I keep using the same analogy when describing the experience of running for office. “It’s like spinning plates,” I say.
I have a vivid recollection from the Bozo’s Circus shows that aired during the lunchtimes of my grade school years. They always had some vaudeville-ish entertainer who must have been on his way back south after appearing on the bill at Tommy Bartlett’s Water Show at the Dells. And the ones I remember the best were the plate-spinners. It was always a couple, the woman in some sparkly dress holding a stack of glass plates, the man waving them around all flamboyantly as he took them from the stack and set them spinning on a series of thin, wiggly poles. The whole object was to keep as many as possible spinning without letting any of them crash to the ground.
Running for office is a lot like that. There are a lot of plates and you can’t let any of them crash during the really short window of time between the petition filing deadline and the primary election a mere 90 days after. The amount of paperwork and the voluminous rules that go into running are incredible. Heck, they were almost enough to dissuade me from pulling the trigger on entering the race in the first place. When you think about it, that’s probably the intention. One thing I’ve learned is that politics is set up for politicians. The more rules and regs they can create, the more intimidating it is for a regular Joe to make a run for office. Take, for example, the requirements for getting on the ballot. You have to decide what party to run under, or even, whether to run in a party at all. Now that wasn’t a huge decision for me because I’ve been a leaner in the Democratic direction most of my life. Blame it on my Kennedy-loving parents. To run as a Democratic candidate, I needed a minimum of 500 valid signatures. I eventually collected more than a 1,000, just to be safe. But if I had wanted to run as an independent candidate, I would have needed several thousand signatures. Apparently, the only thing the Democratic and Republican lawmakers agree on is their desire to to keep outsiders off the ballot.
But I digress!, My main point is that there are so many things to take care of in a short period of time, you get the feeling that, at any given moment, one of them could crash to the ground and shatter into a mess that gets you beat, or worse, beat and fined by the state electoral board. Maybe you don’t feel that way if you have the entire party apparatus behind you. But I’m not getting any of that help. I’m just little old me, trying to win a race as the outsider. But you know what? That’s the way I prefer it. Then, when I win, there won’t be any favors to repay to any politicians.
And Lord knows, I don’t consider myself a politician. You know how I can tell? I’m still getting a queasy feeling thinking about all the friends who gave money to my campaign last week. A politician would be plotting his next foray into their pockets!
Visit www.timforjudge.com for more information on Tim’s candidacy.
