I'm still out there campaiging

I just haven't had a chance to sit down and write about it. I kept waiting to have time to write a detailed and insightful account. That's not happening any time soon, so here's the short version of it.

I rode the bus on Saturday and passed out 90 bus specific palm cards.

Attended a couple of Democratic Party events, knocked on doors and have a design for my yard signs. (You can send contributions to Helen Tart for City Council, 611 Monroe Drive, Raleigh 27604)

I'm off to ride the bus and attend a Sierra Club event.

More publicity

I've gotten an interview on the New Raleigh blog:

http://www.newraleigh.com/articles/archive/city-council-election-focus-helen-tart/

I'm glad I found the blog. It's got a good mix of ideas and opinions. I added it to the links here too.

After reading the post though, I realized I hadn't focused on my environmental protection issues in the interview as much as the need for more citizen involvement. Oh well...

Besides, soon some of these questionnaires that I've been filling out will start showing up in the newspapers and websites. Those should make clear my commitment to protecting and improving our natural systems.

Knocking on doors

I started knocking on doors and leaving palm cards Sunday.

I got a mixed reaction on my street. Some people were very friendly. The conservative elderly lady up the street was noncommittal. Mostly no answers. I'll go back after people have a chance to read my card.

A lot of people seemed to be out of town for the holiday. Working in the every-day-of-the-year newspaper business for 25 years, I sometimes forget about holidays.

One of my other neighbors (a different older woman with a lot experience in government) is helping me with the campaign. Besides advising me on issues, she knocked on doors on her street from one end to the other last week-- about 10 blocks worth. A couple of old friends and dog park folks are helping too. It's a good feeling have supporters to tell people about me and my ideas.

I got an email from someone who is working with one of the other six candidates talking about his candidate needing $40,000 for this race. I'd rather have 400 volunteers get my message out. Most of the people I know aren't big politicos. We've been behind the scenes people at public meetings or neighborhood projects like litter pickups or Community Watches or Dog Park events.

Not that money doesn't help. I'd love to be able to have yard signs sprouting up all over the place like a couple of my fellow candidates. But legally placed ones of course -- not like many of the other signs out there. I guess if I can't get 100 people to give $10 then I maybe I should give up on the idea.

Questionnaires, and more Questionnaires

I've been spending hours filling out questionnaires for various groups and media outlets. The news media not only want you to answer the questions, but to do so in a limited number of words.

I am beginning to get good at it. It's also instructive because you can tell from the questions asked, what the author of the survey is concerned about. Favorite questions refer to impact fees, Tax Increment Financing (ie: North Hills East), growth, infrastructure needs, and the very popular: why are you running.

There are a couple of issues that have been mostly missing from the questions.

I been surprised and disappointed that only one of the questionnaires asked about the CACs at all and didn't mention the restructuring that the council is in the midst of considering. The CACs are the heart of citizen involvement in Raleigh. It's the only City organization that allows everyone living in an area to be involved in communicating with City leaders. Every other City board or organization is appointed by the Council. CACs are not perfect and there are problems to be addressed, but the people involved in the CACs should be a large part of addressing those problems.

Regionalism is the other issue that hasn't had much mention, either in the questionnaires or in the media. Even I hadn't noticed it was missing until the one question out of dozens showed up. I don't know whether we're doing so much better at regional planning that it is not an issue any more, or maybe people are hoping the dozens of municipalities in this area will work together if we leave alone long enough.

So I'm busily typing away, discussing what these groups want to discuss and sometimes being able to work in what I'm concerned about as well.

Then once in while I get to go out and talk to real voters.