I was unable to attract much money, media or active campaign team, yet thanks to my websites, facebook and personal appearances, I did pretty well in attracting votes in Idaho’s most populous county anyway.
I learned a lot about modern media, web-hosting, HTML and such that were good brain exercise and will probably be useful. I made a lot of friends and contacts who will be a nice part of my future. I certainly ramped up my name recognition, for whatever use that may have in the future.
My vote totals are comparable to typical Democratic campaign results in the state and, I think, the second best the Libertarian party has ever received in Idaho.
In a single-county race, I attracted five times the votes the Libertarian candidate for president received in his Idaho-state-wide race, and four times what the Libertarian candidate for one of our two US House of Reps seat received in a half-the-state-wide race .
I think this attests more to the obvious advantages of a Constitutional Sheriff than any other single factor, but being in a two-way race is certainly a major part of that as well.
It is imprtant to remember that this race pitted an unknown, semi-retired Libertarian businessman with no law enforcement experience and precious little discretionary money against a career-law-enforcement, Republican, incumbent sheriff with mainstream media support in a strongly Republican-dominated state.
The final numbers for Ada Sheriff with 145 of 145 precincts reporting (100%)
.. Gary Raney .. [R] .. 118,723 .. 74% (X)
.. Ted Dunlap .. [L] .. 41,014 .. 26%
Professional odds-makers would say we “beat the spread”, which is a bit of a victory in itself.
Now I get to retire from politics, activism and community service, slow down, take life a lot easier, and work on supplimental income for our household … right???
Those who know me are shaking their heads and chuckling softly already.
I promised myself a lot of puttering in my shop, playing with wood, metal, spending some quality time with my trombones, maybe taking up the bass, and getting a bunch of deferred projects completed… and I will.
But I clearly see some other things that are increasingly important for our health and happiness in the near future. In what order of priority and time allocation I’m not sure, but I will be working on stuff that is, to me, obviously important to our community (and thus to me as a member thereof).
* building the Ada Posse (Treasure Valley Posse?)
* building Oath Keepers
* establishing a Kuna Soup Kitchen and Kuna Lions Thrift Store
* expanding Fully Informed Jury Association
Oh yeah, there’s a little matter of the future of my websites. I’ll be figuring out which of these get attention and how much. Obviously TedDunlap.net will be deserving a rebuild, but the future of Idaholiberty.com, AdaLiberty.com, KunaIdaho.net, and The Fixer.biz are a bit less obvious.
For those of you watching, the show will go on.
