The campaign has begun. It is very nice to be back out in the district full time. Out shaking hands, answering questions, and introducing to myself to anyone willing to brave the annoyance of a candidate asking for their vote. It has heartened me to hear how closely the voters have been paying attention to the General Court. 

People are unafraid to ask any and all questions of their legislator. That is citizen participation at it’s best. People in this district are very concerned about the legislature’s current leadership. A leadership more interested in funding private education than it is addressing the fundamental problems in our public education system. More interested in appeasing the waste management industry than they are the environment of their State. A leadership committed to themselves, their political aspirations, and the wealthy donors they will use to get there. People are as desperate as they ever have been for leadership committed to the role they swear an oath to the constitution to preform. 

With the end of my work consulting for Marianne, which I was incredibly privileged to do. I got back out doing odds jobs. Mainly working for a man named Paul out in Hancock who owns a large property which has some yurts on it. He houses people in need and there is plenty of work to do there. I’ve also done some driving for people who need a ride and a little gardening. With my savings from Marianne, and my odd jobs, I have chiseled the time this summer to mount a fully fledged re-election campaign. Doing what I can to yet again prove that it is possible to be a working person and serve in the State House without skipping a beat on either. 

Similar to the last campaign I will be crafting an announcement video for my campaign. A two minute reintroduction to why I ran two years ago, what I’ve done in office, and why I am running again. It has been difficult to relay all the work done in the thirty some-odd thousand words of these monthly periodicals, let alone writing an effective and all encompassing speech in two minutes. The real person-to-person campaigning is the good, the online brand campaigning is the bad. Despite the fact that I despise the latter, I do believe I’ve crafted a good video that I was proud of. The response online has made all the tedious moments of editing the video on my phone, worth it. I must mention Eddie Gomez. Who was kind enough to donate his time to film the raw footage with me on one of his high-tech cameras. I had a great time filming on the town house lawn and am so grateful to Eddie for donating his time to help. 

Aside from editing the video, which was done on the mobile application ‘Splice’; I updated my website and utilized my high school graphic design class skills to build updated literature on PhotoShop. It has been an interesting side quest of the last two campaigns to learn how to build a website. The program I have been using to build it is Wix. Sort of the go-to for the laymen website builder. I have only a cursory understanding of the program but do have a website which I believe is sufficient to my purposes. It has all my videos, letters, and legislation complied in one place. Where people can go to see the work I am doing in the State House, and stay up to date with the coming events. 

Every bit of free time I get this summer i’ll be out and about knocking doors, heading to different community events, and getting the vision of a legislature that works out to the district. You can join me on the trail, talk to your friends, and most importantly come out to vote on September 10th. This is a people powered campaign to build a legislature focused on it’s citizens. The only way we win is together.