iePolitics: More on Grass Roots Campaigns

It seems like this election cycle we have more than the normal amount of challengers in local races.  I suspect that has to do with the fact that so many of us are fed up with the arrogance, greed and lack of integrity of most of our elected leaders.  My friends, those of the political persuasion—y’all know which ones I mean—don’t think any of these candidates stand a chance because they don’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars it takes to fill our mailboxes with an over-abundance of slick campaign flyers.  And much of our more-recent election history proves them right.

That being said, I’m not particularly ready to throw in the towel and sit back while so many completely corrupt incumbents have an easy time of it, spending their war chests on criminal defense and living the high life.  Some of them are incredibly cocky about their expected victories before even knowing the entire list of candidates running against them.  They know they have the big bucks to finance their campaigns if they need it.  We know who they are and who the contributors are who will give them unlimited funds to assure they stay in office.

But as was recently proven in Massachusetts, we really shouldn’t give up.  Shoe-ins can be shooed away.  There are some fine grass roots candidates whose hearts are in the right place even if they don’t have wealthy developers and Indian casinos behind them.  What we can’t match in millions of dollars in contributions, we can make up for with some volunteer time and our votes.

I have been talking with the candidates and I have some ideas where we could give them some help.  If you are interested in donating a few hours of your time to help elect men and women of integrity to public office, email me at sharon@iepolitics.com.

Also, we are considering starting a grass roots political action committee—something very small—just enough to offset expenses.  Because of all I have gone through in the past few months, I want no part of handling the money for now.  We would need a treasurer.  And of course, we would need some donations.  Because we are looking to involve people, not their checkbooks, we are more interested in a few hundred people that could donate $5 or $10 or $20.  We want this to be an effort of the people, not of the already powerful.

For the candidates that I haven’t already spoken with in person, if you are not currently an officeholder, we want to involve you whether you are running for water board, city council, board of supervisors, the state assembly, Congress or any other elective office whose base is somewhere in San Bernardino County.  There is power in numbers, and if we all work together, I believe we can kick the bums out.