….or what do you stand for, or what sets you apart from the other candidates?

I didn’t get many of those questions door belling tonight. Overwhelmingly it was questions like, “why did we get a Walgreen’s across the street from a Rite-Aid?” Yeah, that’s a head scratcher… But my absolute favorite question is “why should I vote for you?” Once I replied “because I’m going to lower your taxes and personally shovel your snow!” I mean, why should we vote for anyone? And while I could, like so many candidates, make a campaign out of “I’m going to lower your taxes” it wouldn’t be very original, convincing or authentic.

I don’t think its that far off base to assume people have been trained to expect that out of a candidate. And judging from today I think they are a bit tired of it as well. I haven’t had a great deal of time to “message build” so I’m really left with my wit and the simple dedication to my neighbors. To ask me why I’m qualified is in many ways a silly question. The 82 year old woman down the street is qualified. She’s over 18 and has lived here for more than 2 years. Incidentally, that 82 year old woman told me as I walked down her steps “We got to take care of this place. It’s a great town.” I agree.

What I was very please with today was the many times I heard from people I’d never met say “Yes, Jim! I voted for you already”.

Favorite prank today was the TP job I did on a friends door with campaign materials. And getting caught! At least now he has my slimcards to hand out to his friends!

Answers to questions like ‘are we going to spend tax dollars on a dog park, how much money is the city going to apply to this project, address this problem intersection or hire this city manager’ are all issues with stories, interests and motivations behind them. And each of those need to be addressed with all the facts… but certainly not campaign rhetoric.

Do I got gripes? Sure. But I’m not going to solve the problems I see in Richland’s city government in a campaign, much less one this short.