Vote for MEEEEE
Tuesday is Election day. Over the past month I’ve gotten some flyers in the mail and the occasional campaigner will stop by. Mind you, this is for the city council race. I’m glad people are taking an interest in local politics enough to actually have some kind of race and present their platforms and whatnot.
But one candidate has really crossed the line. In the past month I’ve received 4 copies of the same flier urging me to vote for $CANDIDATE, a visit from a pair of campaigning ladies, and now today a letter from someone I’ve never met telling me how she endorses $CANDIDATE.
When the campaigning ladies came to the door (on a Sunday afternoon), they started to give my wife their speel but decided she wasn’t worthy and asked if I was home. She, knowing I had no interest in talking to campaigning ladies, hesitated at which point they made a sorry joke about was I watching a football game or something (I was watching General Conference). So I relucantly came to the door, at which point the insulting campaigning ladies gave me their speel and then started into their manipulation scheme. Did I have any concerns (so that they could tell me how awesome $CANDIDATE would save the day)? Sure I do. “How does $CANDIDATE feel about general aviation? Does he support the local airport?” I was briefly feeling sorry for them so I added, “and the spaceport”, because I figured they’d have a canned response about the spaceport. But they didn’t know how to answer and they flustered a moment and then said that $CANDIDATE would call or email me to let me know his position on the issue. He never did, but that didn’t stop his campaign from sending me 4 fliers and a letter (and who knows what else in the next 3 mailing days until the election).
In contrast, another candidate came campaigning. He came personally, with some other guy. He didn’t miss a beat when I asked him about the airport, and when I mentioned the spaceport he was astute to pick up that I was a student at the University and we had a nice little chat about wouldn’t it be nice if there were actual jobs to keep smart people like me here in Las Cruces. That, my friends, was successful campaigning.
I might have voted in this election. I’m not aware of any major issues on the table, so I might not have voted (shame on me). But thanks to $CANDIDATE I will definitely be voting in this election. I will go to the polling station and cast my vote for that smart candidate. Even if I didn’t have him to vote for, though, I’d go and cast my vote for anyone except $CANDIDATE because the last thing I want is to see this face representing me on the city council.
Now, just to be clear, I am not voting only on emotion here. Someone that annoying probably holds political views I don’t agree with. The political views I have been able to glean from his campaign materials (and it hasn’t been much) seem to indicate we’re at odds politically. But, that only reinforces my position which is primarily a (probably justified) reaction to his overzealous campaign.