Hi. My name is Ron Vanselow, and I'm running for a seat on the local town board. I'm a lifelong democrat in the very red heart of a very blue state.
In this series, I'm sort of journaling the experience of both running for office in a small town, and facing (and defeating) an entrenched republican power structure.
This is me:
I'm a forty-eight year old public high school teacher who's been married to the same wonderful supportive woman for almost 28 years. Together we have raised three kids into intelligent, thoughtful adults.
(For some more on my personal background, and local political scene, see my first election diary.)
This diary will cover the petition process, fusion voting, and a bit more about the lay of the land around here, politically speaking. Plus, some new developments.
Petitions
The process for filing petitions to run for office in this part of NY is pretty straight forward. For a party designations, one needs to get at least 5% of the registered party members to sign. For Independent petitions, it's 5% of total voter enrollment.
Petition carrying is often done by party committee members. Our local Democratic committee is a pretty stagnant outfit. Because the voter enrollment is so lopsided in favor of republicans, and only a couple of Democrats have been elected to office in the past several decades, they don't seem to have the desire to put too much into their already marginal efforts.
As an example of this, I called the county Dem chair Friday (he happens to also be a town committee member, and a neighbor). I asked about GOTV efforts on election day. I was informed that the members would be hanging out 30 miles to the south in Glens Falls (like they do every election day) and would not be making phone calls because it was long distance! And of course, they weren't about to drive anyone to the polls, either.
So, knowing the general state of affairs, I decided to carry my own petitions. One added bonus being that I would have a head start on the all important face-time part of campaigning around here. So, I carried my own Democratic petitions, got more than the required number of good signatures (One only needs 18 in this town. In the neighboring town of Thurman, one only needs 7 signatures. And in Stoney Creek, only 4 are required. Not a lot of Democrats around here.), and filed in July. I circulated Independent petitions and filed for another line in August.
Two lines? What does that mean?
Fusion Voting
New York is one of two states (CT being the other, I think) where fusion voting is permitted. One can run on all the lines one can get, and then the total of all the lines is added up for the final vote tally. NY has lots of parties with automatic ballot access. Democratic, Republican, Liberal, Green, Libertarian, Independence, Right-to-life, Conservative, Working Families Party, Socialist Workers Party... I think that's most of them. One can also create an Independent party and run on that line (which I did). So, if I get 550 votes on the Dem line and 173 on the Indy line, my total would be 723. Ten years ago, when I last ran, I had the Conservative party endorsement. That party has since been taken over by knuckle-draggers, and while I could have gotten their endorsement, I didn't feel like whoring myself out like that.
But, even though I am running on two lines, I still have a distinct numbers disadvantage. 819 registered reps to 351 Dems, with about 350 `others'. But you know what? I'm going to win.
I had a talk with the 8 term republican town supervisor the other day. He told me that when he heard I was running, he assumed that I wouldn't have a chance. But, based on what he's hearing 'in the street', he now thinks I picked an ideal time to run and he thinks I might just pull it off (he's an old friend of mine and I suspect that he will vote for me, but he's also a good party member and can't overtly support the opposition). I think he's right.
Other Stuff
A couple of recent developments:
After initially thinking that they would raise local taxes by 8% this year, the town board is instead looking at a 15% increase. Bad for the town. Good for my chances.
Also, a republican businessman in town is organizing meet-and-greet events for me to introduce me to newcomers and others who might not know me well. The first event will be at the home of another prominent republican businessman. Interesting. And very cool.
Well, that's probably enough for this time. Future diaries will include more discussion of the local Democratic Party situation, signs and stickers, "Republicans for Ron", my DFA endorsement, door-to-door campaigning, and ultimately... election night.
So, stay tuned. There's lots more to come and I guarantee it's going to be an interesting and informative ride!
My first election diary