Thank You!

Thank you to all who voted to allow me to continue to serve on the Board of Education of Hilliard City Schools. I am grateful for your trust and support.

And congratulations to Lisa Whiting and Andy Teater for also winning re-election.  Well done to Brian Perry, who ran a serious and respectful race. I'm sure it's not the last time we'll see this young man's name on a ballot.

Ohio law requires candidates for public office to file campaign finance reports with the county Board of Elections. These reports detail where the money came from to run the election campaign, and how the money was spent. I decided early on that I wasn't going to spend much if any money in this campaign, so I took the option of filing a Local Candidate Finance Report Waiver, which is an option created by the Ohio Revised Code, section 3517.10(K)(1), allowing candidates to attest that they will accept less than $2,000 in contributions, and will spend less than $2,000 running their campaign. By doing so, the candidate is excused from having to file campaign finance reports, meaning you won't see one from me.

I didn't do yard signs, flyers, posters, t-shirts, pins or anything. My hope was that the people of the community now know me well enough to decide whether they wanted me to serve another term. If that isn't so, then my communications efforts have been in vain.

Of course, like Lisa and Andy, I was endorsed by the teachers' union - the Hilliard Education Association - who was good enough to produce a post card that was mailed to a few thousand people in our community. I know this had an impact, especially in this low-turnout election. I kicked in a couple hundred dollars to help pay for the postage, and that was about it for my campaign spending.

The money came from $100 I had to deposit to open a campaign checking account, which I did only because the law requires a political campaign to have a bank account separate from the candidate's own money. Other than that $100, I had a total of about $150 in contributions which came from two individuals, meaning I have a small balance left in my campaign account.

The other three candidates clearly spent more than I did. If you really want to know how much they spent, and where the money came from, you can request copies of the campaign finance filings from the Board of Elections after the filing deadlines in a few weeks.

I'm worried about the way campaign economics have perverted our political system. Thousands of dollars get spent on school board and town council elections. Hundreds of thousands for a seat in the state legislatures. Millions are spent for bigger offices like governor and member of Congress. To be elected the President of the United States, one had better be able to raise a billion dollars or more.

You can't get there without having most of the funding come from a decent number of very large contributors, and those folks expect favors in return. That's why the lobbyists own Washington DC, not the people - the lobbyists have the big checkbooks. And it's the lobbyists who are writing legislation these days, not the elected representatives. How many members of Congress do you think have read the Affordable Care Act?

I know I'm preaching to the choir. If you take the time to read this blog, it means you're one of the minority of Americans who are engaged in how our country - at least our community - is run, and are likely one of the small percentage of eligible voters who casted a ballot in this election.

Thanks again.