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Kansas Nerd Uses Net To Shake Up Political Fundraising
ghostlibrary sends a note about Sean Tevis, an information architect in Kansas, who is running for state representative with the help of an xkcd lookalike cartoon and grassroots Net-based fundraising. Tevis had garnered more than 6,000 contributions, most of them small, from around the country, far out-fundraising his opponent. Major news outlets have picked up the story as a harbinger of 21st-century Net-based political campaigning. Reader ghostlibrary adds, "As a bonus, Tevis cites xkcd intentionally (rather than just ripping it off without crediting it) and, well, it's actually funny."
How about some links to the guy?
Tevis' website and the comic in question should get most people started.
Well, look at his opponent's issues page and you'll find even less than that. According to vote smart, the incumbent has voted in line with the Kansas Association of School Boards only 10% of the time in 2006, despite his claims of supporting "Quality Education". It's hard to imagine Sean doing worse.
Yup, this is exactly why I donated to his opponent.
Why should a guy get elected just because he happens to be a geek? How about electing someone who has a clue about getting things done.
Bugs Bunny was right.
Here's the actual cartoon on his blog:
http://seantevis.com/kansas/3000/running-for-office-xkcd-style/
I think that your presuming that because a school isn't doing well it's automatically the fault of the school board or teacher's union is simplifying things a bit much (as well as being a bit insulting to teachers). So is assuming that everything a school board is for is automatically self-serving status quo preservation--votes on budgeting for facilities or textbooks are the simplest counter example there.
Regardless, an elected representative who wants to improve education but is deemed hostile by the school boards is unlikely to get anywhere on reform. Now that I poke into this a bit more, it looks like support for the Kansas school board is highly correlated with party, where democrats are usually for and republicans against the issues they're interested in. Does this mean that all the democrats are, as you say, in the pocket of the school board? I think you're reading a conspiracy into what's a standard party issue.
Arlen Siegfreid looks like a standard republican here, and it sure appears any pro-education stance is lip service unsupported by his voting record. Sean Tevis doesn't have any voting record here, but he's aligned with the more educational friendly party, and he does seem to at least have a decent vision--even if (as the parent post kicking this all off points out) his actual tactics to achieve that aren't very fleshed out.
Not that I support either of these guys, mind you--as a libertarian I think the state shouldn't be involved in education at all.
We've been on a few sites, but making it onto /. is something special.
Running for state rep means earning the trust of many voters in a few short months. Word of mouth goes a long way, but voters can't be reached effectively by email. The net's contributions make it possible for me to keep up a full time campaign at five nines while still keeping my day job.
I decided to run because my current state rep needed to retire. The 15th district needed someone better. I want to show the politicians in Topeka just how much difference a geek can make.
With your help I got their attention. Keep it up; we plan to show those people the power of technology. Keep checking the blog for updates and new comics.
-Sean
sean@seantevis.com
Yes, but most people interpret the causation backwards.
The guy with the most money doesn't get the most votes; the guy with the most supporters tends to get the most money *and* the most votes; the people who are going to vote for candidate A aren't very likely to contribute money to candidate B after all.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.