Me voting! (photo by daughter on her iPhone)
Running a campaign is hard. Being the candidate is even harder. This diary is a summary of the final days before the election, election night, and my final thoughts.
We had 9 qualified candidates in this election (for 3 open/uncontested seats) each doing some version of “classic” local campaigning. Everybody walked. Everybody had mailers. Everybody had advertisements in the paper. Everybody had lawn signs. Everybody had followers helping them. The difference, at the end of the day, was one of local experience, adherence to message (or simply just having a message!) and connecting to the voters.
It’s almost hard to remember already, the last few days before the election. There was so much going on – most of it emotional. I started out with a plan to walk Mountain View … or at least as much as I could. Mountain View is 12.2 square miles which includes a large industrial/corporate area (where Google and other high tech companies are located). It’s broken into 58 voting precincts of varying sizes. My plan was to “walk and knock.” Knowing that this would take a huge amount to time, I had to be strategic in terms of where I walked, as I knew I couldn’t reach every door. There are approximately 32,000 registered voters in Mountain View. But only about 11,000 routinely vote. The number of unique households is roughly 6,000, but many are located in apartments or other structures that are extremely challenging to enter. By the time I finished canvassing the city, I had personally walked about 210 miles, knocked on nearly 4,000 doors and introduced myself to nearly 2,000 different voters. Most of the other candidates either simply left door hangers behind (didn’t knock/talk) or had other folks doing it for them. Yes, they hit more doors, but they were inefficient. For example, one of my fellow candidates bragged that he went to over 8,000 homes. He may not be exaggerating, but he was just walking to the door and literally dropping a printout from his color printer (8.5x11 printer paper) on the mat, as his campaign literature. A great many of the houses he went to didn’t vote or weren’t regular voters. In short, he left them with litter, not a reason to vote for him.
Moments before voting...with my son
I finished walking MV two weeks before the election which was by design. I knew that over 65% of MV voters vote “absentee” (by mail). The last week of my walking many folks had already voted or decided on for whom they would vote. In other words, the law of diminishing returns hit very hard by Sunday October 19. So I spent my final two weeks going to as many civic events being out in the open as I could. I interacted as much as I could (electronically) with supporters and got many of them to forward my message, encourage other people to support me, etc etc. By November 1, I really didn’t feel there was too much more I could do. One other candidate was busy calling voters until election day, but I decided that was an unnecessary activity and could serve just to upset folks. So I nervously and quite anxiously waited for election day.
Election day was LOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNG. As I still have a job, I went to work, but couldn’t really concentrate so I went to a movie. After the movie, I went to pick up my son from school and met my wife and daughter at the poll. Normally, I vote by mail, but this time I wanted to vote in person. It just had a more ceremonial feel to it. Additionally, my kids (15 & 13) had never been to a voting poll before. May as well be educational too! At 7:00pm that night, I met one-on-one with my campaign manager to say thank you and to reflect over the past several months. We reviewed the original plan, discussed the controversies, problems, and unexpected threats that occurred during the course of the campaign. There were many. One thing to note is how many folks will provide campaign advice. “Oh, you ought to do this?” or “You should respond with that.” And so on. She commented to me as we were enjoying our beer that she was thrilled that I ran the campaign I had intended from the beginning, that I took in all the advice and made the ultimate decisions, that I kept my message civil and hopeful and “looking forward, never sideways” (at the other candidates) the entire time. We toasted and then left for KMVT15, the local community television studio where my campaign party was being held (along with some other candidates for school board, city council, and water district). We both were optimistic, she much more so!
Election night coverage at KMVT15 in Mountain View
When I got there, it was a little past 8:00pm and everybody was waiting for the first round of election results. I think we had to wait until about 8:40 before they were and everybody was a little nervous. By the end of a campaign, a candidate will have an abundance of stories. One of my favorites involved a 9 year old girl who was very impressed with my yard signs and wanted one for her house. Her mom emailed me the request. When I delivered it, I discovered their house was directly across the street from another supporter who had already had two of my signs stolen from the lawn. So when I delivered the new sign for the girl, I attached a note that mentioned the nearby theft. Well, the girl took the warning very seriously and essentially locked down her new yard sign with ropes, tied it to a tree, put it directly below her bedroom so if someone tried to steal it, the attached cowbells would act as an alarm.
It worked! The sign survived the 2 months untouched. And when I invited my listed supporters to my campaign party, the girl wanted to come. And she did...with both of her parents. Here is a photo of her presenting me with one of the two cowbells that kept the sign safe. I had never met her before the party. And she was so happy to give me this gift. I will never forget this, or her. The cowbell now sits proudly on my desk. I had her autograph it!!
I am being handed the incredibly effective alarm cowbell by one of my most ardent supporters. I will remember her when I am making decisions facing the future of Mountain View.
When the first (AND ONLY!!) election results of the night came in, I was in second place, exactly where I wanted to be. The first three finishers would gain a seat on council, but the one who came in first would immediately become the Vice Mayor. And as exciting as that may be, I didn’t want my first year on council to have that many extra responsibilities. I wanted to ease into it to the extent that I could. Also, I didn’t want to be third place because then I’d be in danger of the 4th place candidate surpassing me. The party wound down after 11:00 with the election results unchanged. People were congratulating me, but I didn’t really feel like I had won, yet. Later that night by 2:30am, after 3 more releases of data, the same trend as the first continued. That is, the people who came out of the blocks as #1, #2, and #3 – held their positions, and widen the gap between #4 and below. I went to bed happy.
This is how my daughter described waking up the next morning on her FB page:
“This morning, I woke up to the sound of my brother cheering from my parents' room. Anticipating some good news, I ran to see what had happened. Sure enough, I was right: the Mountain View city council election results were in. Dad, I'm so proud of you, and I can't wait to see how you decide to contribute to our town. (....and I also can't wait to be the first daughter of Mountain View when you're mayor and I'm a senior in 2017)
EVERYONE, PLEASE MEET MOUNTAIN VIEW'S NEWEST CITY COUNCIL MEMBER.
Then she attached this photo.
My daughter holding up her "I Voted" sticker moments after she witnessed me voting for myself!
Well this has been a wild ride. For a full accounting of all of my travels and travails, please read my other diaries. I think you’ll find them interesting and agree that things don’t always go as planned. I am so grateful for the support I received from people I had never met before. And that includes a few right here on Daily Kos who contributed to my campaign and provided positive and constructive advice. Two days ago, Veterans Day, was the first time I attended a city sponsored event (we’re dedicating a veterans memorial in a park) since being elected. I have to say, I was humbled just by being there. I can’t wait to start making decisions for the city. I have a vision for Mountain View. I will try and get it done.