I went out canvassing, carrying handouts for Cory Booker, the Wyckoff Democratic Club, and my write-in campaign for Township Committee. I went by a list, from a coordinator with the New Jersey State Democratic Committee, of people in my town targeted for a get-out-the-vote effort. These prospects could be expected to have some affinity for Democrats—unlikely to slam a door in one’s face—but not necessarily a strong one. People who’d already voted, like me, presumably had been flagged as not needing a visit.
I got affirmations of support for Democrats and a few takers for my lawn signs, making the road by my house look like territory where I’m a front-runner. A few were less enthusiastic. One woman said she and her partner found the state of the world didn’t inspire them to vote this year. Another said she might vote, asked if this was a big election; I said it was for me. At another house, the person I sought no longer lived there, replaced by a Republican who politely declined literature. A lot of people weren’t home, and I left the material by their door, but as instructed, not in their mailbox, in compliance with federal law.
To vote for me, people need to write my name in a blank box in a column headed “Personal Choice.” If they’re voting in person, they’ll need to type my name on a screen. For the Township Committee, there are three Republican incumbents running, all with no opponent printed on the ballot; one of these is for a partial one-year term, the others full three-years. For the full-term seats, the two top vote-getters will win. I’ve asked people to write me in on three lines, initially on concern each line would be counted as a separate race; my subsequent reading is the three-year terms are all one race, but there’s also no harm in writing my name in redundantly, as it’ll only be counted once. Ideally, people will vote for me for both a full term and a partial one; however, I could only fill one seat if I were to win in both races, and I’ve been credibly informed I’ve no chance of winning anything.
Next year, there’ll be two three-year seats open again, and the Democrats, one hopes, will have two names on the ballot. One might be me, but somebody doing it is my objective. The Republicans have had a firm grip on the town, but they’re a plurality, not a majority: about 40 percent of registered voters, with 25 percent Democrats and 35 percent independents. I don’t detect much enthusiasm for the GOP; they placed numerous campaign signs on a stretch of road alongside uninhabited woods, rather than people’s lawns, suggesting they had some shortfall of willing recipients, or couldn’t be bothered to make the rounds.
My campaign video’s gotten around 2000 views across multiple platforms. I’ve an op-ed upcoming at a local news website. Early on, I reached out to a reporter for a media group that covers northern New Jersey, who checked with an editor on policy for covering write-ins. The answer was they’d list me as a candidate but provide no further coverage. I was pleased to be listed, though wondered how they could be sure I’d do nothing newsworthy. What if I ran through the streets with my head on fire? That seemed like a funny line, till I happened to see a car engulfed in flames by the side of the highway; checking later reports, I was relieved to learn no one had been in it.
