Don’t worry, I promise I’m not asking for donations. I’m not even going to include a link to my ActBlue page.
Thanks in large part to the Daily Kos community, I’ve raised over $12,000 for my long shot County Commissioner race here in Mitt Romney’s hometown, the heavily Republican area of Bloomfield Hills/Bloomfield Township/Birmingham, Michigan.
243 individuals have donated an average of about $50 apiece. My final lit piece is being printed up this week and should be sent out by this weekend (Oh, by the way...I decided not to go with the heavy-duty “Trump” piece, but instead simply threw in my opponent’s support of Trump as an extra bullet point in my normal “bio/issues” piece).
I’m reserving a few hundred bucks for a Facebook campaign and some incidentals (including additional thank you cards...some of you might not have received one yet because I ran out a few weeks ago!)
I’ve knocked on about 2,000 doors (which might sound impressive except that there’s about 22,000 households in the district) and will have sent out over 20,000 lit pieces when it’s all said and done. There’s about 100 lawn signs with my name plastered across it scattered around the district. I’ll continue door-knocking right up until the 8th.
So, what are my odds of pulling this off?
Honestly...not great. Any other year this would be a pure symbolic run, with perhaps a 1% chance of winning (and that would be based on the possibility of a major scandal/health issue with my opponent).
This year? With the Trump effect (and my running a reasonably “real” campaign)? I’d put my odds at perhaps 10% or so...15% if Trump’s support completely collapses in these final two weeks.
What’s amazing is that my chances would probably have stayed under 5% if my opponent, Shelley Taub, hadn’t insisted on not only endorsing Donald Trump back in June, but on sticking with him even today. So be it. It’s a crazy year, anything can happen and all that.
Anyway, before things get too crazy as we enter the final countdown, I just wanted to say “thank you” to everyone here at dKos who’s been so supportive of both my current campaign as well as, of course, the ACA Signups project.
(Oh, by the way...I sort of half-lied: I’m not asking for any further donations for my own race, but there are four other candidates—all women, I should note—who I’m supporting and who deserve a few bucks if you can spare it):
- Julia Pulver for Oakland County Commissioner: She’s running for the same position I am, but in a neighboring district. Her race is being seriously supported by the powers that be; I think it’s around a 52/48 district, so it’s definitely gettable.