.

The local green candidates this time around were a joke. Thinking of a run for house of reps, in green primary.

It's a purple district so both major parties would feel it if I pulled votes in the general.

I have, but my long posting history would be hard to overcome

ETA: I would have to pay chicken a lot of money to bleachbit my internet history :)

Be prepared to give more than you get.

I just got involved with my local HOA, who are heavily involved in zoning and planning. I am hoping that will help me to build up some knowledge on local practices and foster relationships with future potential donors and voters.

I've run before for commissioner. Open seat, ran as Republican against 4 others in the primary. One of them was the "hand chosen" candidate that everyone said can't be beat. The other had been foreman for the previous commissioner. Another had been commissioner before. Me and the other guy were totally new to attempted public service. They were all 65+, I was half their age.

I came to the table with a bunch of new ideas on how to fix roads, save money, be more efficient, raise revenue without raising taxes, etc. you can believe it or not, but I slaughtered the other guys in the debates. I mean, it was bad. They had no answers. I was quickly being called the dark horse candidate by other elected officials.

When it came down to it, I came in 4th place. The guy who couldn't be beat, actually got beat by the foreman. He came in 2nd and the previous commissioner came in 3rd.

At that point, I said frick it. If people are more concerned about voting for the people they know over voting for the change they've been crying for for so long, let em have it. I won't run again. There's more reasons behind it than that, but the main one is that I learned other active commissioners were actively avoiding voting on a few things that would help the county tremendously over fear of not being RE elected because they may be considered a little controversial to some. That's when I really said frick it. If you're not willing to do what's right for the county over fear of losing your job, then you don't deserve to be there. 1 person can't put a chink in that armor, though. I'm still pissed. lol

I'm running for state senate in AL in 2018.
Have a small biz, have a monthly op-Ed on al.com, volunteer for coaching (both youth and HS), run a nonprofit, and have spent time in DC as a policy analyst. Also, will be married to a teacher by then. The sitting senator will not run for re-election.

My platform will be:
Legalize marijuana
Term limits
Lottery
Education (70% of school money raised in baldwin county goes to Montgomery for redistribution)
Autism funding for kids
Criminal Justice reform

I already have it "in" with the African-American community from my nonprofit work. It'll be interesting to see how party politics work from the inside.

I've actually thought about running for mayor of my hometown

For about a nano-second in my days of youth

I'll vote for you if I don't live in Louisiana by then.