Shit Nobody Cares About
After the Fall
Most voters experience political campaigns from September through election day in November. Candidates, by September of election year, are rounding third and heading for home. They start much earlier. Many candidates begin as early as the summer of the previous year. The defeat of Caruso's project in February started the campaign season for candidates in the Carlsbad City Council election.
Candidate Soup
Two at-large seats were up for election scheduled for November 6th, 2016. Keith Blackburn and Lorraine Wood were incumbents up for reelection. There would be six candidates on the November ballot.
Blackburn had been a police officer with the Carlsbad Police Department (CPD) for decades before running for Carlsbad City Council. After retiring, Blackburn remained part of CPD as a Reserve Police Officer, which allowed him to wear a police uniform and carry a police issued firearm. It was said that he sometimes went on patrols with regular CPD officers. This was noted with alarm by some Measure A opponents as potentially a conflict of interest. But being an ex-cop alone would almost guarantee he would win one of the seats.
Wood had been City Clerk before being appointed to the City Council after the resignation of a Councilperson. This was the first campaign for Wood, and according to Jody, she was not experienced in politics or public speaking, making her a weak candidate. Ordinarily, that might not matter much, but with the Measure A fight, the resulting anger at the City Council could doom her election. Cody had never run for office and my first attempt running for MCC Trustee didn't provide much experience. Two other Republicans and one prankster-college student joined the race.
It’s Politics, Stupid
Cody and I were the only Democrats with Blackburn and Wood solidly Republican. City councils are technically nonpartisan. In reality, party affiliation is the secret handshake. It decides who gets money, volunteers, and credibility—and who gets ignored. Carlsbad was no exception. And despite the Measure A fight, party membership would be decisive in this election, too. It is said all politics is local and all local politics is partisan.
Political parties play a crucial role in local city council elections by providing volunteers and donors. Chartered clubs are the grassroots level of official political parties, serving as the primary source for volunteers. These clubs are also used for identifying early donors, which is essential given the high costs associated with running for office. During the campaign season, local candidates are typically allotted time to speak at every chartered club meeting. Most candidates utilize these opportunities to network and deliver brief speeches. I attended all the club meetings after April and consistently delivered the same two-minute stump speech.
DEMCCO, the Democratic Club of Carlsbad and Oceanside, was the largest club in North San Diego County and had been around since the 1970's. At the time, it had just over a hundred members. It was the first stop of any Democrat running for any local office, anyone running for Congress in the 49th Congressional District, and many running for San Diego County and California state offices. Everyone mentioned in this story was a member at this time. Most members, except electeds (how elected office holders are referred to), attend meetings and events regularly. Electeds feel they should be invited to attend. Even veteran local, state, and Congressional candidates come to local political clubs every once in a while, most are smaller than DEMCCO.
The county party endorsement process begins in the party clubs, and endorsed candidates benefit from the money the county party spends on their behalf. Most local voters are loyal party voters in local elections. Even so, a party endorsement poses risks in our polarized political environment.
No political party holds a clear majority of voters in Carlsbad. In 2016, registered Republicans surpassed registered Democrats by approximately 7,350 voters (24,964 compared to 19,590), with 17,614 voters registered as No Party Preference. The number of votes required for a candidate to win is sensibly called their "win number." In a two-candidate race, this number is calculated as 50% of the total voters plus one. However, the situation is more complex since not all registered voters participate in elections, and Democrats tend to vote less frequently than Republicans. In 2016, 87% of Carlsbad’s voters cast their ballots, a rate slightly above average. Since neither party has a majority, candidates must appeal to a significant number of voters outside their party while making sure they get the support of voters in their party. In races involving six candidates equally distributed among the parties, determining the "win number" becomes very difficult.
A Map but no GPS
While I initially wanted Jody to serve as my campaign manager, it ultimately did not work out. My decision might seem contradictory given my opinion of her performance during her boyfriend's congressional campaign, but I had naively intended to handle much of the campaign management myself. Jody would act as my primary advisor and assist in organizing my campaign. I agreed to pay her a fixed monthly amount for this role. While I would make the decisions, I planned to delegate the majority of the work to volunteers. I initially hoped Jody would accompany me to events and Democratic Party club meetings to take pictures, take notes, and recruit volunteers. These are things local campaign managers often do. It didn't take me long to realize that Jody would never agree to that.
Jody and I met weekly, and she utilized the same template as her boyfriend's congressional campaign. I never fully comprehended her template, as it was rooted in her sociological theories about politics. It was not a conventional to-do list or schedule but rather a mind map centered on three core elements of political campaigns: fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and public event participation. Numerous topics branched out from these three fundamentals. The weekly activity guide was a handwritten document featuring multi-colored lines and arrows crisscrossing the page, connecting various topics, names, or seemingly random words. Somewhere in the chaos were my action items. I never dared to ask Jody for clarification. Instead, I deciphered the names and tasks I needed to address as best as I could.
Cori Schumacher’s Cameo Appearance
Occasionally, Jody helped me with tasks for the campaign. Doug, a guitarist Jody knew, performed at Oliver's on State Street, a bar featuring live music several nights a week. Doug was also a freelance graphic artist who had previously served as Art Director for a foundation founded and run by Cori Schumacher, a world renowned champion surfer and Carlsbad resident. He pursued freelance artwork as a secondary gig to his guitar playing—or perhaps the guitar playing was secondary to his freelance artwork. One evening, in an unusual trip to the noisy and crowded Oliver's, Jody introduced me to Doug. That night, I commissioned him to design my campaign logo for $500, which only found use on my website and campaign business card. It was not even used on the mailers sent out near the end of the campaign.
I hired a web designer to create my website, but he chose to dedicate all his time to volunteering for Bernie Sanders. At that stage, the website was merely a shell, with most pages displaying "Under Construction" images. The design was basic, consisting of only four or five pages containing a few images and some text outlining my background and positions on various issues. I appreciated its simplicity and used the basic design throughout the campaign. A few months later, I updated the pages with messaging I had by then adopted for the campaign.
That was typical of the way things went. There were startup costs for many things, and some were required by law, like fees and copying documents. Other things, like the logo, were of dubious value and it was a constant struggle to prioritize spending given the amount of money I had put into my campaign at the beginning.
Show Me the Money
Running for office is expensive. In the Carlsbad Mayoral election two years later, the challenger to the incumbent Mayor spent over $100,000 and lost.
Running for office is not only expensive, but the financial filing requirements are also complex. I acted as my own treasurer when I ran for Mira Costa College Trustee because I knew I wasn't going to raise any money for that campaign. As a candidate for City Council, I was planning on raising tens of thousands of dollars and spending it too. I wasn't going to take on that miserable task. I asked the Treasurer of DEMCCO, whom I had befriended when I originally joined the club while running MCC Trustee. She gave me a lot of useful advice. She agreed to do that work as a volunteer. Mary worked for many candidates, some of whom she charged and some of whom she worked as a volunteer.
I didn’t know how much my campaign would cost, but I put in $10,000 to get it started, which triggered a required public filing. Around the same time, two Carlsbad residents donated $5,000 each to Cody’s campaign. The Coast News reported both contributions but drew a sharp contrast: my donation was portrayed as self-funding, while Cody’s were framed as community support. The article was written by journalist who would reappear in my campaign much later as moderator of one of the City Council candidate forums Cody and I participated in. That narrative was echoed on Facebook, suggesting her campaign had public backing, while mine was driven by ego—or worse.
I eventually raised another $10,000 through the usual methods. This meant cold-calling Carlsbad voters, reaching out to family and friends, and advertising on my website and Facebook page asking for money.
The Blacklist
I was invited to give a presentation about the Measure A fight to DEMCCO a few weeks after the February referendum vote. It was my first public appearance as a candidate. Jody, who knew DEMCCO's President well, told him to invite me to talk about Measure A. Jody knew he was unaware that Dee's NCEC group had organized the No on Measure A campaign.
My presentation was well received. Dee responded by sending an angry email to DEMCCO's president saying I was not qualified to comment on that campaign and demanding that Helen be given time at the next meeting to give "an accurate presentation." The applause felt good. The angry email from Dee felt even better. I also noted that Dee identified Helen for that task and not Cody. At the next club meeting, Cody was asked by the President to give a two-minute comment about No on Measure A.
Dee was not done with me yet. I had learned from Jody, probably through her Agua Hedionda Votes group on Facebook, that Dee claimed that every vote for me canceled a vote for Cody. Under no circumstances would Cody's campaign cooperate with my campaign, NCEC would not endorse me, and anyone wanting Cody to be elected should not vote for me. I was more dangerous to Cody than Lorraine Wood, the other incumbent besides Blackburn seeking reelection.
It was a Cold, Cold Winter
Recruiting volunteers turned out to be a nightmare. Canvassing and phone banking by volunteers are required to win any local election. Captain (ret.) Wallace C. "Wally" Binghamton, a retired Navy pilot and Desert Storm hero, was a congressional candidate in 2016 who attracted many volunteers. I met Captain Binghamton a few times before he became a candidate and comfortably called him Wally. I gave him several donations larger than my typical amounts. His campaign recruited dozens of volunteers who would not be available to work on my campaign.
Cody was another candidate who recruited many volunteers. She emerged from the No on Measure A fight as a community leader on an issue that people were passionate about. Many No on Measure A volunteers joined her campaign from the beginning, and many canvassed regularly, beginning a few weeks after the Measure A election. By the end of my campaign in November, I had five volunteers. One was a high school student who used the experience to complete a social studies class assignment, and another was a Cody volunteer who asked Cody for permission to work on my campaign.
Cody's success in building her campaign caused me a fair amount of anxiety during the winter months of 2016. Jody concentrated on a few practical things and rightly suggested I start canvassing myself and calling people to ask for money. I couldn't admit to Jody that my shyness made it difficult to meet people face-to-face to ask for their votes and money. I dabbled in those activities but was discouraged by the disinterest in the distant election I found. Cody wasn’t just a candidate. She was a candidate with legs. Volunteers. A campaign office. Branded materials. A presence. I, on the other hand, had zero volunteers, a website built by a Bernie follower who disappeared, and a campaign strategy decoded from Jody’s rainbow spiderweb of arrows.