| As the man said, what a long, strange trip it's been. Only it wasn't all that long, and it wasn't so much "strange" as "interesting from top to bottom, exhausting, and incredibly fulfilling".
This past Tuesday, my name appeared on the ballot in a special election for a vacant seat on the Minnetonka City Council. There is exactly one part of the entire experience in which I am disappointed: I didn't win. I lost by a pretty big margin -- among five candidates who had resources and were making efforts to gather support, I came in a fairly distant fourth. Congratulations are due to Patty Acomb, who ran a great race and will soon take her place on the City Council!
I'm going to do some more blogging on these items, because of how incredibly interesting it was to see the process from a new angle, but herein are some of my initial thoughts on the challenges and achievements we experienced during the race: |
Challenges:
- Establishment Support: In a city like Minnetonka, in the middle of February, in a special election, establishment support was key. The Mayor, several former Mayors, and almost everyone with a committee or board position at City Hall went with the candidate they knew to be a solid worker, a team player, and an engaged citizen. Without a built-in base of support, building up a winning vote total in three months is a tall order indeed
- Gender Politics: Going into this race, there were six men on the City Council, one open seat, and zero women. This presented a challenge, because a not-insignificant number of folks saw that state of affairs and decided that they were going to vote for a female candidate no matter what. This may come as a surprise, but I am not a female candidate, and there were two other viable choices in that demographic
- Campaign Experience Matters: Peggy Kvam appeared on the ballot along with me, having already run a race for the Ward 1 seat against incumbent Bob Ellingson last fall. The timing of this special election meant that Peggy essentially campaigned continuously from last Spring until Tuesday, which meant she already had a base of voter support, lawn signs, literature, and experience doorknocking and talking to voters. As with the above item, without those factors, building up a base of support in voters, volunteers, and dollars in three months is a significant roadblock. Peggy ended up coming in a close third to Patty Acomb and John Knight. Which brings us to my next point...
- Does Minnetonka even have a partisan split?: If you watch the League of Women Voters forum (I'll find a link somewhere), it's fairly clear who's who and what despite the non-partisan nature of the race: four nominal DFLers, and one Republican. And that's fine -- I can honestly say I got a great first impression of all the candidates I hadn't met previously, and am looking forward to getting together for a beer and a casual debriefing. But that one Republican, Mr. Knight, was the only candidate to appear before the GOP precinct caucuses on Feb. 7th, and based on what I heard at doors, likely got the vast majority of votes from folks who went in looking for a Republican to vote for.
The other two leading candidates, Patty Acomb and Peggy Kvam, certainly got votes from some who might identify as Republicans, but racked up a much larger number of votes from self-identified DFLers. The "probably DFL" vote in this special election absolutely blew the "probably GOP" vote out of the water. A deep-red suburb Minnetonka ain't. If anything, it must be said that Minnetonkans generally care a lot more about the community, our quality of life, and how city policies support those things than they do about the letter a candidate would put after their name if we did that sort of thing.
Despite these challenges, I truly am proud of what we were able to do in a very short period of time. We put together a small, committed group of volunteers to help me get the campaign up and running, we raised enough money to execute our plans, we were able to make thousands of phone calls, dropped thousands of pieces of literature across town, sent targeted mail, and got lawn signs out in great locations for visibility.
But of one thing I am most proud: that we gave people a reason to care about this election. Over at my campaign site I posted numerous messages from folks who emailed with questions, got a response they liked, and decided to support me. Some might not have voted had it not been for that communication, and it gives me a deep sense of pride to know that even a few neighbors saw something they liked about my candidacy, my platform, and my campaign, and cared enough about out community to go out and vote because of it. |
