Hi Everybody,
Sorry for not getting back to y'all earlier. I've
been swamped with political, professional, and personal
obligations the last two weeks.
I _was_ trying to get on the ballot for the
governor's race. I got enough signatures to get on the
ballot, but not enough to waive the filing fee. Sitting
down and writing a check for $2900 to get on the
ballot, plus about $2500 for the candidate statement,
was really too much for me. If the race were among 5
famous people and 10 unknowns, I might have gone for
it. But with over 100 unknowns, I felt that my message
proably wouldn't be read by that many people, and it'd
be best for me to save my money for another race at
another time. So no, I'm not going to be on the
ballot... this time.
Interestingly, a number of people in my neighbourhood
(Lower Haight) to whom I've never spoken somehow
recognize me as a candidate for governor. I think they
either were bystanders as I made my campaign 'speech'
at a number of small gatherings or they were friends of
people I did speak to. Regardless, I take the
recognition as a positive sign.
Anyway, I'm interested in running for state or
federal office in the future and have spoken with Aaron
Starr and Ted Brown about it. In particular, I'm
intersted in running for the state Assembly (east SF
district). Was anyone else considering running against
Mark Leno?
Anyway, before I sign off, let me tell you a little
about myself. I moved to SF in June 2001 from Durham,
NC (where I got my Ph.D. in biochemistry at Duke
University). It was in NC that I became a Libertarian,
and have been one for the past 6 years or so. At one
point, I was helping out Michael Peterson, the
novelist, run for Mayor in Durham (he did not win). I'm
currently a postdoctoral fellow (research scientist) at
Genentech, a big biotech company in South SF.
I've been meaning to come to the monthly meetings
since I moved here, but alas, being trapped inside a
building without fresh air, and having 3 dogs that need
lots of exercise, I find that my Saturdays fly by much
more quickly than I anticipate. Hopefully I'll make the
october meeting.
As far as my stance on "the issues", I think we all
mostly agree on what we'd like the government to do.
What I offer is a moderate and reasonable means to move
us closer to that ideal. On civil liberties, I've found
that SFians (at least in 94117) tend to agree with the
Libertarian standpoint (gun control outstanding, of
course). On economic liberties, they're a bit more
timid, and tend to think that the government can make
the community/state better, it's just that everything
is mismanaged right now. I'd like to run a future
campaign on a pledge to try to shift "mandatory
government services" to "voluntary government services"
and to tackle of social ills not through more
regulation, but through less, as it's obvious that more
regulation clearly ins't working.
I'm in the process of writing up detailed analyses,
proposals, and priorities for a variety of issues, and
when I have everything compiled, I'll be starting a
website and will email the group again.
Looking forward to meeting y'all in person and in
e-space in the future,
Jonathan