I would like you to to march in a parade with me this Saturday, September 6th.

The Olathe Old Settler’s Parade is my best chance at reaching nearly everyone in my community who can vote for me. People respond positively when they see a show of force - that there are lots of others who are supporting this candidate that they may have never heard about. The more people who march with me, the better my chances at winning become.

We’re doing this up old school like a 1930s style political campaign - there will be lots of “picket signs”, banners, a megaphone, stickers, and about a dozen brooms. Really. We need about a hundred people to make this work, but we especially need you.

Here are the details:

WHEN: Saturday morning, 8:30 am

WHERE: Sean’s house - 500 E. Cedar St., Olathe, Kansas, 66061

SCHEDULE:
8:30 - Assemble at Sean’s, eat donuts, drink coffee, be merry
9:00 - Walk to parade staging area at Elm and Kansas Ave.
9:15 - Assemble at Staging Area, the West side of Elm St. on Kansas Ave.
9:30 - Walk in Parade, have a fantastic, memorable time.

Food: There will be donuts, coffee, juice, and assorted breakfast-y items available for anyone who eats or drinks in the morning.

What to wear: Jeans, T-Shirt, and comfortable shoes. There are free T-Shirts to the first 75 people who show up!

Please come. Also, RSVP to It means a lot to me. Thank you!

P.S. Please forward this to anyone you may know. Thank you so much (again)!

To my neighbors, family, friends, and friends-of-friends I say thank you for your generous donations and support over the last month.

It’s been an exciting and very busy time. On July 16th, I applied some of the techniques that I want to use to improve the way government works to the problem of fundraising for my campaign. I made an appeal that was both personal and that leveraged the power of social networks to quickly communicate with others. The effects were astounding.

By using the ability to collaborate online, connect with an audience, and communicate in a way that, say, mailing a brochure simply can’t, we were able to break the record for the most number of donors to a State Representative campaign in Kansas. Almost all of these donations were less than $10. Almost 50 donations were $1 each from people who know that we need real change, but they’ve been hit too hard by the economy to afford more.

We raised more money from more local donors than my three-term incumbent opponent. It means, too, that I have no strings attached to my funding because it’s not money from lobbyists or special interest groups. Hundreds of friends emailed me when they sent in a small donation. Mike said, “I have not had a job in sixteen months. Eight bucks and change will still move my old Ford Explorer about 40 miles if I drive real carefully. And I’ll be glad to avoid some driving so that your voice is heard in Topeka - LOUDLY, please!”

I’ve made a lot of friends online over the years, but I never realized how wonderful they truly were until now. Imagine knowing that as a Representative you should vote one way, but doing so would alienate the lobbyists who fund your campaign. I could never vote against the interests of my neighbors in Olathe. Fortunately, I have the luxury of voting to do what’s right instead of voting in a manner that secures more lobbyist money like some politicians.

As of today, I’m back to campaigning: walking door to door, meeting people and listening to them, and trying to figure out how to solve problems in new ways. And blogging it, of course.

Note: the L.A. Times story is online here.

On Wednesday, July 23rd my phone was still ringing about once every 15 minutes. The online comic strip had been up and available to the world for exactly one week and while the phone calls and emails were slacking off a little, they were still too much to respond to immediately. I checked my messages in the early afternoon. Most were well-wishers saying things like “go get ‘em” and “I wish you were running for office in my area.” It was fantastic and overwhelming at the same time.

One message was from a Los Angeles Times reporter who said that a friend of hers had emailed her one of the most interesting campaign fundraising Web pages she’d seen and wondered how it was doing. I’d been expecting The Kansas City Star to call, but the L.A. Times? That’s one of the best newspapers in the country. Absolutely I was going to call her!

I called the reporter back and told her how long the page had been up and about the amazing response I had received. She offered to fly out to Kansas the next day to meet me, which was stunning to hear. In my experience, all newspapers today are facing economic challenges as fewer and fewer people subscribe to the print edition of the paper. The idea that any newspaper would fly a reporter to Kansas seemed extravagant. “Are you sure you don’t just want to do a phone interview?” I asked. “No, I want to see Olathe,” she said.

We met on Thursday at a restaurant across from Oak Park Mall. I walked in and looked around. A woman matching the reporter’s description waved me over to her table. She was on her cell phone so I sat down across from her and took the opportunity to check my own messages. A friend who had worked as a journalist in L.A. had left me a message giving me the “scoop” on this reporter, so I listened as he described her as smart, energetic, and that she likes to write stories that have lots of human color to them. She was off her phone and I just smiled at how surreal it was to hear my friend describe the person sitting three feet away from me. “Everything okay?” she asked. “Sure,” I said.

She interviewed me for about two hours. First were all the background questions: where are you from, where did you go to school, etc… I knew it was meant to get an interviewee to open up and make it easy for them to talk, but despite being wise to it, it still worked. We talked about how I got the idea and the email feedback I’d received. When the interview seemed over, I began thanking her for coming all the way out to meet me and that’s when she told me that she wanted to call my mother. “She’s making the DVD videos, right? I want to ask her some questions.”

I left the restaurant and drove directly to my mother’s house to give her a fair warning. She started fretting immediately. “What am I going to tell her?” she asked. “Anything you want,” I offered. Mom told me that she’s tell her all of my most embarrassing stories—a sort of subtle revenge for putting her on the spot. “That’s fine, mom. You’ll be great,” I said.

I didn’t hear from the reporter again until Sunday evening. I had been spending nearly every waking hour working on the campaign for 10 days and I needed a break, so I went to go see “The Dark Knight” at the AMC Olathe 30. I was really, really enjoying it. My mind was at ease, finally, when I felt my cell phone start vibrating. I pulled it out, saw that it was the L.A. Times and sat there for a moment or two. I thought, “Do I answer this and miss seeing the movie or do I skip out in the middle of the movie and make sure the L.A. Times story runs?”

I chose the story, of course. They read through it and fact-checked everything. I paced around the theater lobby for 25 minutes with my cell phone glued to my ear to hear the reporter over the crowds of teenagers. She had spent Friday in Olathe and interviewed my opponent at length. She had called my mom whom she said was charming, despite her stories about my first teddy bear.

The story was available on their website the next morning. Now if only I could find a printed copy!

E-PAC is an organization of volunteer leaders and staff from both the Kansas Association of School Boards and the United School Administrators of Kansas. As you may have guessed, they believe as strongly as I do that education is the key to success in the 21st century. I greatly appreciate their endorsement.

I’ve met a few elected officials in the past few weeks who have been teaching me how to run for office. It’s mostly little tips. For example, wear your name button on your right side rather than the usual left because it stays in the line of sight when you shake hands with someone. Like I said, it’s little things.

One of the cool things I’ve discovered are their business cards. They’re all cut into the shape of Kansas. It’s a bit on the cheesy side, but it’s yet another thing that we can do that Maryland can’t.

I think I’m solidifying my position as the Education candidate with today’s endorsement from Kansas Families for Education.

This is an interesting myth-busting fact from their website:

Kansas changed its school funding formula in 1992, shifting the bulk of the responsibility for education from local taxes to state taxes. This created an increase in state spending offset by a corresponding reduction in local spending. Unfortunately, many of the people who oppose support for public schools will often attempt to mislead the public by comparing recent state education spending to figures from 1990 or earlier.

”The MainStream Coalition is a non-partisan organization that promotes the separation of religion and government, and supports human rights, civil and religious liberties and public education.”

That sounds exactly like the kind of organization I approve of, which is why it’s an honor to receive their endorsement today. Thank you, MainStream!

Endorsements are a pretty big part of any political campaign for two reasons. They recommend to all of their members who to vote for and they sometimes give you money to help you along. With the KNEA (Kansas National Education Association) it plays an even bigger role because education is a central part of my vision for Kansas’ future. I wanted them on my side as partners. Thankfully, it appears that they are.

Here’s how it works.

They send out a monstrous survey to all the candidates asking them what their opinions are on a wide variety of issues that affect schools and education. You fill it out and then bring it with you to an interview. I showed up without mine, though.

I went to the KNEA headquarters and sat at a big table with eight representatives from their group, all of whom are teachers. Since I didn’t have my questions with me, I just talked about where I want Kansas to be in 12 years and asked them questions on what they need to make to make it happen. My 15 minute interview became an hour-long brainstorming and strategy session. Afterward, I emailed them my answers to their questions. A week later I got an answer: I’m endorsed!

I was mentioned on the front page of The Kansas City Star today as part of a trend of people who had been inspired during the Presidential primaries to seek office themselves. I’ve written a few newspaper stories in my time so it was strange to be interviewed instead of being the interviewer. It’s a bit stressful. You want to help, but you also have to let reporters do their jobs. Thankfully, Jim Sullinger is a really good reporter and made it seem easy.

Since June 10th, I have received approximately 26 surveys or questionnaires from a variety of organizations wanting to know my stance on things they care about. These are the Political Action Committees, or PACs, that work on the behalf of an industry, a group of companies, or a particular cause. People who work for PACs are lobbyists.

I quickly realized that there is no way I can fill all of these out. Most wanted their surveys returned within a week! The one from “The Kansas Chamber”, for example, was six pages filled with long-form essay questions. To fill out all of these would be a full-time job that would take weeks, so you quickly learn to pick and choose.

Groups that you disagree with? Groups that are unlikely to give you money or impact your voters? Throw them away. In the end I filled out five. We’ll see how that works out.