Lessons learned from running an indy campaign. Smart dude who any reasonable person would vote for...except maybe Ganny and Ivytalk...
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/someday-te ... ty-system/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Most politicians start with a theory, and then use that to determine their policies. For example, candidates are routinely asked to weigh in on charter schools. Most start by stating their theoretical approach—I’m broadly in favor of or opposed to charter schools. That immediately tells voters where you stand, but it does nothing to find actual solutions. As soon as you’ve signaled which camp you belong to, both sides start yelling at each other, accomplishing nothing.
I always tried to answer questions on issues pragmatically, either: 1) I’ve seen an implementation that works and we should copy it or 2) I have yet to see an implementation that works but do you have one you could share with me? If you read a campaign 101 primer it will tell you not to do this, but I found that voters responded very strongly to this strategy. It allowed people who didn’t agree 100 percent with my viewpoints to realize that even though we weren’t entirely aligned, all ideas had a place at the table. Any idea that was provable was worth looking at, regardless of the source.....
Do I have a chance to win the race tomorrow? To be honest, it’s probably slim. It’s kind of a tragedy because everyone says they want a candidate like me, who doesn’t bow to ideology, who looks out for society instead of selling government to the highest bidder, and most of all is smart enough to handle the unknown challenges ahead. But I ran into a strategic problem I couldn’t overcome. The other two candidates are barely average. Even their supporters don’t really like them. I can’t tell you the number of times people have told me they like me better than their own party’s candidate
But the problem is, the Democrats in particular really hate the other party’s candidate. Democrats may dislike their own candidate but they are downright terrified of the Republican. They are primarily voting to keep him out of office, and that makes them unlikely to take a flier on a third-party candidate; they’d rather pick the second-best candidate than vote for me. Meanwhile, I’ve been picking up GOP support no problem because they don’t seem as afraid. That tells me that if the GOP candidate had been more adequate, I’d have pulled this off.
Here’s the thing though: It’s a democracy. If everyone who ever said “government doesn’t work for me” comes out and votes on Tuesday, I’ll win in a landslide. Stranger things have happened. I never thought one million people would call the FCC to demand net neutrality. We overturned SOPA/PIPA almost overnight, solely because regular people, powered by the Internet, stepped up and took action. I would have said these things were impossible, and pre-Internet I’m pretty sure I would have been right about that.
And long live Citizens United. Money=speech=power! 
