How not to get elected? Don’t tell anyone you’re running.
A guy in the Indianapolis Star has a column on the grief he gets when he doesn't mention all the candidates running for office. Poor guy. We must remember to try to get the name of the guy holding a gun to his head forcing him to be in the news business.
I'm one of those media people who thinks if someone is running for office, they're worth putting in the newspaper or on the radio (I have no hope for TV news, so I won't bother). Sometimes they've very interesting people and they talk as though speaking the English language, which -- for the record -- those who are considered "actual" candidates do not, for fear of saying something that could be used against them.
Sometimes they're nuts, or at least have -- shall we say -- unconventional ideas. I remember one guy running a few years ago (we usually give everyone 5 minutes late in the campaign), whose campaign seemed to be based around his "invention" of a giant claw that would come out of a parka sleeve whenever you fell through thin ice -- thus guaranteeing, apparently, the survivability of the kind of person most likely to vote for the person in the first place.
But for the most part, MSM (mainstream media) are kingmakers, determining who is a "legitimate" candidate, based on their electability. And their electability often is determined by whether their political affiliation begins with a "D" or an "R". Frankly, I don't know what the media is afraid of; but they often seem to be afraid of something, when the word "fringe candidate" comes up.
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Don't believe me? Then explain how Sue Jeffers became a candidate worth covering, only after she switched from Libertarian to Republican? Granted, she created a nice buzz for political wags while poking a finger in the eye of the Republican bigwigs, but what does that have to do with service to voters? You know, the thing we're paid to provide?
So I have a soft spot for many candidates who can't get coverage. (Want me to prove it?)
But there are exceptions.
I got this messsage over the weekend from a candidate.
I am working hard to establish my candidacy and I am looking for fairness in reporting. I thought that MPR is supposed to be an objective public news organization. But, when there are no Republican candidates profiled and you have already declared the race over for the Republicans, can you really truly call yourselves objective? Seems that there is a strong political bias here and that is disappointing as it interferes with fair reporting. In this case, does the public really get treated fairly when you can selectively discount candidates before a race has even begun?
It's from a candidate for Congress. He may well be working hard, and I'm sure he is, but he never told the people from whom he demands coverage that he's running. Call me crazy, but I've never viewed that as a good first step for would-be office-holders.
First, let me take you back to March 29, 2006, the first of several identical posts on the subject.
That reminds me. I'm getting occasional cryptic phone messages from people who wonder why they don't have a page yet in the Campaign 2006 section.
The reason is:
(1) I don't know who you are.
(2) I don't know you're running for office.
If you're running, send me a statement of your candidacy (for the snapshot section), a mug of yourself, as much personal information as you'd like to share (date of birth, where born, where do you reside, married? To whom? Kids? How many? What religion (I'm not actually sure why this is relevant but some candidates think it is so I include it), political experience (if any), education (don't bother including high school unless you didn't graduate or get a GED, Web site (if you have one, of course)
And once I set it up, if you could stay in the race for longer than 4 days, my life will have a little more meaning to it.
Last week, I heard this candidate was running. So I set about trying to find him. I stopped by the GOP Web site looking for a list of candidates. This would be the same GOP whose spokesman, Mark Drake, couldn't name the candidates when quizzed after Sabo dropped out. I did find one page that lists the names of the candidates, but no other information. So Drake and his party haven't exactly been digging to fill in the gaps since they came up empty on the big question two months ago. Think about that: your own political party doesn't know who you are, and doesn't provide any information.
I then went to a couple of Republican blog sites where nothing escapes their notice. But in this case, this person's candidacy apparently did. Nothing.
I went to the secretary of state's page. Nothing.
I tried the Federal Election Commission. I figured if the candidate was raising money, he'd have filed an April quarterly report. Nope.
I then turned to the next most powerful journalistic resource on the plent. Google. Nothing. (Note: The spiders have since crawled and revealed the appearance of a Web site). Cool. There's at least the underpinnings of a Campaign 2006 page there.
This is a process, by the way, which I repeat about 6 times a week as I hear through the grapevine that someone is running in a particular race. Maybe it'd be easier if you just added me to your mailing list, folks.