Posted a first draft of my stump speech at flemmingforgovernor.org.
My thinking is this: I'm going after the anger vote. If no major Democrat enters the race, there will be nobody for the anti-recall voters to choose on the second part of the ballot who truly reflects their feelings. In fact, the current Democratic plan is specifically to leave these voters abandoned on purpose. That's my constituency.
I could never win 51% of the vote in any election. I'm too weird. But in this election someone may win with 10% or 15% of the vote. And if, say, 45% of the voters vote against the recall (and therefore Davis is nonetheless kicked out), and then on the second part of the ballot there is nobody for that 45% to choose...well, that's where I come in. I might be able to get by with converting less than a third of those people to my point of view. And my platform has enormous emotional appeal.
So I am the anger candidate. Not a good strategy in a general election, but a great strategy in a win-with-15%-of-the-vote election. My job is to appeal to Democrats who are like me--so angry with the right-wing assault on democracy, not just in California but also in Florida and Texas and D.C., that they want a creative way to stick it to the extremists.
It is with this strategy in mind--to make an intense appeal to a core group rather than a broad appeal to the entire electorate--that I crafted this stump speech:
YOU DON'T BRING A FEATHER TO A GUNFIGHTby Brian Flemming
I am not a politician. And in case that statement was unclear, let me rephrase: I am not a fucking politician.
Which makes me an unlikely candidate for governor. But I want to bring up a key fact: While I may not be a politician, this is not an election.
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
Good speech Brian. Total red meat for angry Democrats.
Naturally, all the "puppet governor" stuff about Republicans thwarting democracy is pure crap from a logical standpoint, but of course that is totally beside the point.
This speech should appeal very effectively to all the angry emotionalism of the hardcore Democrats.
Good job.
2 - Steve Rhodes
The problem is there will be at least a few progressives on the ballot.
So while you have a simple platform, you're going to have to do some research and present more than just a brief bio of Bustamante. You're going to need to let voters know where he stands on the issues. How he compares to Huffington, Camejo, Flynt, and Bock (I don't think she is much of a threat, but voters will see Democrat next to her name).