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When our President started a reckless and counterproductive war
despite the protests of millions around the world, I was furious. My
personal protest made the
front page of the local
newspaper, and page three of another. The Independent even printed
part of my statement, and the response
was heartwarmingly positive.
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I feel that the nationalists have deceived and taken over our country
because I've been busy making games. If the United States continues down
this dangerous path, the reason will NOT be that I've neglected such
affairs. I am doing something about it:
With talk of democracy, we often forget that this country was designed to be a
republic. Advocates for peace, environment and social justice have traditionally
tried to influence our leaders and the public through publishing, lobbying and
protest, but the right uses skill and resources to put their people into positions
of power. That means that we are attempting to persuade those whom our opponents
have selected. It is a strategy for failure, so I'm learning how we can become
more effective at putting our own candidates into office.
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I started as a precinct walker for Jo Chamberlain's run for the State
Assembly in 2002. Then I worked as
web designer and co-campaign manager for George Kranen's attempt
at the Belmont city council. I worked as a volunteer, and I started buying
equipment. Then an amazing thing happened.
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I joined Matt Gonzalez' campaign for Mayor of San Francisco.
It became one of the most intense and rewarding experiences of my life.
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Thousands of us came together to support the Green candidate, while the
Democrats threw everything they had at us. They flew Al Gore and Bill
Clinton into town. They spent 8 million dollars. They tried their dirty
tricks. And we became stronger. On election day, we got 52% of the vote.
Tragically, the absentee ballots beat us.
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Since then I've worked on
Aimee Allison's
campaign in Oakland twice. A member of the city council resigned, so they
held a special election to fill the one year remaining in the term. We
came in fourth out of nine.
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A year later, the seat came up again. Aimee and the third place challenger
ran against the incumbent a second time. With each campaign we get better,
and this time we got 39%, putting Aimee into a run-off in November. With
this effort, I think we changed the perception of Greens in Oakland!
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After two big campaigns for Aimee (I only walked a precinct in her third
campaign), I changed my focus to campaign management software. But, to keep
my hand in, I helped Emily Drennen in 2006.
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In 2008, Congressman Tom Lantos died and a special election was called with
a very short time frame. Barry's goal is to change our national budget priorities,
so he and I put together a small campaign with very little additional help.
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Barack Obama's campaign hired my friend
Nicole
long before the primaries. When I visited the New Hampsire headquarters in
2007, she suggested that they should hire me. I was very tempted, but decided
that Barack had plenty of help. San Francisco progressives really needed me.
I helped several local campaigns, but Mark Sanchez most of all.
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For the election that November, I worked against a local measure proposed
by the owners of some downtown buildings. They wanted to erect huge electronic
billboards, creating a Times Square for San Francisco. They put a lot of money
into it, but we shot a TV commercial and aired it with a meager budget. I
handled the Google Adwords and online banner ads. We won with 54%!
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