Preview:
First, I would like to thank everyone who submitted names
for consideration for local 2018 races.
I deeply appreciate the thoughtfulness and enthusiasm of those who
offered up some possible candidates.
The good news: dozens
of names rolled in and while I believe the information largely aligns with what
passes for common knowledge, there are some intriguing individuals and scenarios being
floated. Informed wisdom or wild
speculation? You decide…eventually.
The bad news: this
post will have to wait. I don’t want to
run the risk of my 2018 post being a distraction, even in the slightest, from
the important 2016 election. Game 1 of
the double-header is well underway, I don’t want to start thinking too much
about Game 2 now.
What I can do is, at some point, and most likely in August, list
the number of candidates who are connected with a particular race, perhaps even
including their party affiliation (for the non-BoE races). No names or other identifying information
will be provided…yet. The full post,
with all of the tantalizing details (and initial analysis?), will be posted in
mid-November.
Review:
So I ordered my copy of Adam Gordon Sachs’ book, “Don’t
Knock, He’s Dead: a Longshot Candidate Gets Schooled in the Unseemly Underbelly
of American Campaign Politics” off of Amazon a few days ago. As you may know, he ran for Delegate in
Maryland’s 12th House District in 2014.
It is three parts campaign dairy, one part policy tract, one
part biography, and one part of musings on politics as it is practiced,
nationally and in Maryland, in the modern era.
As a big fan of the political campaign journal genre, I
quite enjoyed Sachs’ tome. There are so
many candidates for state legislature, yet one rarely has the opportunity to
hear their stories.
Clocking in at around 340 pages, it is a surprisingly quick
read. The chapters are largely short and
story-driven, this is a good beach book.
There are, unsurprisingly, a number of familiar names in his
narrative, including this author. If you
like reading about local personalities and issues, then I highly recommend
“Don’t Knock, He’s Dead.”
There was one editorial decision I found curious; he chose
to provide sobriquets for candidates. It
isn’t challenging to decipher who is who, if you followed the race. Some nicknames are complimentary, others less
so.
I suppose I should disclose that I voted for Sachs, along
with two others, in the vote-for-no-more-than-three lively multi-candidate
Democratic primary election. And I wrote about his
campaign, as did other bloggers who are also mentioned in Sachs’ work.
Overall, this is the kind of book that makes me think Mr.
Sachs is unlikely to seek elective office in the future. His observations and anecdotes will amuse
some and infuriate others. It reads like
an honest account of his perspective on health care, campaign finance, and
politics…so, in my opinion, it’s worth picking up.
Update:
Between 1999 and 2015, I held two jobs. Over the past 20 months, I shifted from a
decade of self-employment as a pollster and strategic communications counselor
to an SVP role with a global market research agency back to heading up my own
communications and research firm (along with a very, very brief stint in the
non-profit world). Beginning on August
1, I will be assuming the role of Managing Director, North America of a media
analysis company (details to follow). I do
not yet know what this means in terms of this blog. I imagine my posting frequency might be
somewhat less than it is now; and I may focus more on HoCo as opposed to
national issues which, based on my page view counts, is probably fine by my
readers. Do I still plan on covering
Election ’18? Absolutely. Will I be
talking about local issues? Of course.
Will some articles focus on Slats?
I can’t imagine otherwise.
As long as I can locate the proper balance between serving
some form of public good, while having a creative outlet for personal
expression, I believe this blog will continue to exist, in one form or
another, for some time.
Stay tuned, as more will follow.
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