One more week to go!

I don't think I'm power-hungry enough run an effective campaign for office. I have been a bare minimum candidate. The least any candidate had do to qualify and run for office is to file 250 signatures of registered voters on petitions by June 12, requesting your name to appear on the ballot. And I have made periodic filings of campaign finace reports which is basically once a month, in the middle of the month, except an additional report that was due at October 29. I filed that one yesterday with the State Board of Elections and the Richmond Registrar's Office.

Again, I got crummy service from the State Board of Elections. I want to write the Secretary of the Board of Elections to complain about the times when I have turned in my Finance Reports. Yesterday, I received a hard time for requesting a written receipt. Admittedly, when I filed my report in mid-October I didn't get harassed for requesting a written receipt and the person was kind and helpful.

Much has happened since my last blog entry. I joined the Socialist Party in mid-September. I attended their Presidential nominating convention in St. Louis, Oct. 19 -21. I was nominated for the party's National Committee and received 10 votes from 48 delegates.

I haven't done any door to door campaigning. I felt a little overburdened by the size of the district though it included areas of the the 5th and 6 districts that I am familar with -- the district has over 100,000 registered voters. My campaign has primarily consisted of updating my website/blogging, answering surveys sent by special interest groups, attending forums (there's only been one held at U of R, on Sept. 27), and questioning by the Crusade for Voters Candidate Research Committee. Other events included getting interviewed by local NPR radio newscaster, Wayne Farrar and Jennifer Massey for Comcast's "Candidates on Demand." I also attended the grand opening of the new visitor center in Charles City and sent a speech to be read at a cadidate forum held at the Charles City County Government Complex on the night of October 19.

There have been a few encouraging moments in the campaign. Maybe four or five. However, I have been greatly disappointed by the media coverage of the contest. The Times-Dispatch has written nothing of the race, despite the fact that it is the first time in 40 years (!) the seat has been contested. For the last 36 years the only names on the ballot were either Wilder's or Lambert's. The Free Press to their great shame has made no reference to me in its columns, aside from the statement it's June 14 article discussing McEachin's victory over Lambert in the June 12 Primary: "With the Democratic Party nomination in hand, the 46-year-old Delegate McEachin is a shoo-in to win the November general election and to take office in January. No republican candidate is vying for the seat, nor any well-funded independents."

That's me -- the non-well funded independent. And I see from McEachin's expenditures, he has paid out $7,690 to the Free Press for "Advertizing." [As of Oct. 15, 2007 report.] That made my blood boil when I first read it. How undemocratic, how capitalistic, and how tyrranical! All horrible qualities for a newspaper.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch is no better. They practice censorship by omission. Perhaps if they ignore me long enough, I will disappear. Maybe these paper don't write about me because I lack public support. Never mind, that their lacking coverage is the very thing suffocating the democratic process. Without debate, progress will never be made. It is infuriating that these agents of the "American Free Press" have been stripped any pretense of promoting democratice values, free speech, and political debate. It is a glaring example of the exceeding weakness of our democratic system. When the life blood of our political debate is so debased by economic consideration that alternative views are shut out in an effort maintain that exact economic situation.

One thing above, Socialism is a direct threat to the ruling class of the economic elite, the owners of newspapers, banks, and insurance companies. Legitimate Socialism can only come about through a mass movement by an educated electorate that believes in the justice of the program proposed by Socialists. And best of all, Socialism is peaceful and directed by democracy for the benefit of the majority of humankind.