Run with the Little Guy
Volume 12, Number 20
Issue 568
My bottle of Jones Soda had the slogan “Be Flexible. Run with the little guy. Create some change” printed on the side. Isn’t this one of the mantras of successful entrepreneurs? Embrace change. Facilitate it if you have the guts to, but be, at a minimum, receptive to it. There is only one thing that won’t change: the fact that there WILL be change.
A year ago I decided to run for public office in Chesterfield County and was subsequently elected. I’ve written a lot about this experience. I also wrote a lot about the fact that we, as citizens, should stand up and support people who want to run for public office as they represent the epitome of our democratic process: the ability of anyone, yes, anyone--to run for any public office.
Now, I used the word “ability” in the above paragraph. “Ability” does not mean that they automatically have a serious chance, given the fact that it takes tremendous amounts of money and effort to successfully be elected. I was lucky. I was able to garner the resources of friends and associates and I ran a well-thought-out and well-managed campaign. Having managed and “treasurered” other campaigns before gave me the experience, especially in financial aspects, to be elected. Above all, I was smart enough not to tackle the job without a qualified group of advisers.
Several great people with great ideas whose election would represent great opportunity for the county didn’t get elected last fall when I was elected. It’s not their not being elected that disturbs me the most, it was the disrespect that they received from most incumbents for running in the first place. Even more upsetting to me was that the voters of our county didn’t embrace the candidacies of these people as a welcome attempt for diversity.
During my own campaign, I became closely associated with several wonderful people who shared with me a vision for being elected to public office: Bill Hastings, David Childress, Abbas Taghavi, and Jim Clarke.
Hastings lost the Matoaca District Supervisor’s race to a very well-entrenched incumbent by 48% to 52% with a thin margin of only 346 votes. Childress challenged the long-time county sheriff and ended up on the wrong end of a 30% to 70% vote. Clarke, in the three-way Commissioner of Revenue’s race, and running as an independent, took 34% of the vote versus 56% of the winner and 10% of Taghavi, the third place finisher.
Hastings had actually held the position of Soil and Water Conservation District Director--the office that I was elected to--and had decided not to run again so he could focus on his Supervisor’s campaign. I felt a special kindred attraction to him because of this.
Taghavi, in the same race for Commissioner of Revenue as Clarke, took only 10% of the vote running as an endorsed Democrat. So much for the Democratic endorsement meaning something here in Chesterfield County. He was the ONLY minority candidate on the 2003 ballot and to the best of my knowledge and belief is the ONLY minority candidate to have ever sought county-wide office in 275 years. For this county to give him only 10% of the vote is a disgrace or apathy, I’m not sure which. The Democratic Party missed a tremendous opportunity to help him. Abbas Taghavi and I brainstorm often about the 10%, his Democratic endorsement and his political future. I hope he’ll be back.
Recently, at a “payoff the debt” fundraiser that I planned and hosted for Hastings, I singled-out Taghavi from the audience. I publicly asked him to consider running again. I offered my help, my networking and my assistance. It’s NOT because he’s a minority. It’s because I like him and I like his style. Abbas Taghavi represents the diversity that we must have in all our elected officials.
In the not-too-distant future--within the next generation--the current “minorities” will be the majority of our population and I will find myself being a “minority.” To that end, I consider the term “minority” obsolete. I have grown to ignore ethnicity and look to the person. Education, manners, ideas and respect for tolerance and diversity matter to me; that’s another reason that I am so desirous of making our elected officials represent the entire population, not just the current controlling ethnicity.
Taghavi, born in Iran, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to take medical equipment and supplies to needy countries. He’s a brilliant man that just about everybody overlooked. He is exactly the type of kind and sensitive and smart person that should be running for office.
Some people asked me how I could support both Clarke and Taghavi in the last election, which I did, when they were both running for the same office--Commissioner of Revenue. Clarke and I even shared a booth for independents at the Chesterfield Fair (along with Chldress). Well, my thoughts were to encourage them both, give them both the forums that they need to get their individual messages out and then let the voters decide between them. Again, a “make the entrenched incumbent earn it” thought process. Between them, they got 44% of the vote--a fairly good showing.
After the fundraiser for Hastings, my wife and I were exhausted from three hours of “politicking.” We retreated to the neighborhood sandwich shop around the corner to have the dinner that we should have had at the fundraiser but were too busy networking Mr. Hastings’ donors to have. I’m always a sucker for the Jones NaturalsÔ brand drinks made by the Jones Soda Company of Seattle, Washington. This company has defined its target market to be the non-traditional bottled drink buyers. Their packaging is cutting-edge, often with environmental or political themes and I like that. By doing non-traditional things whenever I am in public, it makes me a better traditional CPA because I learn things that I can then use to give better advice. When my order arrived, my bottle of Jones Soda had that slogan “Be Flexible. Run with the little guy. Create some change.”
Highly successful people know that luck is the by-product of having a prepared mind. I often hear people saying “I just had a feeling” or “I received this sign.” I believe in these things because they are usually right. When you feel that you were sent a “sign,” usually it simply means that you had the training, education and intuitiveness to interpret the event.
I think that I have a need to give my full faith, confidence and support to encourage people to run for political office. There seems to be a “grip” on our political process by incumbents who disrespect so-called “no name” candidates who muster the courage to, as my great friend and former congressional candidate Warren Stewart says, “keep the big boys legal.”
If our society is to move forward and make progress with regard to budget deficits, environmental and human rights issues as well as with economic and social issues, we have to encourage as many people as possible to become involved in the political process, and, especially, to consider running for public office themselves.
Just as I took exception with the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors deciding that they desired only Judeo-Christian religious faiths to be the ones to give the invocations at Board of Supervisors meetings, I take exception with the fact that the major political parties and, especially, incumbents in general, seek to “quash” political opposition. I think that the Judeo-Christian faiths are strong enough to be able to include as many prayers as possible from other faiths. I also think that our political process can only be enhanced by tolerating as many candidates from as many ethnic and social and economic backgrounds as possible.
“Be Flexible. Run with the little guy. Create some change.” Seek-out and encourage first-time political candidates. Go back to the past elections and track down the candidates that didn’t win and encourage them to get ready to run again. Get your checkbook out and support these candidates. Get your Christmas card list out and send letters to friends and associates encouraging them to get interested in the campaigns of political newcomers and political unknowns. Our political process can only get better through grassroots networking to “keep the big boys legal.”
If you have an issue that you believe it, stand up for it. Put effort into supporting candidates who have a like mind. Consider running for office yourself. I did. Don’t be afraid. It takes a lot of effort, money and confidence, but anybody can run a campaign and influence an election.
Supporting political candidates passionately and enthusiastically and considering to run for office yourself is the ultimate honor to all of our relatives and ancestors who fought and died in wars. They did so that we can enjoy the personal and professional freedoms that we enjoy today. If you watch the evening news, you’ll see the reason why we need to “run with the little guy [and] create some change.”
David B. Robinson, CPA
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