My thanks to all of you for your commitment to my campaign. I am truly honored to have had it.
As I am sure you know, on Election Day I received an amazing 25,856 votes. I say amazing because, as my lovely wife Christine posited, “We don’t know 25,000 people!” I agreed. Unfortunately, my opponent, Senator Florence Shapiro, received 135,945 votes. (I am sure she doesn’t know 135,000 people either.)
My total represented 16 percent of the vote. In a quick survey of the election data (in other words this could be wrong) it looks like I received the second highest total percentage for a Libertarian in the State of Texas. Sixteen percent is six percentage points higher than the base vote for Libertarians who run straight up against a Democrat or Republican and one point higher than my goal of 15 percent. I am very proud of this. Again, thank you!
More importantly, I believe my campaign has had an impact (at least for now) on the nature of the dialogue. As Senator Shapiro said in a gracious voicemail to me, “I certainly think there are issues and that you brought to the table that I think were very valuable and I will take them to heart.” I have noticed that she seems to be taking a more fiscally conservative stance on the upcoming budget. If this is the case, I am thrilled as it signals the true success of the campaign.
As with all Republicans, however, I remain reticent and skeptical about how the Senator will conduct herself once she gets to Austin in January. For me, anything short of shrinking the size of the state government by at least 20 percent is failure. I am hoping the electorate will not be like Charlie Brown and once again wind up flat on their collective backs as Lucy moves the football… AGAIN!
Here is the video of my concession speech on Tuesday evening.
Pictures from the poll watching party (and my birthday party) can be found here. (Apparently Picassa still does not play nice with blogs other the Blogger.) My thanks to Jessica Karlinski for taking and posting the photos!
There may be another post or two on this blog, but after that I intend to let it fall dormant, but will keep the URL just in case. (No that is not an announcement.) I will continue to post occasionally about matters political at my personal blog. If you are interested, please take a look at it and sign up for the feed if you like what you see.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Great job, Mr Kless! I thought you were an awesome candidate and truly hope you decide to run again. I believe you represented the party and our ideals perfectly. Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing your name on the next statewide ballot!!!!
Great ending for a great campaign.
We should have made a jibjab cartoon
You did an outstanding job. Congratulations!
It’s not that you won or lost, it’s that you gave it hell and made your thoughts clear and 25k of us…completely agreed with you! Next round…just avoid Texas
Thanks, all. If there is a next time (and I honestly hope there is not), I’ll be shooting for at least 25 percent. I think that would earn me a seat at the grown up table.
Ed…you’re always welcome at our table in Keller. I mean that. We have a ot to talk about and with an MBA in Markeitng…I can get you where you deserve to be! The tea party and talk of sucession is in your favor not against you…regardess of what the pundints say. Let me volunteer to help you!
Better to have tried and failed…
We need more people willing to tackle incumbents.
Hope you have another go.
Great job Ed, you made us proud.
I am so glad to have met you that day at Steve Nichols home….. I look forward to a future with more of you in it!
Thanks, Peter! I hope you enjoyed the speech! Thanks for your help at Toastmasters a few years back, it has really made a difference for me!
@David – let’s talk!
anytime boss…anytime