It looks like I lost. I say this because the votes aren't certified yet, but I'm behind by 121.
I've been making the rounds to supporters and haven't had a chance to post here, but since you are kind enough to ask about my race, I'll fill you in.

I'm biased in writing this because I'm running for local office myself. But there's about a  
month left until Election day (November 8th) and I thought it was a good time to remind people  
(not that everyone needs reminding) about their local elections.

When I first posted about my race here, I got very kind words of encouragement and some very  
kind donations. I've spent the summer and the fall trying to earn every dollar and kind word  
given to me. 98F and 85% humidity? It was still sunny! So I was knocking on doors IN LONG  
PANTS despite the heat and the perspiration.

I'm biased in writing this because I'm running for local office myself. But there's about a  
month left until Election day (November 8th) and I thought it was a good time to remind people  
(not that everyone needs reminding) about their local elections.

When I first posted about my race here, I got very kind words of encouragement and some very  
kind donations. I've spent the summer and the fall trying to earn every dollar and kind word  
given to me. 98F and 85% humidity? It was still sunny! So I was knocking on doors IN LONG  
PANTS despite the heat and the perspiration.

 Greetings from the very very local campaign trail. For a referesher as to who I am and what I'm running for, you can go here  
and here  
as well as here.

As an example of what I've been up to, and hopefully something useful for other candidates and campaign managers, I have included here a letter I sent out to the "supervoter' Dems in my district (Dems that vote in 75% to 100% of all elections)

So, here is one of the things that happens on the Upper Darby Township council that really annoys us Democrats.

Whenever once of the councilmen is deemed to be a weak candidate, that person will step down from office. Then, the council will appoint someone else to that seat. This person is always a Republican, always someone who has been a loyal party member. I guess we really shouldn't expect any less.

Obviously, there is much more on the flip:

So I'm hoping to get some feedback on strategy.

Here is the scenario: The Republican officeholders in my township haven't had a seriously contested race for years. This is an OFF-off year election, no one ever shows up.

So the local machine just makes sure they get their voters out (which amounts to about every county and township employee, who have the day off).

So my strategy quesiton is this: Do I run a "loud and proud" campaign? Or do I run an "under the radar" style campaign? Lulling my opponenet into thinking he has no serious competition?

     I volunteered for the Kerry/Edwards campaign in Pennsylvania this past fall. Specifically, I worked in Upper Darby, which is a "first ring" suburb right outside of Philadelphia. I set up all of the computers at the PAVictory04: Delaware County headquarters in Media. On Election Day I was site manager at a church near Upper Darby. My wife drove around all day dropping off food and drinks to the voters. Up until about midnight that was a great day.

November 3rd I stayed in bed. November 4th I got angry.

Now look what I'm doing : I'm running for office.

  What office am I running for? Sorry, I'm not running for congress, nor am I even running for state rep. (YET) What I'm running for is a bit more local: I'm running for a seat on the Upper Darby Township Council (to be precise: Upper Darby Township Council -1st Distirct.)

Sounds boring doesn't it? Let me try to make it exciting.

It is agreed: Bush is possibly one of the worst Republican candidates. He lost all of the debates, the economy is in the tank, 9/11, no WMD's, corruption, Michael Moore, etc. etc.
He can't speak, he can't think yadda yadda.

SO the NEXT republican candidate will likely be more eloquent, more intelligent, less arrogant, less hated (unless it's Santorum).

So how will we beat THAT candidate?

Isn't Bush the worst of the worst? Won't anyone else be better than him? How do the Dems beat the next one? Who won't have all the mistakes that Bush had?

For all of our complaints, we ran a campaign that was hopeful, positive and spirirted. This worked for Reagan and Clinton, will it work for the next Democratic Candidate?

I look forward to your comments, and if you think you can expand or clarify my point, please do so.

Also, I apologise if this has already been brought up. If it has, please link to it.

I've mentioned this sort of thing before.

Think about the following things:

There is a striking lack of concern about protecting the solvency of the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

There are attempts by companies to sue retirees to cut health benefits (synopsis here)

Already Bush is talking about "reforming" Social Security and "fixing" the tax code. By reforming Social Security, Bush means that he's going to underfund it and make all of us pay financial services companies to do somehting the gov't did for free.

More below:

These two lines basically sum up what she said:
"It is great to read about the success of  the suburbs in winning PA.  I will be watching with interest upcoming elections now that I know the dynamic"
(more on that here)

A good chunk of that is due to Delaware county, where Kerry won by 40,000 votes (kewl)

She also said : "I can't wait to see John and tell him about each of you.  I'm sure he'll be ready for some good news."

So of course, I had to ask her to pass a message on to John Kerry. I copied the message below.

 Here's another protest:

http://www.turnyourbackonbush.org/

Put together by a friend of a friend of mine.
Personally, I haven't submitted my e-mail, because no way in hell am I going down to D.C., not even to protest. On TV I'll just look like one of the W faithful, forget that. Also, I took a lot of time off for work for the election, so I'm not going to take time off for the swearing in (and NOT for that clown).

 I do like the concept of the protest. If enough people participate, it'll be impressive.

I'm placing the link here so that the protest can get more publicity. I hope some people can get something out of this.

The site has a few more links, I'll list them here:
This Time We're Watching,  http://www.ttww.org,
http://www.beyondvoting.org,
No Stolen Elections http://www.nov3.us

Below the fold I've placed the complete text of the initial page for the website. To save people from clicking all over the place.

1. How did you participate in this election?

Pennsylvania Races

I can easily make changes to the board, add new categories etc etc. Also I am perfectly ok with any criticisms.

Email suggestions and request for access at pavictory06@yahoo.com

Is it okay/wise to also start collecting the other PA links there? Like meetups, different political groups. If this board is generally acepted can we make it a central repository for PA races/issues? Can we start organizing here?

Thanks for looking, sorry if it seems amateurish.

-don

EDIT: as pointed out below, I just listed the Republican races. Since those seem to be the obvious ones to go after.

I was hoping to get a list of dems that were supporting Kerry. One of the women from the campaign tried to access PREVAIL, but her account was locked.

But I did get another list:
I have a list of 4000 volunteers from Delaware  County, with phone numbers.
Also, over 1500 of these names have e-mail addresses.

Single-issue vote is the real sin

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041015/pl_nm/campaign_poll_friday_dc

I'm going to worry all day, someone talk me down. I'm sorry, this is probably a weak reason to start a diary.

U.S. pension agency may go bust

Solvency of fund that insures traditional pensions is 'at risk,' director tells lawmakers.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/07/news/economy/pension.reut/index.htm