Campaigning on Principle » announcements

Check us out on Facebook!

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:01:43 +0000

I started a facebook group to help people find out about the book, and I’m thankful to those who have already joined it from my modest list of facebook friends. Thanks! Please feel free to invite your other friends to join it as well – as with all social networking, the more the merrier!

If you want to join the group, please just visit the Facebook “Campaigning On Principle” group.

Survey is live!

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:09:38 +0000

Yesterday I finished getting the Candidate Survey working, so please start filling out your answers – I appreciate very much your participation! If you notice any errors in the survey technically, please let me know. It’s the first time I’ve built an application using REST and Ruby on Rails, so there’s certainly the possibility of errors.

Here are the questions that the survey asks:

1	Please briefly list the times you ran for office, the position sought, and the results:
2	What was your experience like? Did you enjoy running for office, do you feel like you reached anyone?
3	How did you measure success? Did you meet your own expectations? What do you feel prevented your campaign from having further success?
4	How much money did you raise? Describe some of the ways you promoted your campaign (tv/radio/print advertising, direct mail, door knocking, fairs, parades, etc):
5	When did you join the Libertarian Party, and what attracted you to it? Have you always considered yourself a libertarian?
6	Please describe some of the most memorable experiences you had on the campaign trail? (ie, very rewarding, discouraging, or humorous experiences)
7	How did the other candidate(s) react to your presence in the race?
8	What sort of reactions did you get from voters and from media?
9	Do you feel like you made a difference – would you do it again?
10	This survey is necessarily vague and simple, so please add anything else you would like to comment on here:

As I noted elsewhere on the survey and LibertarianCampaigns.com website, please keep in mind that these questions on the survey are not meant to be all inclusive, they are just a starting point to help me gather some basic information and stories from candidates. You shouldn’t assume anything about the content of the book based on the questions, since the story I tell will ultimately depend a lot on the feedback I receive from candidates. So please tell me your favorite stories from you campaign, good or bad!

And thanks again for your participation!

Welcome to the LibertarianCampaigns.com blog!

admin — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:48:28 +0000

I am in the process of launching this blog just in time for the LP Convention this weekend in Denver, so please bear with me as I get everything setup. As stated at LibertarianCampaigns.com, I’m starting this site because…

Every year, hundreds of libertarians around the US try to advance libertarianism by running for office. Why do we do it? What is it really like?

When I ran for the Virginia State Senate in 2007, one of the most common questions I was asked is “why are you running?” It was a much deeper question than I think those asking it realized. This simple question leads down a path filled with fascinating stories.

There is a lot to tell about my story as a Libertarian candidate, and if you’ve ever run for office as a Libertarian or been part of a Libertarian campaign, I’m willing to bet you have a lot of great stories too. Through these stories we can educate each other as well as people outside the libertarian movement.

I want to write about your campaign stories, as well as my own, in a book that I hope will be enlightening and interesting reading to libertarian activists and candidates, political junkies of all stripes, and curious voters.

I want to tell the larger story of Libertarian candidates of all kinds, a story that is both positive and realistic, humorous and serious, educational and inspiring, occasionally sobering, and perhaps even heroic. But to do that, I really need your help!

Please share your stories using the survey, by contacting me directly, and by participating on the blog. I look forward to hearing about your experiences as candidates!