Hello all,
I just wanted to announce that I have qualified to run once again for
the town council in my home town of Signal Mountain. This is a
non-partisan municipal race, so I will not be running on the LP
platform or (obviously) under the Libertarian label, but as you might
imagine I will be promoting low taxes, fiscal responsibility,
efficient government and accountability to the citizens.
Success is not a given, but I feel I have the best chance this year
that I have ever had (or likely ever will). Two years ago, I was one
of six candidates running for three seats. I worked hard for months,
but thanks to a last minute smear campaign on the part of some of my
opponents, finished "out of the money" (yeah, right, it's a volunteer
position :) with 16% of the vote (it took 19% to claim a seat). So
close and yet so far....
This year, only five people (including me) qualified to run for the
three available seats. And only one of them is an incumbent ... two
other incumbents decided not to run again. I have high name
recognition in the community due to several factors, including my
involvement with the campaign against the proposed town tax hike back
in May and the fact that I have run for office before.
Even under such favorable conditions, I am going to have to work hard
(and smart) to win. As in any election, both free publicity and paid
advertising will be necessary to get my name and message out to the
voters between now and November 2. I have gotten fairly good at
working the free publicity, but it is still an unavoidable fact that I
will have to raise money to run a competitive race. Last time I
raised and spent about $2,000, and I expect to have to do at least
that well, maybe a little better, this year to have a reasonable
chance to win.
If you would like to see a fellow LPer join Heather Scott and our
other candidates who have been elected to local offices in TN, I could
really use your support. I firmly believe that we must compete and
win at the local level to show the voters we are not "lunatic fringe"
candidate, but responsible adults who can do the job while saving the
taxpayers money.
If you are financially able to help, whether in a large or small
amount, please click here to visit my PayPal account.
Or, you can just surf to my web site at www.JoeDumas.com and click on
the "make a campaign contribution" link. Any suggestions for the site
would be appreciated (please reply by private e-mail).
Thanks in advance for any and all help you can offer ... you're great
activists and great friends. I'll do my best to make you proud.
In Liberty,
Joe Dumas
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