I've been involved in politics for the last four years of my young (17 next week!) life. By my count, I've worked and written for 26 candidates, from State Assembly in New Jersey to a Presidential campaign that will be remembered by all who lived during it. But of all of those candidates, only two have inspired me to go against the odds and work for them when higher opportunities were available. The first is Barbara Ann Radnofsky, of whom I hope to tell much more of in the year to come. The second is Chuck Pennacchio.
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It's hard for me to believe, but just over a month ago I was a die-hard encourager of Bob Casey, Jr. to run for the US Senate against brainless, shameless Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania. Then I got a call from Tim Tagaris, a blogger friend of mine from 2004. He's the campaign manager/guru for Chuck Pennacchio, who at that time I had no clue existed, let alone running for the US Senate. But Tim convinced me to talk to the Professor (he teaches political science and history at the University of the Arts), and I scheduled fifteen minutes for myself to chat. I ended up speaking to him for forty minutes, and would have gone longer had the prospect of a heavy cell phone bill not ended the call. You see, I had stumbled onto an extraordinary man and an exceptional public servant in the making.
Many of you may have seen my various calls for money or support for candidates in the last few years. I've done all this for various reasons, the main one being that they needed money and volunteers and figured that I, the loyal blogger would be a good messenger. I'm not asking right now for people to do that for Chuck (although it would be nice). I'm writing this because I believe in what Chuck stands for-a philosophy, an idealism, not a series of pragmatic stances-tailored at best, lied about at worst-to win votes. Chuck answered all of my original questions honestly, directly and with the conviction of a man who passionately believes that our country can be far greater than we are now. His chief issue is not health care, not education, not terrorism, not even Iraq-Chuck's bottom line is making our democracy stronger.
I'd never heard a candidate speak so forthrightly on the rights of the "common man" in our society today, and what we need to do to make our voices heard clearly and forcefully in our country today. It certainly wasn't the answer I was expecting, and it was music to my ears. I'd been getting tired of hearing the same things (you name the liberal issue, they're for it), and to hear a candidate talk about our country in such a honest way made me very intrigued, to say the least.
Never before had I spent half of my conversation with a candidate on what I believe in-most candidates don't ask me what my experience is, let alone what I believe in. Never before had a candidate offered me positive, constructive advice on how to run for office (I'm running for office in a high-school political organization called JSA-more on that soon). Never before had a candidate been as open to me as to what needs to be done, and how. And never before had I been so taken with inspiration from a candidate-until Chuck came around.
By the time our call was over, I'd signed on to Chuck's campaign train-the little engine that could, per say. This came just five days before the Casey campaign offered me a blogging job-I turned them down. I've realized that oftentimes the candidate most likely to win your vote isn't the vote that's most likely to win your heart-and in this campaign of hearts and minds, Chuck beat Bobby Casey in a landslide. So now I'm working alongside many a blogger, many a good Keystone denizen to push the little campaign that could to Washington. The twin peaks of Mount Casey and Mount Santorum loom ahead-the first strong and steep, the second jagged and rough. Yet I know that when all is said and done, whether or not we reach the Potomac, that Pennacchio for Pennsylvania will be a success. How do I know this? Take this as an example-next Saturday, when my election for JSA office is held, Chuck will be our convention's keynote speaker. I asked him to do it, and he accepted. Next Sunday, there will be 350 students from across the Mid-Atlantic who will be newly inspired to lead on to a new beginning for this country. In that alone, I know that this campaign is far from in vain.
And when all is said and done, I will remember this campaign, too, for all the many years of political life left in me.
http://www.chuck2006.com
For my JSA Campaign:
http://www.jsa.org (to find out what we're all about)
http://stephenyellin.tripod.com (more on my campaign later today)