn't think raising 1200 signatures or $1781.82 would be a big deal. But my district would rather have no choice that give up $10.

There have been a few good people and I really appreciate the support. But unless I win some small jackpot, the election is over. I will not spend my own money to qualify. That is a rule I made to myself.

Now this isn't about me. I'll bet there are local races in your area that need your attention. I know the oil is leaking, but the political world is not going to stop.

Get out there. Come November 2nd have done something to help your state.

[Kalyke]

1. Not sure where you live, but where I live, I couldn't find gainful

employment if I ran on any ticket as a Democrat.

But, GOOD FOR YOU!

:thumbsup:

[John N Morgan]

3. I know there are situations like that. So if somebody does run get behind them.

[Kalyke]

13. Awww... you're adorable!

And, I do get behind those Dems who run and run honestly.

I happen to live in a little enclave of Democrats in my community, but my county, as a whole (which means most of the employers), is very Republican.

[Mojeoux]

20. Hi John, I went to your link

and told them to give you respect.

You are inspiring to everyone here.

[sandnsea]

2. THANK YOU!!

I can't send enough good will and wishes your way.

:applause: :applause: :applause:

I'll sign up at your web site and try to keep in touch. We can phone bank from anywhere.

[John N Morgan]

5. That is the nicest offer. I'll be looking for you. Thanks.

[sandnsea]

6. I don't see an email list

Where do I sign up? I used a really good free program for the school levy last year. If you don't have an email program I'll try to find it for you to download. Helderheid, I think, has some campaign software she developed, I don't know what it does exactly. Saracat's husband ran for office, someone from Florida too, I forget the name right off. But there's lots of folks who can give pointers. What a brave thing to do!

[SwampG8r]

14. im sitting here and reading these posts

and im seeing something pretty amazing
i wonder how many of us have little dribs and drabs of stuff that properly channeled could be turned into a powerful tool at election time


i just found the general discussion and lounge areas recently and i wonder
does skinner have a forum set up for people running for office so we can network for them?
if not how do we get one going

[sandnsea]

19. Hmmmm...

We used to have a section called "Campaign YEAR" and it had all the candidates and media outlets so people could just hit one button and send letters. YEAR being 2004, 2006, etc. I know there's the DU Activist, which is only activated on occasion.

It's easy enough to start a group. You just post your idea, get ten like-minded souls, and you're off. The trick is to get people to participate. But I think we need something more than that. Some kind of open source place where all of these campaign tools could be stored, people who have expertise in various areas, stuff like that.

[SwampG8r]

21. you are going more toward

where i was thinking as a sharing thing

[sandnsea]

22. Here's Campaign Underground 2006

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x1624

Although this is more just archival data because I remember there being more graphics to it. Elad is the one who does this kind of stuff, you could PM him and see if he's had any ideas to do anything like this.

[SwampG8r]

24. i probably will PM

him but i bet he is already 3 steps ahead of me

[WeDidIt]

4. Been there, done that

Will always do it when I discover Republicans running unopposed.

It's immoral to allow ANY Republican to run unopposed.

[TexasObserver]

7. People will want to know where you come down on important issues.

Good luck in your race.

[John N Morgan]

9. Ballot qualification merely creates the choice in November. A person could still vote against me.

[Tsiyu]

39. Yes, i am interested to know where you stand on a woman's right to

choose...just for the record.... So people can be sure they are donating to a ProChoice candidate.

And no, I won't click on any links. Just state your position, if you are able.

I think you know why some might be curious.

[The Damned]

15. K&R

You'll need it in this fucking climate!

[tavalon]

8. Kicked for the Floridians

Come on guys!

[John N Morgan]

11. Yes! And thank goodness for AZ for making us look sooo good.

[tavalon]

17. Yeah, I grew up in Florida and then moved to Texas

It took me most of my life but I finally got away!

[Arctic Dave]

10. My wife is filing and getting a team together right now for our district.

Good luck to you my friend.

[John N Morgan]

12. Do you know when she will need to be qualified for the ballot? In FL it's May (june).

No qualification, no ballot slot. End of story.

In FL it's easy to file. Just declare your campaign treasurer (self) and the bank you'll be depositing the donations in, and sign that you understand you can go to jail for messing up the money. Easy.

[Arctic Dave]

18. Up here you file a letter of intent with APOC and it off to the races.

Things don't really get going until June. She is heading down to Sitka in two weeks for the Democratic Convention were she will formally anounce.

[onestepforward]

16. You are awesome!

I bookmarked your website. Best wishes to you!

[Missy Vixen]

23. I'm a former city councilperson

Let's put it this way: Those who refuse to stick their necks out and run for ANYTHING deserve the government they get.

I was appointed. I served. I ran. I lost. I don't know if I'll serve again, but once you've had the experience, you will look at government in a whole new way.

Good luck.
-MV

[Hardrada]

25. I ran for state rep since the repug was unopposed. I won the

Dem primary but lost the general but the GOP candidate had to do a lot of actual work to win that one and was not pleased it wasn't the cakewalk he'd been expecting. Never make it easy for them.

[Sherman A1]

27. I was appointed to our Municipality's Park Advisory Board last year

and served for a couple of months before quitting in frustration. It was just a complete waste of time, go to meetings discuss new ideas and have the Mayor & Parks Director come up with various reasons to tell you that they could not be done. Even when the programs suggested were completely free and would not have cost the city a dime.

The best one was being told that we could not have an after school board game program because our city was just too big for it. We were not too big for after school use of the basketball court in the Civic Center, but we were too big for kids to play boardgames and chess.

[Hardrada]

35. I had better luck when I was appointed to the Board

of our county Historical Society. I served three years and helped turn our museum back into a historical museum rather than the old doll show a conceited former curator had turned it into. Also helped vote in internet and photo scanners. A later curator was OK but a bit too fussy and whiny so I did not sign up for another term.

[Sherman A1]

44. Mine was a 3 ring circus of

The Park Board President complaining that the Park Director ignored the Park Board (which granted was an advisory board), but she sure wasn't willing to move meeting locations to other park facilities (which we could legally do) in order to be sure that she got her "free" Pepsi every meeting & had her name plate on the conference table during our time there. She loved my first 4 proposals for everything from a city wide photography contest to be sponsored by the area merchants, an after school game program that required nothing more than tables & chairs at our civic center, movies in the park and a speaker program to cover topics of local interest & importance (like ID theft, fire safety, some authors as we could get them, etc), but when the Park Director stated we couldn't do them (even if they were Free or at minimal costs), I pretty much found out that our Park Board was nothing more than a complain-a-thon and window dressing, so i called it a day.

[hlthe2b]

26. I have several friends who have run for office in their locales

All had to tap into their own savings, before getting any kind of support. Like you, that is something I would not be ABLE to do.

As to those who are close to me who ran, I fear that all were unsucessful. But, that doesn't mean they either quit trying or dropped out of politics, fortunately.

[DeeDeeNY]

28. K & R

[SidDithers]

29. Much better than the post you made last night...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8235518

Sid

[JNelson6563]

32. How to win friends and influence people.

He's doin' it wrong.

[Tsiyu]

50. My sentiments exactimente

When an issue is being discussed, it's bad form to make it solely about yourself. To redirect a conversation back to your issue raising campaign funds is absolutely, stunningly crass and a bit too dismissive. Of whom I will decline to opine.

My dos centavos.

[roody]

30. just donated

[John N Morgan]

34. Thank you .. that keeps me walking.

[JNelson6563]

31. Get some volunteers to help you.

You claim the local party board is against you but the base loves you. why aren't you recruiting them to help with signatures? I've done it many times, worked with campaigns, getting signatures is really easy.

Julie

[mistertrickster]

33. Well done, John. My job precludes me from running for state rep, but I will when I can. nt

[KittyWampus]

36. When do you need the signatures by?

[bc3000]

37. In my district, south of yours, democratic candidates are annointed by the party.

Y'all get no candidate, we get no choice.

I'm glad you stepped up. You may be fighting an uphill battle now, but if you stick with it you are sowing the seeds by getting your name out there.

[madmom]

38. We have a young man running here locally because a repug was running unopposed..we

are giving him as much support as possible...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000144050432&ref=name#!/pages/Caleb-for-Congress/311864732554?ref=ts

[Dappleganger]

40. OMG, GO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU for trying to help give this state some much-needed progressive sunshine!!

I'll be anxiously following your campaign, and if you want I'll be happy to 'tweet' your site from time to time. Make sure you create a Facebook Page so that all of my 2,000 friends can see who I follow.

Good luck!!

:toast:

[Crystal Clarity]

41. What about Florida State Dem. $

Are they helping you at all? If not why?

Have you tapped into your local/county Dem. committee(s)?

How about State and Local Unions?

Have your gone to your State's Elections Commission for a copy of registered lobbyists in your State? If you are unopposed for the Primary, lobbying firms are an excellent source of $$$. (they, along with the other mentioned sources can be reluctant to get involved in funding a primary candidate) Yes, I realize that that may sound repugnant but you can be sure that your opponent (provided you get on the ballot) will use his/her share of lobbyist funds.

If you do your best to get the necessary qualification funds from these sources, you'll find it much easier to get your required signatures... you and your campaign will be able to focus solely on that.

BTW- Why the h*** do they make you come up with ballot qualification funds anyway? Unless it's for Clean Election Public Funding?... If this is not some sort of Public Funding Qualification, it should cost $0 to get on the ballot IMO.

PM me if you would like more advice.

[Dr.Phool]

45. The Florida State Democratic Party is completely disfunctional.

This year they're planning on spending all of their money on Alex Sink in the Governors race.

They'll spend millions on a crony's losing state senate race, and ignore everyone else. And a couple of years ago, Karen Thurman dumped something to the tune of $60k for her son to get thoroughly trounced in a statehouse race.

[Crystal Clarity]

47. Wow

You guys really need Clean Elections. It works great and would put an end to cronyism (among other outrageous things)

[Usrename]

42. Godspeed to ya John!

:patriot:

I wasn't quite sure where FL 82 was so I took a look-see. Seems to be some serious gerrymandering going on between 81 and 82. Thanks for getting involved.

[John N Morgan]

52. Gerrymandering? Oh ,yeah!! we have 2 Fair Districts amendments on the ballot that will help

if passed.

[theFrankFactor]

43. Good on you John! Excellent! Sorry your dist. was so messed up.

[Dr.Phool]

46. Where is your district located?

I know lots of Dems around the state. Maybe some to help in your area.

You need to park a couple of volunteers outside a DMV office and get some signatures. I've gotten up to 200 signed on some days. You'll need about 1500 to account for spoilage.

[bertman]

48. You never answered Tsiyu's question about a woman's right to choose. Do you support

a woman's right to choose or not? Easy question to answer. I'm waiting because I will NOT send a dime to anyone who further restricts a woman's right to choose what she does or does not do with her own body.

[Tsiyu]

51. Thank you bertman

He sure didn't seem so supportive last night, did he?


:hug:

[Canuckistanian]

49. You're a true Democrat, John

Fighting for those who cannot fight.

But it seems your "organization" is not composed of Democrats like yourself.

I'm glad to see people like you fighting for real democratic principles. And I mean both large AND small 'D' democrats.

[roody]

53. k