whose with me?

[saline]

I was just thinking, I can do it. If I ran I could win my district for the Ohio house or representatives. I'm only 19, I have little to no money and live in a pretty red state but damnit I'm right. At the very least it might get the idea to run into more people and that would be a good thing.

I think there are probably hundreds of different potential candidates here on DU. Whose going to run with me? The requirements are minimal, in Ohio you have to have lived in your district for one year, pay 85$ and get 50 signatures to run for a major party. It's nothing. So whose going to run and put some DUer's in office?

[T Roosevelt]

1. Check with AWD

He's already running - believe he's in the Akron-Canton area...

[saline]

3. I know...

it's kind of an inspiration, it seems so possible and like an excellent thing to do. I figure, at the very least, it'll make for a great essay into law school.

[TSIAS]

2. Sounds good

:thumbsup:

[JI7]

4. what is the age requirement ?

is there an age requirement. if you are 19 then i assume the age requirement might be 18. i think for the united states house of rep you have to be at least 25, and for senate 30.

[saline]

6. I was wondering too

The requirements listed on the Ohio house webpage said you needed to be eligable to vote making 18 the only listed age requirement, I need to read Ohio's constitution in depth to see if they just forgot to list another age requirement.

[renie408]

5. Thanks anyway

have you seen the way these candidates get torn apart??

[sandnsea]

7. Go for it kiddo!

That's what being young is all about. And my Rep is Pete DeFazio in Oregon and um, we don't want to lose him!

[saline]

8. so

Are you going to campaign for him? Get out and talk to people? We all need to start getting more involved.

[sandnsea]

20. He's not up for election

And he always gets elected by nearly 70% of the vote. But my Senator is and yes. Although as you can see, when my district votes 70% Democrat anyway, it's kind of tough to have much to do. And my State Rep and Senator is the same way and was just elected last year. And the primaries usually don't matter in Oregon. So all I can do at this point is send money and say rah rah to everybody else and offer any research help anyone needs.

[saline]

21. you're lucky...

glad to hear some parts of the country are locks.

[CarlBallard]

9. Sorry, baby

You're too young

http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html

Clause 2: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

[saline]

10. No, not the federal government.

My state House of Representatives, the Ohio House requires that a person be old enough to vote.

[CarlBallard]

11. Well then good luck

and my fault for being a bad reader.

[saline]

12. no problem...

Thanks for the luck, I'm not ready for the big boys yet (acting as if I'm ready for even the Ohio House). You should run too! Everybody should! It's the in thing to do!

[renie408]

14. But have you REALLY decided to run

or are you just exploring possibilities??

[kanrok]

13. Go for it, S!

Dennis Kucinich was 19 when he was the Mayor of Cleveland!

[renie408]

15. No shit??

[kanrok]

17. Yes

No shit!

[rads]

18. shit, no

He was 31 when he became mayor. :)

[rads]

16. sounds good!

If you're even only half serious about it, set up a cheap-o website with some blog function (blogspot.com?). And then after you've filled out the papers and know the reg's, put paypal up to take contributions and get all of the contributor info (I'm sure a few people here would give). This stuff shouldn't be tough if you're in college and have some friends who could do it for free.

Then just get get a small base of people from your district to start posting and generating buzz and plan from there. Tons of people have built winning campaigns starting with less than this.

Which district are you in? God knows the State Dem party could use some leadership, maybe you can get in and kick some ass.

[saline]

19. Exactly my thoughts...

I see no reason not to try and really run. I have nothing to lose and potentially everything to gain. Progress cannot be made by those who wait for someone else to do it.

I've been reading "The Conscience of a Liberal" by the late Senator Wellstone and he talks about the grassroots nature of his whole campaign and it was just beautiful. It's definately possible for regular people to put together a winning campaign and it's based on what Liberals have inherently, a desire to tell the truth, empathize with people and follow your heart to do the right thing.

I'm in the 17th district, currently represented by James Trakas.

BTW, welcome to DU rads!

[rads]

22. Ahhh, the evil Jim Trakas....

I used to live in Cleveland and I actually sort of remember Trakas being an annoying twit in Cuyahoga County.

I'd definitely do it if you have the time and the fire. Worst case scenario, it becomes too much to handle and you have to drop it at some point, in which case it will be forgotten in no time at all.

Like I said in my other post, I think it would be easy and fairly cheap to set up the basics of a nice grassroots campaign for an office like this. After that, you'll need a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work and you'll have to hope that things catch on. It's not going to be an easy ride at all in that district. But even if you don't actually win, the bigger victory may be engaging a bunch of people on a common ground and creating some sort of progressive Dem organization in the area that you can keep revved up for future races/causes. The Ohio Dems are so lacking in any semblance of organization at this point that you might be able to do a lot of good by creating a grassroots organization like this.

Oh, and thanks for the welcome!