Dawn Is Me

It’s Independence Day!

Are you eating BBQ or watching the movie or baking a cake and singing “Happy Birthday, Dear USA … ” ?

I’m not doing any of those things. My own personal nod to the day is to tell you something.

You may remember not too long ago I mentioned that I am in the process of transitioning into something or other. I am changing direction in several different ways.

One of those ways is that I am running for public office.

Yes, that’s right. After years and years of making fun of politicians, I have decided to become one of them.

Well, let me take that back. I don’t really think there is anything I can do to myself short of a lobotomy to turn myself into a Politician. I’ll just say, once again, that I am running for public office.

For the record, I am a Democrat.

The office I’m running for is pretty local: Town Supervisor of the town in live in here in upstate NY. If I win, I get to chair the Town Board. I also get to represent my town on the County Board of Supervisors.

I doubt anybody will be reading about my exploits in the NY Times but, if elected, I hope to be able to do some good things for this community and I’m excited about the prospect.

I am less excited about the actual campaigning part but, who knows? It may be that, when forced to do it, I’ll find that I like it.

Also for the record, I have no intention of shutting down my business or selling it or anything like that in order to pursue this career tangent. And, at the moment, we’re not talking about living the life of a public servant for more than eight years, max. That’s two terms. After that, I’d want to step down to do other stuff.

So, right now I’m collecting signatures on petitions and preparing to file them around mid-month. The local Republicans may or may not be preparing for a primary (I kind of can’t tell; they seem to be in some disarray). Either way, I expect to begin actively campaigning in September, after the primaries.

Between filing (when I “officially” become a candidate) and active campaigning in the fall, I expect to be doing some low key public appearances, pressing the flesh, talking to people and letting them get to know me.

Introvert and all that I am, I expect I’ll enjoy it — as long as I build time into my schedule to rest from all those encounters with people. o_O

I am also in the process of creating Dawn, the Political Candidate. (Some assembly required. Batteries not included)

In my imagination, she is a mature, lovely, brilliant woman with a warm smile, a firm handclasp and an infectious laugh. Setting aside partisan politics for the moment, people tend to like her. That is likely to get her at least some of the George W. Bush “Candidate I’d Most Like To Sit Down And Have A Beer With” vote.

At least in theory.

This is something completely different for me. I haven’t done anything close to this since I ran for student body president in the 9th grade. I didn’t win but I did get enough support to land myself a spot on the student council executive committee.

I expect I’ll share a few tales from the trail with you over the next few months. Wish me luck.