Posted: Feb 21, 08 12:15pm
In April 2006 my district (California 50th) had the dubious honor of having the first Congressional race for that season. As you may remember Randy "Duke" Cunningham was indicted and later jailed for bribery and other related charges. Hence, the U.S. Congressional seat was up for grabs.
17 people threw their hat in the ring to earn the right to serve out the remaining 6 months of that term (primary in April, special election in June) and in that same November run for the next two year term. The job paid 160K or so, and since I was tired of yelling at my radio, writing unanswered or poorly answered letters to my representatives, I plopped down the $1621.00 and 50 signatures required. I was one of the 17.
Within the 17 there were a few heavy favorites; Brian Bilbray (a former neighbor congressman), two State Senators, 4 millionaires and the Democratic often run/never won Francine Busby (school board member). Those main 8 plus we 9 "wanna-bees" did the quick paced chicken circuit from Jan to March to vie for the favor and attention of a dejected, disillusioned and otherwise distracted electorate.
A few media outlets provided the slate equal access; among them PBS who taped and aired 1 minute segments of each candidates prepared statements. The link below is that 17 minute run. For the morbidly curious I am the second in the batting order (it went alphabetically). Given that I spent no money and accepted no contributions, any FREE chance to get exposure had to be maximized. Hence, my 60 seconds of second rate fame produced a bad imitation of a ferret on speed. I tried to push 600 pounds of manure into a 60 pound bag. One man's manure is another man's crop enhancing special gold.
There was another advantage to the alphabetical order in subsequent events; often I sat between Brian Bilbray and Francine Busby (my last name Boyer) and these two ended up being the two primary winners. They won despite the 4 millionaires spending a collective 16 million dollars in a special election ( a California record that stands today)...things that make you go hhhhmmmmm!
I must say that all of the candidates treated me with respect and kindness. I'd like to believe it is just who they are (I still think that) of course it is also possible that they clearly recognized I posed no threat.
Anyway, it was an affirming experience despite the paltry 192 votes I garnered. One of the millionaires spent 6 million dollars to get 4,291 votes so at least I got more bang for my buck :)
As mid-life crisis's go, it was much less expensive than a sports car or affair.
Have any of you ever tossed or thought about tossing your hat into the ring?
mms://media01.kpbs.org/50th/50th.wmv
If I only had a few spare million!
