The way to win an election
I was hard at work in the home office this evening and shortly after dinner I was interrupted by someone at the door. I opened the door and there’s your usual guy out there peddling something I probably don’t need. He politely asked to speak with my wife and in my usual smart ass tone I use with sales people I inquired to find out why he needed to speak with her. It turns out it was Sam Liccardo a prosecutor running for city council in San Jose. I delightedly call my wife over knowing she would have something to say to him.
I was surprised with the encounter thinking normally people send out grunts to do this kind of work and what is this guy doing here? Second of all, it seemed like he really wanted to know was what he could do to help San Jose. Naturally my wife and I tried to let him know a few things that would help. We mentioned problems with crime and a lack of a cool downtown. He responded with his goals of getting more business downtown and the building of condos in the area as well. Seemed like he was there to listen and naturally he threw in a little pitch about why we should vote for him and even allowed a little bit of questioning. I would like to publish his response to a specific inquiry I made about his past as a prosecutor as it was very good but I don’t want to run the risk of not quoting him properly. I will say his answer was very logical and encouraging. My wife seemed pretty satisfied with his approach as well.
Needless to say this kind of grass roots campaigning impressed me and after researching Sam Liccardo a little more he has earned my vote. I even offered him my help with his campaign. I am curios to see what kind of response I get from him, if at all, and what sort of things his campaign team would have a volunteer like myself do.
I bet campaigning door to door takes a lot of time for Sam but on the other hand, he can count on me mentioning him to anyone I know voting in San Jose. I would hope that candidates for positions in small localities would attempt the same tactics. Meeting your constituents face to face to earn their votes makes a lot of sense in a real representative democracy. Now I feel a lot more certain I will actually be represented if Sam wins his seat in the San Jose City Council.
Thank you Sam for coming by and listening to what we had to say…
I’ll post updates on this as to what actually happens with my offer to help Sam out. You can read about Sam at his campaign website samlicardo.com.