(This is transcribed from an e-mail that I sent to friends & family, cross-posted in my tribe blog and elsewhere.)
So I have told some of you some of this, some of you none of this, and some of you nearly all there is to know except that it's hard to remember so I'm putting it in the proverbial black & white.
On January 2, the deadline for registering, I got the form notarized and mailed to Green Party of Texas co-chair Doug Reber, expressing my desire to run for the Green Party's nomination for U.S. Senator. OK, maybe "desire" is too strong a word. I am a reluctant candidate for a number of reasons. I already have a full-time job and a lot of extracurricular activities that I enjoy. This may result in my giving up either some of those activities or a lot of sleep. Fortunately, the campaign will not start in earnest until March, and it could be over before June.
THE FIELD AND THE ODDS
To review high school civics, Texas, like all the other states, gets two seats in the U.S. Senate. We don't get an extra one just for being Texas. If Texas should ever subdivide--and snopes.com confirms that it could become five states--then the former Texas would be entitled to as many as ten senators.
Our current senators are Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison, elected in 1993 to replace Lloyd Bentsen when he became Secretary of the Treasury, and John Cornyn, elected in 2002 to replace the not-so-shy and retiring Phil Gramm. Cornyn is up for re-election this year; Hutchison's current term expires in 2012. (I may have told some of you 2010, and I stand corrected.)
In 2000, the Democrats nominated perennial candidate and sacrificial lamb Gene Kelly to run against Hutchison, and did not field candidates for other statewide offices such as Texas Railroad Commission (which has little or nothing to do with railroads in any direct sense, but more about that some other time). This year, popular state legislator Rick Noriega looks like the favorite among Democratic contenders, and will run a serious race with real money. That will probably make it harder to reach my goal.
5% IS VICTORY
In essence, the goal of any Green running for statewide office in Texas is 5% of the vote. If any minor party's candidate draws 5% in a statewide race, that party does not have to gather petition signatures to be represented on the November ballot two years later. In 2000, the brand new Green Party of Texas had a successful petition drive and got a ballot line, defying all conventional wisdom.
With no Democrats running for Railroad Commission in 2000, both Green candidates for the Commission pulled about 9%, with Ralph Nader running for president. Senatorial candidate Doug Sandage got closer to 3%, with Gene Kelly siphoning off about 2 million votes (32%). So in 2002 the Greens got a guaranteed ballot line without having to petition.
For a variety of reasons, the Greens did not do as well in 2002, with no statewide candidate attracting much more than 1%. So we collected signatures in 2004--and failed to get enough. Same in 2006.
What is enough signatures? That is only part of the question. The formula is like this: Signatures must total 1% of the total vote count from the previous gubernatorial election. In recent years, that vote count has hovered around 4.5 million. So parties must obtain 45,000 signatures. These signatures must be those of registered Texas voters, with the address, zip code, and birthdate shown on their voter registration cards. These signers must not have voted in any party primary or attended any party's convention in that calendar year. And the party has 75 days to collect about 45,000 legitimate signatures.
It is a given that one-third of all the signatures on a petition will be invalid, whether because the address is incorrect, or the person is not really registered to vote in Texas, or the handwriting is illegible. So to be on the safe side, the party really needs to gather about 70,000 signatures between the week after the Texas primary and Memorial Day.
What makes this year different from previous petition drives is that we have some money to devote to it. We will be able to pay some of our less stalwart petitioners a dollar per signature, which is less than the standard set by independent candidates Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman and Carole Keeton "Grandma" Strayhorn in 2006, but more befitting the parsimony of the Greens. We also have better planning than in 2006, and we started that planning a lot sooner. If we do not get the required number of signatures, I would not run as a write-in candidate: too many dollars, not enough writer-inners.
WHY RUN FOR SENATE?
Why not?
Actually, I chose that office because it is the only statewide office for which I am qualified. As I am not an attorney with ten years' experience in the profession, I cannot run for state Supreme Court of Court of Criminal Appeals. Since I have no inside knowledge of the energy industry, I would look ridiculous running for the Railroad Commission seat; fellow Greenie Art Browning, a retired petroleum geologist, is taking that one on. That leaves U.S. Senate. I would feel more comfortably running for the House of Representatives, but since I am moving out of District 9 this year and haven't really established residency in District 7, that wouldn't be right. I actually take these residency guidelines seriously. Besides, the statewide offices are the ones that count toward legitimizing the Greens in Texas.
There actually is another Green listed as running for Cornyn's seat, Tom Davis of Travis County. But Doug Reber told me that Tom was not going to run "all-out." He still hasn't told me what "all-out" constitutes. Since I have no money of my own to spend on a campaign, I'll have to find a fund-raising wizard just to pay for bumper stickers and yard signs.
Money has been our problem since the beginning: we're not a wealthy bunch, and we can't afford professional tree-shakers to find wealthy benefactors. The Nader effect in 2000 helped a lot, since with or without the Green label he's a popular guy (though less popular among Democrats who mistakenly blame him for getting Boy George elected). The prospect of having former Rep. Cynthia McKinney as our standard bearer may work to our advantage this year.
Financial questions aside, I am the first to admit that I am not the ideal candidate. If I get to run, I plan to use my flaws to my advantage, though. I am of the people, complete with human imperfections. I don't even know where to buy the stuff that gives politicians helmet-hair. But also, I hope to get people to see that it's less about me than about the ideas--and appeal to their righteous anger that Republicans in Washington have trashed the Constitution, with a lot of Democrats acting as enablers.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Send money! Don't break out your checkbooks just yet, because I don't have a campaign fund established. If you cannot donate funds, and you'll be in Texas this spring, you can help collect signatures to get Greens on the ballot. If you cannot do that, then you can sign the petition, as long as you meet the requirements. That means resisting the temptation to vote in a primary. The triple play--sending money, signing the petition, and collecting signatures from others--would certainly be welcome, too.
I'm going to bed now.
dbc
So I have told some of you some of this, some of you none of this, and some of you nearly all there is to know except that it's hard to remember so I'm putting it in the proverbial black & white.
On January 2, the deadline for registering, I got the form notarized and mailed to Green Party of Texas co-chair Doug Reber, expressing my desire to run for the Green Party's nomination for U.S. Senator. OK, maybe "desire" is too strong a word. I am a reluctant candidate for a number of reasons. I already have a full-time job and a lot of extracurricular activities that I enjoy. This may result in my giving up either some of those activities or a lot of sleep. Fortunately, the campaign will not start in earnest until March, and it could be over before June.
THE FIELD AND THE ODDS
To review high school civics, Texas, like all the other states, gets two seats in the U.S. Senate. We don't get an extra one just for being Texas. If Texas should ever subdivide--and snopes.com confirms that it could become five states--then the former Texas would be entitled to as many as ten senators.
Our current senators are Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison, elected in 1993 to replace Lloyd Bentsen when he became Secretary of the Treasury, and John Cornyn, elected in 2002 to replace the not-so-shy and retiring Phil Gramm. Cornyn is up for re-election this year; Hutchison's current term expires in 2012. (I may have told some of you 2010, and I stand corrected.)
In 2000, the Democrats nominated perennial candidate and sacrificial lamb Gene Kelly to run against Hutchison, and did not field candidates for other statewide offices such as Texas Railroad Commission (which has little or nothing to do with railroads in any direct sense, but more about that some other time). This year, popular state legislator Rick Noriega looks like the favorite among Democratic contenders, and will run a serious race with real money. That will probably make it harder to reach my goal.
5% IS VICTORY
In essence, the goal of any Green running for statewide office in Texas is 5% of the vote. If any minor party's candidate draws 5% in a statewide race, that party does not have to gather petition signatures to be represented on the November ballot two years later. In 2000, the brand new Green Party of Texas had a successful petition drive and got a ballot line, defying all conventional wisdom.
With no Democrats running for Railroad Commission in 2000, both Green candidates for the Commission pulled about 9%, with Ralph Nader running for president. Senatorial candidate Doug Sandage got closer to 3%, with Gene Kelly siphoning off about 2 million votes (32%). So in 2002 the Greens got a guaranteed ballot line without having to petition.
For a variety of reasons, the Greens did not do as well in 2002, with no statewide candidate attracting much more than 1%. So we collected signatures in 2004--and failed to get enough. Same in 2006.
What is enough signatures? That is only part of the question. The formula is like this: Signatures must total 1% of the total vote count from the previous gubernatorial election. In recent years, that vote count has hovered around 4.5 million. So parties must obtain 45,000 signatures. These signatures must be those of registered Texas voters, with the address, zip code, and birthdate shown on their voter registration cards. These signers must not have voted in any party primary or attended any party's convention in that calendar year. And the party has 75 days to collect about 45,000 legitimate signatures.
It is a given that one-third of all the signatures on a petition will be invalid, whether because the address is incorrect, or the person is not really registered to vote in Texas, or the handwriting is illegible. So to be on the safe side, the party really needs to gather about 70,000 signatures between the week after the Texas primary and Memorial Day.
What makes this year different from previous petition drives is that we have some money to devote to it. We will be able to pay some of our less stalwart petitioners a dollar per signature, which is less than the standard set by independent candidates Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman and Carole Keeton "Grandma" Strayhorn in 2006, but more befitting the parsimony of the Greens. We also have better planning than in 2006, and we started that planning a lot sooner. If we do not get the required number of signatures, I would not run as a write-in candidate: too many dollars, not enough writer-inners.
WHY RUN FOR SENATE?
Why not?
Actually, I chose that office because it is the only statewide office for which I am qualified. As I am not an attorney with ten years' experience in the profession, I cannot run for state Supreme Court of Court of Criminal Appeals. Since I have no inside knowledge of the energy industry, I would look ridiculous running for the Railroad Commission seat; fellow Greenie Art Browning, a retired petroleum geologist, is taking that one on. That leaves U.S. Senate. I would feel more comfortably running for the House of Representatives, but since I am moving out of District 9 this year and haven't really established residency in District 7, that wouldn't be right. I actually take these residency guidelines seriously. Besides, the statewide offices are the ones that count toward legitimizing the Greens in Texas.
There actually is another Green listed as running for Cornyn's seat, Tom Davis of Travis County. But Doug Reber told me that Tom was not going to run "all-out." He still hasn't told me what "all-out" constitutes. Since I have no money of my own to spend on a campaign, I'll have to find a fund-raising wizard just to pay for bumper stickers and yard signs.
Money has been our problem since the beginning: we're not a wealthy bunch, and we can't afford professional tree-shakers to find wealthy benefactors. The Nader effect in 2000 helped a lot, since with or without the Green label he's a popular guy (though less popular among Democrats who mistakenly blame him for getting Boy George elected). The prospect of having former Rep. Cynthia McKinney as our standard bearer may work to our advantage this year.
Financial questions aside, I am the first to admit that I am not the ideal candidate. If I get to run, I plan to use my flaws to my advantage, though. I am of the people, complete with human imperfections. I don't even know where to buy the stuff that gives politicians helmet-hair. But also, I hope to get people to see that it's less about me than about the ideas--and appeal to their righteous anger that Republicans in Washington have trashed the Constitution, with a lot of Democrats acting as enablers.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Send money! Don't break out your checkbooks just yet, because I don't have a campaign fund established. If you cannot donate funds, and you'll be in Texas this spring, you can help collect signatures to get Greens on the ballot. If you cannot do that, then you can sign the petition, as long as you meet the requirements. That means resisting the temptation to vote in a primary. The triple play--sending money, signing the petition, and collecting signatures from others--would certainly be welcome, too.
I'm going to bed now.
dbc
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