Of Ward 4’s 3265 registered voters, 812 decided the Ward 4 City Council seat:
629 (77.5%) for incumbent Kendall Lane
183 (22.5%) for newcomer Julia Miranda
It could’ve been worse. Actually, that number is pretty good considering that Julia is young, only been in Keene since 2006, and not very familiar with the political landscape. It’s also good because we spent less than $70 on the campaign, the bulk of that going to print out a thousand quarter-page brochures that essentially became contraband after the NH Attorney Genital threatened Julia with up to seven years in state prison if she continued promising to give away her paychecks to taxpayers. We managed to deliver over 400 of these prior to the “order” of the Attorney Genital. Understandably frightened by the prospect of years in prison, Julia rescinded her offer and instead promised her paychecks to local nonprofits and charities.
How many of Julia’s 183 voters were voting for her because they like her ideas versus how many voted simply because she was not incumbent Kendall Lane? How many voters chose her because she was the underdog, or because she is female, young, and attractive? We will never know all of the reasons behind the votes, but we do know that Keene is now being saturated by pro-Liberty ideas in a way that has never happened in the past.
The Miranda campaign was obviously the most newsworthy of the year, hitting the front page of the Keene Sentinel twice and generating a flurry of other activity including an AP story picked up by heavy hitters like Fox News and WBZ. Ironically, all of the controversy was generated by an anonymously posted hitpiece blog as well as an anonymous report to the Attorney Genital about Julia’s voting “incentive”. In terms of press coverage, she was the clear winner. However, the press coverage didn’t seem to turn into actual votes. Her total of 183 was not significantly more than the amount she received at the primary, at which time she had not attained any media coverage or done any campaigning. Interestingly, Kendall Lane’s vote total more than doubled from his primary results of about 300. It is very possible that all of the press coverage motivated every significantly pro-government person in Ward 4 to come out and vote against Julia, but did not motivate the apathetic masses to support her.
Based on what I have learned in this campaign and my prior political and campaign experience, I am quite skeptical about if the government can actually be reduced or eliminated from within the “system”. However, my belief has been validated that the process of running for office at a local level affords our message of Liberty all manner of free media coverage! The front-page news articles alone were worth thousands, and we only spent $70 on the campaign! While the coverage focused more on controversy rather than Julia’s ideas, the press will inevitably bring new people to our websites and media and into the fold of the Liberty movement. Also, since the socialists threw pretty much all the dirt they could this election, there won’t be many other ways to gin up controversy to distract from her ideas next time.
While this campaign certainly had its shortcomings, it was a clear winner in many areas including press coverage and dollars spent per vote. There are many reasons to be excited about the future. The Liberty media in Keene is growing, Ron Paul signs are appearing everywhere, and new Liberty lovers are on the way in to Keene. Will you be one of them? Keene is one of the best challenges in the state of NH:
- It is overrun by socialists. As the heart of southwest NH, Keene is populated by socialists from surrounding MA, VT, and NY. It is also a college town so there are academic socialists in addition to the governmental socialists.
- It is plagued by apathy. How can we motivate 500 of Ward four’s voters who didn’t participate this year to vote for Julia in 2009?
I hope we can have 10 candidates on the ballot in Keene in 2009. Right now, we don’t have the activists. That’s why we need you. Please come fall in love with the beautiful little city of Keene and the Monadnock region, and then help us set them free!
Julia has had quite a unique experience involving stepping outside a number of her personal boxes in life. Hopefully she will share her story and thoughts here on FreeKeene.
A big thanks to everyone who helped with the campaign especially those who came out and helped us hold signs at the polling location. If you’d like to help us gear up for the 2009 election, please contribute as little as three dollars a month at http://contribute.FreeKeene.com !
