If you’ve read many of my posts here, you probably know that Downtown Dad is a political animal. He lives and breathes local politics and is very good at effecting change through the proper channels by talking to the right people. But as he has said to me many times, “its easier to get things done as a private citizen, than it is as an elected official.” Apparently things just got too easy for him because at the end of August, he (we) decided that he was going to run for City Council to represent the fourth ward in Moorhead.
It has been a very interesting couple of months, made even moreso by Covid, and the very short time between his decision to run and election day. I honestly thought there would be more committees, and regulations, and some sort of “how-to” manual… there is not. It’s literally just DD and me, and two or three other people who are very generous with their time and talent.
When he first floated the idea, I knew it was the right idea and the right time. He’s thought about this before but run into resistance from his employers. Now, since he’s retiring at the end of the year, he can run uninhibited… well except for the competition, which in this case is a really nice guy who happens to be a fellow theatre parent. DD called him right away once he registered his candidacy, and assured him there was nothing personal, just that the opportunity had presented itself and he needed to take advantage of it.
I came up with the name for the campaign, the website, and the graphics, and I must say it’s pretty brilliant. He’s running for Ward 4, and in that sentence is the word Forward. I just ran the two words together graphically, and made them two different colors and voila!
Aside from the joy I feel at seeing my first attempt at graphic design popping up on signs all over town, it appears that the campaign is going pretty well too! The other candidate, the nice guy, is focused on environmental issues – which, don’t get me wrong – is a worthwhile thing to be focused on. But as his name implies, Downtown Dad is more focused on business development, and has the contacts in the business community backing him. So at the risk of sounding too confident, that makes me feel pretty confident about him winning!
At the time of this writing, there are 10 days left before votes are counted, and the early voting total has already exceeded the number of early votes cast in 2016. This is a hopeful sign nationally, that we may be able to end the horrific nightmare that has occupied the White House for the past four years… locally I’m not sure what that means. Due to health restrictions during the rise in Covid cases, we don’t dare do any door knocking, so we really have no idea how people feel. He’s done some online and virtual forums, but there has been no indication through those of name recognition, or preference toward one candidate or the other. So, I guess I’ll just go with my gut, and my ever present optimism!
