My political adventure is over. In November at the urging of a friend I entered the race for Berkeley County Council representing District 5. I have long thought of going into public service and the time seemed right. The mayor of our fair city was my mentor. after all he's been in office some thirty years and has been re-elected many times. My opponent had been on council eight years. What really piqued my interest were the stories I heard about my prospective opponent. He had threatened fellow council members and had not served his constituents very well if at all. Although I lacked name recognition I thought I would give it a go. I first met with the local GOP chairman to find out about procedures. He was vague but I managed to learn of the proper procedures for entering the race. I took advantage of speaking at every opportunity. Monthly party breakfasts were a staple opportunity. I designed and shopped for printers for promotional literature and signage. All the while soliciting contributions. I got lists of good voters from GOP VoterVault. "Good" voters are those who have voted recently. We, Claudette and I, got volunteers to walk some of the neighborhoods. For our mail-out campaign volunteers placed labels and stamps on our postcards. Claudette made sure we complied with the State Ethics Commission by filing timely reports. We knocked on doors daily from late April until Primary Election Day. Of all the people we saw only six knew who their Councilman was and only two said they would vote for him. All others responded positively. Yet, we lost: 1498 to 800. Go figure! I regret losing. We gave the people a choice and they chose to elect the party favorite. We made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun working our butts off and I can check something else off my "bucket list"!
