Candidate's Diary Update

I last presented an insight to the life of a campaigning politician to the readers of Blogcritics about a half-year ago. I am a Libertarian candidate for Indiana Secretary of State. The election is just over one year away, and I have been actively campaigning for one year.

Interestingly, I may well have the most active campaign right now. I have visited 16 Indiana counties and logged over 3000 miles in travel on the trail. The incumbent is a Republican who has raised a lot of money, and appears to be more involved in that endeavor than in hitting the road. A Green Party candidate is making a bid, but what that entails for him is to gather sufficient signatures to earn temporary ballot access. No Democrat has even filed papers yet.

Campaigning gets to be fairly monotonous in some ways. You say many of the same things over and over. You eat the same kinds of foods over and over. Fortunately, I never tire of meeting new people who are deeply interested in public policy.

But recently, through some of the monotony, a new wrinkle has emerged. I am an active blogger and consider myself a well-rounded person. My primary blogging is political, but I also talk about other cultural items, such as sports, radio, music, and even gardening. I learned that as a candidate, there are many who will punish you for things not related to your campaign. Here's the story, briefly:

I made some comments on the fledgling Air America, the liberal network featuring Al Franken and Jerry Springer. The tone was that it is not easy to create a successful product in short order, and when the main objective is to counter the AM talk success of conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Neal Boortz. Success in other areas of entertainment is not an automatic translation to success at AM talk.

A fellow Indiana blogger took issue with my commentary, which is fine. I expect some to disagree with any perspective I may issue. That's life in the real world. What eventually emerged from the blogger was a condemnation of my campaign based on the entry and two follow-up comments I made.

Think about that. There are people who will dismiss the candidate, not on the basis of the policies they promote, but on innocuous musings unrelated to policy or to the office being sought. What does my view on the relative success of Air America have to do with my positions on fair elections, after all? Nada.

I was not bewildered by this turn of events. I expected it sooner, in fact. However, I am a candidate in an important race for my party. Libertarian ballot access is tied to this race. I must earn a minimum of 2% statewide in order to maintain continued ballot access through 2010. As such, there are those close to me who advise that I should shut the blog down, and only issue statements that are on-message.

Article Author: Mike Kole

Visit Mike Kole's author page — Mike Kole's Blog