The Reluctant Candidate

As a self-proclaimed mentee of Robert Hubbell and ardent follower of his Today’s Edition Newsletter on Substack, I’ve been motivated by his calls to action and support of Run For Something, and have gotten involved in local politics. My own Substack is quite modest by comparison with his, but it’s become decidedly more political as my concern about the future of our democracy while it faces annihilation builds, and the legacy we’re leaving our children and grandchildren diminishes.

First, I joined a local Democratic club; then I helped a county organization write brief bios of local candidates; and participated in postcard/letter campaigns and rallies, creating dozens of posters. Recently, I found myself being encouraged to run for a county Democratic Committee position in the NJ Primary election, but I wasn’t ready to commit in time to be placed on the ballot. With some arm twisting from some friends and fellow club members, I agreed to run for the position as a write-in candidate and running mate to a named candidate. Given that there were two positions to be filled, and three named candidates (two incumbents and my running mate), I figured my chances of winning were, optimistically, somewhere between slim and none. Cutting to the chase, I tied for third, losing by one vote. My running mate won handily, but she and her coattails weren’t quite enough to carry me.

I’ve run for elected positions before, but not in governmental politics. In college, I ran for senate president and lost, then ran again the next year and won. In a community association, I ran for a Board position and won. While politics in those organizations exists, it’s on a much different scale from the partisan politics in government. The reason my running mate and I decided to run was to effect change within the county Democratic organization. Over the years, it’s become somewhat entrenched and complacent, and ceded too many opportunities for change to the Republican Party. Our hope was that our election might help to shift focus and build support for Democratic candidates in a Republican stronghold. It remains my fervent hope.

On election night, I was informed that I came in second (for one of the two seats) in the same day voting, but early voting and mail-in ballots hadn’t been counted yet. Since I’d entered the race after mail-in ballots were underway, I had assumed I’d soon fade to fourth. Sure enough, after all votes were counted, the final tally had me tied for third place, one vote behind second. To top it off, I was told there were two write-in votes for me for Mayor (actually, it was the Township Committee, from which the mayor is chosen)!

Truth be told, I wasn’t looking for more to do and didn’t really think I had a shot, but I recognized the need and wanted to help. I’m heavily involved in my active adult community along with other volunteer commitments, and am working hard at retirement with my wife. As a result, I didn’t actively campaign, but others put in a good word for me, we mailed postcards and letters, and my modest name recognition in our community may have helped. In the end, I was surprised at the level of support I received, especially as a write-in candidate, and am honored by it. I plan to continue to serve in some capacity and try to make a difference.

As the results became official and my latent hopes for victory were dashed, I licked my wounds and thought about my concession speech. I’m not sure one is called for, but I don’t want to sound like a sore loser, so here’s what I came up with:

“I want to congratulate my opponent for running an honorable campaign and beating me soundly by one vote in an election in which I didn’t want to run. Had I won, I would have demanded a costly recount that would have been at my own personal expense, so for that, I am extremely grateful!”