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FCN: Lessons From a Tea Party

My column from this week:

I have never seen anything like it. Honestly, I thought there would be — at best — about 250 people at last week's Tax Day Tea Party in Fort Collins. I have been working in politics for more than a dozen years, and it’s a struggle to get people to show up for the best political events. Most people aren't very politically involved, and unless you have a big name draw (like Barack Obama at Colorado State University or Sarah Palin at the Ranch last fall), it's hard to get people to come to hear people talk politics.

The tea party last week was put together by a few local first-time activists, outside of the traditional party structure. There were no “big name” speakers. There was no advertising. It is April of a nonelection year. Honestly, I was hoping for 200 (and crossing my fingers it wasn't going to be 50).

More than a thousand people showed up. Sure, I recognized some people from Republican Party politics, but the vast majority were strangers to traditional political events. Perhaps the most telling moment was when I found myself talking to some friends ... before realizing I only knew them socially — I had never even “talked politics” with them. It was one of those, “Hey, what are you doing here?” moments.

Now I'm sure you've heard about how this was a “manufactured” event, that there was a vast right-wing conspiracy behind it all (you know, FoxNews or FreedomWorks or the RNC). Well, these tea parties around the country (reports estimate between 300,000 and 500,000 people attended somewhere on April 15) were planned long before FoxNews created their flashy logo and sent their “personalities” to a few locations. I had never heard of FreedomWorks until someone made that accusation last week. As for that big money? The Fort Collins organizers passed the plate among themselves to pay for the sound system.

As for the Republican Party, I was at the executive board meeting of the Larimer County Republican Party last month when two of the tea party organizers came in and talked about the event they were trying to pull together. The response from the board was: “Sounds great! Now what did you say your names were again?” This was the most grass-roots, home-grown event I've ever seen, springing out of nowhere through forwarded e-mails or from Facebook friend to Facebook friend.

So what were these tea parties all about? What motivated people to take make homemade signs and take a couple of hours out of their day last Wednesday? People came together to stand up against the so-called stimulus bill, against trillions of dollars of deficit spending and pork, against bailouts of failed companies and giveaways to the politically connected. They came to speak out against higher taxes and a more intrusive, more powerful federal government. They came to express a fear that we're losing the core of our free-market economy. They came to express frustration with both Democrats and Republicans.

They came to speak out in favor of individual liberty, private enterprise and the fundamental belief that, first and foremost, the money that we earn by our own labor belongs to us, not the government. Perhaps columnist Mark Steyn put it best when he noted that the tea parties come from the understanding that taxes are about liberty. When the government taxes our income, it is taxing our labor. It is taxing our time, our skill and our innovation. It is taxing the risk we take with our money, the choices we with our time, and the hours we spend at work, away from our families and friends. As such, true liberty requires that taxes are kept low. Offering a government handout and calling it “stimulus” is an insult to the people who pay the taxes in the first place. True stimulus comes when people keep more of what they earn. The people, not the government, know best how to spend their own money. It is, after all, their money.

Based on what we've seen in less than 100 days of this new administration, there is plenty of concern out there — enough concern to motivate more than 1,000 people to show up on a Wednesday afternoon to stand up and to be heard.

FCN: Life on the Campaign Trail

My column last week:

If you've been wondering where this column has been for the past two months, it turns out there was an election in Fort Collins last week. I ran for the City Council against incumbent Kelly Ohlson, and lost.

Actually, everyone who challenged an incumbent lost pretty handily. Ohlson, Mayor Doug Hutchinson and Councilmember Ben Manvel all held on to their seats. The only change to the Fort Collins City Council is the addition of Aislinn Kottwitz, who was elected to replace the outgoing Diggs Brown.

To be honest, three months ago, I was not planning to run for office. But as the filing deadline grew nearer and no candidate stepped up to challenge Ohlson, I gradually made the decision to run. It was already late in the process, and I ended up running a seven-week sprint campaign: File the paperwork, design a logo, write and publish a Web page, raise some money, get a campaign phone (mine dialed the wrong number for the first two weeks), order yard signs, get some family photos taken, set up a Facebook group, design the literature, answer the questionnaires, prepare for the forums, print up walk lists, organize volunteers ... and then start trying to talk to actual voters.

That was the first week.

Nothing can prepare you for what it's like to run for office. Over the course of my career, I have worked with hundreds of candidates. I teach seminars on how to run for office. Yet even though I knew what I was getting into, I was still shocked by the reality of having my own name on the ballot. As a candidate, you completely lose your anonymity. (And with a regular column, I wasn't exactly anonymous to begin with.) Everyone has access to your political opinions, for good and bad, and they're more than willing to let you know what they think. You can't go to the supermarket for a late-night ice cream run without wondering if anyone will recognize you.

Even though I lost last week, I'd do it all over in a heartbeat. I had a tremendous opportunity to bring the issues I am passionate about — jobs and economic opportunity, smaller, less intrusive government — to a wider audience. I knew at times I would be controversial, yet I never backed down from a single position that I had staked out in this column. I wouldn't have run if I had been expected to be someone other than who I am.

In the end, having moved here less than five years ago, I'm flattered and honored that so many people voted for me, donated to my campaign and volunteered their time on my behalf. I will forever be indebted to my wife, who supported me and encouraged me (no small task with two small children at home).

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Kelly Ohlson was a gentleman over the course of the campaign. We don't agree on much, but that didn't keep us from establishing a mutual respect and, well, something of a camaraderie. As Kelly always put it, you develop a lifeboat mentality in a campaign setting. Only fellow candidates can truly understand what you're going through, so they're often the best people to swap stories with.

Of course, don't expect this column to go all mushy just because Kelly and I stood next to each other on a street corner.

Come to think of it, I've already got a question for our newly re-elected Councilmember in District 5: With all of the potholes on the west side of Fort Collins, who decided that it was a pressing priority to spend transportation dollars to replace all of the neighborhood street signs?

And when can we get a speed bump put in on Ringneck Drive? People are using it as a short-cut from Drake to Swallow, and they're speeding through a quiet residential neighborhood.

And how about loosening up a few mandates on business? And utility rates? Fees?

For some reason, I have a hunch that I'll have four more years of good column topics.