* Apologies to Linda Carbino and The Valley News

With apologies to Linda Carbino the Valley News

My campaign is an experiment: To see if an ordinary citizen can get elected without accepting any donations or spending any money by using free social media only.

I recently turned down a kind invitation from Linda Carbino of the CATV program “Walking through Life” to appear on her show. She devotes a show to each of the local candidates for the Vermont Legislature.

I explained that it would violate my promise to use social media only, but that I would be happy to appear on her show after election. Linda has done wonderful work with mental illness and addiction recovery on her show and I admire her efforts tremendously.

Now I am told  by one of the other candidates that the Valley News will be calling all of the candidates to interview them.

Again, I will have to politely refuse in order to keep my promise to use social media only.  (Note, the original article the Valley News wrote about my candidacy was not “campaigning”.  It was announcing  that I was a candidate but that I was running an “un-campaign.")

My vow is: No money spent, no babies kissed, no interviews granted, no hands shaked.

What about the ten hours I spent this week on street corners holding a sign?

In my letter to Joseph Collea*, Principal at Hartford High School (which is transformed into the polling place on Election Day), I answered his query if I would be  standing outside the school on Election Day with the other candidates.  

“No”, I answered, because my presence would cause  commotion among students which might invalidate the sanctity of the polling place.

I told Mr. Collea that, instead, I would spend that ten hours earlier than Election Day on street corners holding my sign, ten hours which the candidates stand outside the high school on Election Day.  That is what I completed this week( see photo above).

I understand that one of the questions the Valley News might ask is: What committee you would like to be on if elected?

 I’ll serve on any committee, but it might be a terrible waste not to use my 25 years of teaching and 17 years of college experience by having me serve on the Education Committee.

Otherwise, when the Valley News calls, I will keep my promise to use social media only by referring them to this piece and instructing them to "google"  my blog, my Facebook page, and my YouTube videos at:  PKvermonter.

The experiment is to see if the public, not the institutional media,  will spread the word of my candidacy, opinions, and qualifications through free social media.

If that means I cut my own throat by limiting normal campaigning through established media, so be it.

Sincerely,

Paul Keane

PS:

 Aren’t my own letters to the Valley News a violation of my promise?  
No. 
They are written by me, not by the Valley News, and I have been publishing them there since 1989. I have had strong opinions long before I became a candidate and don't feel I need to stop having  them simply because I am suddenly a candidate.


* (Letter to Mr. Collea)

To:

Mr. Joseph Collea, Principal

Hartford High School

From:

Paul Keane,

Independent Candidate for the Vermont Legislature

Date:

September 20, 2012

Subject:

Election Day Polling Place

Hi Joe,

Nice to see you at the joint meeting of the Boards the other night at the Getaway.

In answer to your question “Will you be standing outside on election day?”

let me say I’ve fretted about that.

I stopped in to the Town Clerk’s Office and they told me that a candidate can ONLY stand in the designated area ( ironically in the grassy area 20 feet outside Rm. B107, the room in which I taught for over two decades) and that if the candidate enters the school even to use the bathroom he/she must wear no campaign signs or buttons and speak no words about the campaign. 

The school  has become The Polling Place on that day and it cannot be violated with campaigning, except in the one designated area mentioned above.

Even if school were not in session, this presents a problem for me that other candidates do not have. 

As a recently retired teacher, one student yelling out a window or one team member yelling out of the locker room “Go Keane” or “Vote Keane” would violate the Polling Place and put other candidates at a disadvantage.

Therefore my answer is: NO

I will not stand outside the High School with other candidates on electionday.

This fits my campaign promise.

I will use ONLY social media:  No media interviews, no debates, no arm twisting, no back slapping, no glad handing, no baby kissing, no donations accepted, no money spent, no dehumanizing, impersonal, bubble-sheet surveys filled out, etc.

I will however stand on the crossroad berm for a rush-hour now and then the week before election in the center of town waving a sign and my dog Nemo’s pooper-scooper. (see video above).

Those few hours of waving will be my entire campaign outside of the social media.

This is the first experiment of its kind as far as I know:  Can use of the social media alone win an election?

If it can’t, so be it.

Best wishes,

Paul

Paul D. Keane

(HHS, Ret.)

M.A., M.Div., M.Ed.

cc:

Mr. Riesburg

Mr. DeBalsi

Mr. Frank

Mr. Christie

Mr. DeFelice

Ms. Vowinkel

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