Well damn, I guess it’s time…

Another Independent?  Well, okay then.  I hear the name of a woman who is petitioning for a spot on the ballot, just like me.  So out comes the phone and I look her up on Facebook and send a message that leads to a meeting.  We meet up and I introduce myself and start the convo.  I preface by saying, “I completely respect her choice to run.” I have to say that because that is a big reason I am running.  I asked where she was at in the process and she said she was in. So that is that. We talk for a bit more, we shake hands, and I tell her I’ll see her on the trail. Now what do I do? Well damn, I guess it’s time.

Quick explainer.  Until I discovered my new opponent it was going to be a 2-way race to November.  The other 2 candidates are both Republicans and in Kentucky we have closed primaries. That means one of those 2 would be voted on the ballot by just their party’s registered voters in May.  Until I popped up the winner would have won the general election because they would be uncontested, I do not care for uncontested elections, obviously. They are a product of the sad state of apathy towards government, especially at this level.

Anyway, I have to announce now. I pick a date, exactly 200 days until Election day November 3rd, April 17th. I now have one work week to get it all together.  I gather all my signatures sheets and verify them against the voter list I received as a candidate.  I confirm 234 out of 251, not to bad in just over a month. So that’s good. I line up my camera guy to help me shoot a video, within 4 days with no real notice. He obliged me, he’s awesome. I write out the video script. Yeah, I am a script writer now too. I come up with something I thought was pretty good, now I have to become an on-screen content creator. Yep, I'm doing that now too. We shoot on Wednesday. I am not bad in the morning video shoot but that afternoon I sucked.  Now it’s up to my guy to salvage something out of that dumpster fire.  Wednesday, I also took my petition and checkbook up to the County Clerk and made it all official. I paid my filing fee and handed over my signatures. Shit is real now.  Time to put it out there and let the world, well my world, know what I’ve gone and done.  I stayed up late Wednesday (because it wasn’t a long day already) drafting an AP style press release and put together emails to local news outlets. Thursday, noon, I send them out. I figure that's ample time to prepare for the Friday edition and confirm via a phone call to the Clerk's office. I think it’s huge story. All the media around would be drooling over getting this bombshell out there. Turns out that they didn’t think it was the same huge deal I did. Back to talking with people and learning about what I am getting into.

It is here Friday April 17th.  Nothing out of the local media about my huge news save a 2 paragraph blip on the front page of the paper that read, “Two Independents file to run for Judge/Executive” Great we are now lumped in together.  Of course no press release. Grrr.

Good news, My awesome hero video guy sends over the final edit of my video.  Not bad, not bad at all.  I watch it once because I can’t stand watching myself on video, weird. I sit on it. We  do a family picture shoot since that is what you do for campaigns, The wife was cool with this part. We change and head to the University Baseball game. All the while, trying to decide when to put this video out. 

It starts to get kinda real…

I get on the Kentucky Secretary of State website and start digging in.  I find all the necessary forms, read all the rules and regs, check out campaign finance details, and keep talking with people in the know. I am not telling many folks and trying to keep it all a bit hush-hush. My “clever” mind decides if I tell folks to kinda keep it secret, maybe tell some family and friends, that the news will slowly leak out to become water cooler conversation.  I know my town. 

I take my filed out document to the County Clerk to my File for Candidacy.  This is a doc that says you intend to attempt to run for office.  Now I have to work on my petition.  I am an Independent candidate and that means I have to gather signatures (100 in KY) of registered voters in Calloway to be placed on the ballot in November.  So more meetings with friends and colleagues and anyone I could pin down.  I was able to score some help from super cool friends/supporters and the signatures started rolling in.  I have 100 in a bit over a week, I think, “Sweet, maybe running is a good idea and I’m not crazy.”

Well now I know I am going to be on the ballot, so back to “school”.  I start talking with more people about what the job is about.  I meet with people in elected offices, employees of the local government, business leaders, and people on some of the boards around here. I can’t ask most of them to sign my petition, it’s a no-no while working.  But it’s all good because I am still meeting with others that can and do sign.  Now I have over 200 in less than a month. Rolling. 

The push started coming from those in-the-know buddies to go ahead and announce my candidacy. I say “I don’t know.  My wife is in track season so after school duties and a few nights and Saturdays with no momma around.  It’s spring on the farm, enough said on that. Not to mention the primary hasn’t been decided. I don’t know who I will be running against. Maybe wait until after all that.”  I go back to gathering signatures and they keep pushing.  Then BAM! The X-factor emerges. I hear there is ANOTHER Independent doing what I am doing.

Plans change.

The “Why?”

Why, is the question that keeps popping up early and often when I started. Ironically, it wasn’t something I have thought much about, I just knew I could.  Maybe I had already answered that to myself when I had the idea a year or so before. Maybe because I like to challenge myself. I do love a good challenge.  I didn’t feel I challenged myself enough in my earlier life and I guess I’ve been making up for these past years. Maybe because why not.  I appreciate that our lives are super short and insignificant in the grandness of time, so why not try something you want to try, do something other won’t, just why the hell not. Maybe I am a bit crazy like many people told me when I let them know I was running. I think a little crazy is a good thing, without it we get bored. Maybe it's all of those reasons, but I think what it is was something more.

Ultimately, it really was the fact that I was tired of complaining, of being frustrated that I could do anything about issues that bothered me. I knew my voice wasn’t making an impact just sitting around bitching with friends and I didn’t feel it was making an impact with my vote (when I could), so where could my voice have some affect, local government, the last bastion of government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, to quote old Honest Abe. So here I am running for a top local office and proud of it. I am standing up and taking action, making my voice heard to help my home.  I can’t fix many of the things my buddies and I complained about, but I can start somewhere, fix what I can and maybe inspire others to quit sitting and bitching, to get up and do something and let their voices be heard.

How it all began…

A couple years back I was on the tractor and had the idea I could run for office, maybe even something like Judge/Executive.  So like with most of my ideas, it stewed in my melon for a while and so I did some digging and bounced the idea of my old lady (she’s 12 years younger than me, it's our joke).  Her response, like usual, was, “Whatever, I just can keep up with you”. Then I asked a buddy who is in public office and he told me I should start with something like magistrate.  I said, “Why? If I have to campaign for something then it might as well be where I make the most impact.” Well, after that I kinda tucked it away in my mind and thought of other ideas, mainly farm stuff.

Then I watched how the race for the position was shaping up this year and, honestly, I was hoping another option would pop up, apparently in vain.  When I saw it was gonna be decided in another damn primary and that I didn’t get to vote on the position, well, it pissed me off.  So again I stewed for a few weeks and then..BAM!  On the latter part of the evening of Sunday February 22, I made one of my more interesting decisions, “I can run, hell I could maybe even win.”  

Alright, well off I go. I sit down with the wife and have a real come-to-Jesus type talk about what this all really means going forward. She supportively said, “Ok” with a hint of hesitancy.  She’s the best ever. Monday I meet with in-the-know buddies and I give them the news and they don’t think it’s a crazy idea. They say “Ok”. Wednesday, another pal, another “Ok”. Thursday, my older boys, my parents, “Ok”,”Ok”.  Friday, well, now it is officially on.

Out comes the notepads and pens. The idea takes shape, more ideas flow, it all lays out before me. Now all I have to do is figure out the how to do any of it; campaign, politicking, fundraising, speak with that many people, or worse, how to speak in front of a crowd, brrr.  You see, I know I can do the jobs of Judge/Executive. That’s the easy part, well the easier part for me.  It’s getting the job in the first place, that is the challenge.

Out comes the laptop.  The research begins. I digest everything I can. Late nights (I still have a life with a wife and kids) reading and typing, maybe a bourbon or two. The idea has become the start of a plan. I prep the necessary documents, make the important lists, crunch some numbers, hit the phone and start meeting with the people needed to make this happen. 

This thing is out of the womb and already starting to get its legs.

So begins the start of my crazy year of trying to get a job. A job most people don’t want. Haha.