Slashdot Mirror
House Candidate Lets Web Users Set His Schedule
brahn at actblue writes "From ABC News: Jeff Seemann, running for one of Ohio's seats in the House of Representatives, '...has an unusual approach in deciding how to spend his campaign. He asks Web surfers: Should he sleep in? Prepare for his debate? Campaign door to door?' (More coverage here and here.)
Best of all: Jeff is fighting back against Diebold and their paperless voting machines -- and they're based in his district!"
I thought this was a joke, especially after reading his last name, but it seems serious.
He's trying a gimmick, a bad one at that, to get elected. Getting "in touch with the community" doesn't mean letting them completely plan your day...
Wouldn't it be nice if most of the voters in his district were slashdot readers. Then he might get a lot of the vote even while he was against a big company.
How fitting that a story about a Diebold activist would be posted a few lines above the review for the election consipiracy book Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency...makes you think...
To me it is just plain marketing. For one side he gets info for his planning (which days he can gather more people at each place, etc.), even if it is biased (not everyone is connected to the web).
For the other, (and more important), he is doing his supporters more active (it is not just going to an speech, it is more participative) so they do more work (some old studies about media and politics showed that the message from the leaders was mainly received by their supporters, who where the ones in charge of, one by one, trying to convince the undecided voters -> P.F. Lazarsfield).
"It attracts people to come and engage with your campaign in a way that is fun and interesting," Noble said.
I agree he's trying a gimmick, but is it necessarily a bad one? He's recieving press, he's getting his name out, and if he continues with schedules like the ones suggested in the article, he could make a very good name for himself.
No harm in him trying to make himself stand out from candidates that do sleep in, don't attend events, but have enough money to advertise their campaign to death. Don't communities want leaders that get involved rather than sit idly by?
A sort-of on-topic question which occurred to me during the VP debate, when Cheney was chiding Edwards for missing votes in the senate: why is it so hard to get our congress-people to vote? "Missing votes" seems to be a ongoing and constant criticism of even our best political representatives.
Do they have to be physically present to cast a vote? If so, why? Can't we afford to get these people a blackberry or a treo or something? (I'm not being facetious, I just don't know.)
~jeff
What is this, the political expansion for the Sime or something? Other than a gimmick, I'm not sure what this gentleman hopes to achieve.
What will he do if he gets elected? Hold nightly cam sessions to allow his fans to tell him what to do and wear?
Just sounds all so wierd to me.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The constituents are supposed to use an electronic, paperless voting system to support someone who is against... electronic,... paperless... voting... systems??
I think my brain is starting to bleed.
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
To see a more obviously gerrymandered district (which might just be because I'm more familiar with the state) look at Indiana's.
Every little "bubble" you see shooting off of a large district is a larger town that was stuck in the district in order to absorb the democratic votes from it. For instance, the northeast and southeast parts of Marion County (Indianapolis, mostly district 7) are included in the 5th district, which except for those areas, is almost all rural, or very high income (north of Indy).
Similary, the southeast side of Ft Wayne (very low income, heavily Democratic) is separated from the rest of the city.
The 4th district was drawn almost specifically to put Purdue and IU in the same district (very liberal tending towns, and most residents are younger and less likely to vote) and then lump them in with nothing but rural voters.
It's sad that part of the reason that Indiana sends so many Republicans to Congress is because the Republicans at home are the ones that drew the districts for them. (They packed as many democrats as they could into the 7th and 1st district, and spread the remaining ones around well enough to make them ineffective.
I think that congressional districts should follow cultural and economic boundaries as well as possible. That way, you have voters you have a vested interest in the same thing represented by one person. It makes no sense for a person in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the poorest city to be represented by the same person as that of the richest person in the richest neighborhood. (Southeast side of Indy and Carmel, respectively)
What?
If a politician ran on a platform of almost total transparency I would like to think he would get total voteage.
Republican or Democrat doesn't really matter when you worry they do something meriting impeachment behind closed doors.
Politicians that do this WILL win it's as simple as that.