When I began running for State House in May of 2009 a very influential Cherokee Politico told me that if I managed to pull more than 10% of the vote at my age that I would “fundamentally change the way Georgia Politicians look at Georgia Politics.”
Last night we managed to pull 45.29% of the vote with 2,309 of the 5,100 votes cast. I could not be prouder of the work we have all done in the past year.
We were self-committed to running not only the most moral and accountable campaign possible but also the least intrusive. We accomplished this by limiting ourselves to $5,000 or less in campaign expenditures, zero cold calling, zero direct mail, and we quickly stopped going door to door when we found it was a bother the people on the other side of the door. I couldn’t possibly feel more positive about the manner in which we ran our campaign.
We ran on a shoe-string budget, turning many donations away, and refusing to make monetary campaign expenditures of over $5,000.00 from the very beginning. We met and exceeded that goal. Our campaign spent only $1,393.60 and had In-Kind Donations that equaled $7,672.83. By asking our donors to donate Goods and Services as opposed to monetary donations, we guaranteed accountability with their money. I have never seen a campaign run this way before, and we managed to earn 45% of the votes in our district doing it. Point proven: This can be done on the average man’s budget.
The unspent $1,271.40 will be divided in exact proportion among our monetary donors and returned by check. Thank you to everyone who has donated to our campaign in any way.
One more note on money: despite being offered, we never once accepted a donation from any registered lobbyist, political action committee, or any of the like. All of our donations were private citizens or local businesses.
With a final count of 1,606 facebook followers, 305 twitter followers, and a few hundred self-subscribed email fans, we have proven that social media can be both a free and effective tool even for Local Politics. We never once harvested a single email. We never sent out an unsolicited message. All information was requested, and we reached thousands.
We have term limit legislation written with dozens of candidates’ pledged support, and it is my hope to continue to push this legislation despite yesterday’s loss. We have given new life to an idea that hasn’t been introduced in a State Legislature anywhere in the Union for over a decade.
Above all, we showed that a 20 year old student with no previous political experience can take on a deep seated, well entrenched incumbent and, with self-imposed handicaps from spending caps to refusal to call and bother people in their homes, the student can still take away 45.3% of the vote. Those votes were won in the most ethical, friendly, and servant-minded way that I have seen from any campaign.
We have done well. We have accomplished amazing things for our District and our State, and it is my honest hope that our impact lingers in the minds of Georgia Politicians for years to come.
I would like to Congratulate Representative Byrd for an Outstanding campaign. Her campaign was both clean and honorable, and I have only positive feelings toward her. My sincerest thanks go out to Charlice for a wonderful and challenging experience. She ran hard and fought well. Congratulations.
We may have not gotten the election, but we’ve won in many other, more profound ways. We’ve helped get term limits in the door. We’ve clearly demonstrated that it doesn’t take a career politician to run for office. We’ve proven that campaigns can be run on a tight budget instead of off tens of thousands of dollars. And we’ve proven that all of this can be accomplished morally, in a clean campaign.
I want to thank each of the 2,309 voters who cast their ballot in my favor and every one of you who supported the campaign in any way from the bottom of my heart. We worked hard. Harder than any other. Our impact was massive. There are no regrets to be had. Carry forward knowing that we have made a dent on Cherokee County that won’t soon be forgotten, and that it is up to each and every one of us to keep our politicians accountable.
Thank you again, God Bless, and have an Outstanding day!
Michael Caldwell