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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."
"Strangely, he won the election with a +5, Insightful."
How about some links to the guy?
Tevis' website and the comic in question should get most people started.
and donated even though I don't live in his state and I typically don't vote Democrat (don't vote Republican, either). We need new blood in political office... people who are a little more 'in' with technology, etc.
Dammit. And here I was hoping we could elect BHM...
Although, I guess BHO is only one letter off. Or two, depending on your metric.
The news is he's picking up national news media. Which is a great followup. As a Kansan, I hope he wins he's got some cool transparency ideas that everyone can benefit from.
Seriously, this is a month old. I gave him $10 back in July.
Anybody who comes to /. for the "scoop" is an idiot. What you come here for is the discussion with fellow geeks.
You must be new h- *checks UID of parent* -you really ought to know better by now.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
I still have no idea why anyone would give this guy money or vote for him. Is it just because he's a nerd?
Let's look at his education policy. Apparently his entire platform on education is "we should have the best schools". How would he go about making that happen, you ask? Why it's simple! By making sure they're the best, of course!
what have you done for him lately?
rewriting history since 2109
View page source (on his xkcd-style ad) for a hidden message to geeks.
sig?
Agreed. I'm also not donating, because I'm not a US citizen (nor do I even live in the US). But, if I was ALLOWED to donate, I almost certainly would. Same applies for Barack Obama.
Now, some people reading this may ask, "why would this guy donate to a politician in a country he doesn't live in?" (or even, "a 'minor' politician in a state he's never even been to?"). The answer is actually pretty simple - the more politicians, ANYWHERE that support the same things I agree with, makes the world a better place in my eyes. Maybe one day I'll want to (or need to) visit Kansas. If I do, then in some way, the laws and policies of the place may have an effect on me. Or maybe I'll meet an American tourist over here, and become good friends - they might just happen to be from Kansas, and I'm always in favour of my friends having a better place to live!
It's a small world, and almost everything, everywhere, affects almost everything else, everywhere else.
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
... someone running for a state representative spot isn't posturing as having the answer to every single problem?
This is a problem with politics. What we need in government are people who know a lot about certain fields, who are willing to listen to others who know a lot about other fields.
Instead, as the parent post so painfully illustrates, what we as voters do is vote for the people who claim to have ALL the answers. And guess what? The ones who claim to know the answers to everything are the ones who don't know crap about anything.
'a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM DATA WHERE name LIKE '%'... if you're reading this, it didn't work.
His district. Not even a micropayment's worth.
Let me put it this way, me and my buddies here in Silicon Valley could easy drop many thousands (hundreds of thousands if we do it as a group) on political races in Alabama, selecting candidates that represent our views, trying to make behave the way we want (pro-choice, etc.)
But that wouldn't be right. Everyone is entitled to select representatives that represent them, and not those who live thousands of miles away.
This person should be working within his community. That's where he's going to have effect anyway.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Here's the actual cartoon on his blog:
http://seantevis.com/kansas/3000/running-for-office-xkcd-style/
The thing is, no one is forcing the people of Kansas to vote for this guy. He just has some money to do advertising with. If you gave a guy who no one likes a million dollars to campaign with, he'd still lose because don't like him. If this guy wins, it will be because people know who he is AND they agree with him.
Can a cartoon with stick figures and witty dialogue really be considered ripping off anything? I know, Tevis pays homage to XKCD, so there is definitely a connection here, but does every middle schooler drawing a cartoon stick figure in the corner of the pages of a spiral notebook need to give credit to XKCD? It's like how Walmart was claiming some sort of trademark on the yellow smiley face. Besides, I didn't even see a hat. Just a bunch of side-parts, a mustache, and a beard (none of which are regular on XKCD anyway).
I never said fund raising doesn't have an effect on elections. But please don't equate a causation between fundraising and election success. Sure, there may be a correlation, but a candidate is elected strictly on the number of votes she receives from her constituents.
It is amoral for a person in Silicon Valley to illegally vote in an election in Alabama. But I fail to see the amorality in contributing to a campaign.
Here's an analogy: the more (positive) air time a candidate gets on television, radio, the Internet, etc. the more likely she is to win. Therefore it is amoral for a national broadcaster to give air time to a candidate in a local election without giving equal airtime to their candidate. Or it's amoral for a non-Kansan to come to /. and submit this piece about a Kansas candidate, and it's even more amoral for the /. crew to publish it.
How about we try to stop telling people what they can and cannot do so long as their actions don't step on the fundamental rights of another human being. Donating money to a candidate in a local election is not squashing anyone's unalienable rights.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
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