A Noteworthy Anniversary
It's been one year since the 2023 Republican Primary for Mayor here in Troy
Today marks one year since the last Primary Election for Mayor here in Troy. As one of the two candidates in the race, the first-hand experience of running such a campaign was one that I was very pleased to go through, regardless of the result.
The anniversary of this event lends itself to some re-examination of what happened and having one year go by, it allows for the proper context to be present in thinking about what happened. Telling this story any sooner would have prematurely come before some of the valuable lessons that this campaign offered would be made clear. On the flip side, telling this story any later would have lost the immediate meaning and values these same lessons would have taught.
The decision to run for Mayor actually came in the early summer of 2022, though the public announcement didn’t come for another few months. Those first few months were critical in planning and executing a campaign. There were multiple conversations had with all sorts of individuals from all walks of life. The consensus of those conversations was that a campaign to challenge an incumbent would be unbelievably hard. It has been generations since an incumbent mayor had lost, and winning against female incumbents was a new challenge the community hadn’t seen; in other words, the odds were very long. But, there was a general feeling that there needed to be a change, the administrative voices running the city were getting long in the tooth and the collective voice of residents were not being heard on the big decisions being made in our city.
There was also another, darker, thread through these conversations. Everyone that I had conversations with knew that any campaign held the potential to tear the community apart. Elections that prioritize demonizing an opponent over articulating the ideas one has, is nothing new. Collectively, we have seen those elections in federal and state races in our community for years; however, to have such a campaign on a community level was something that could happen, but needed to be avoided.
I made the early decision not to engage in any type of campaigning that I believed would insult our neighbors or divide our community. This may have seen as a naive move, but I also realized that I am relatively young. If I had run this race by tearing my opponent or my community apart, I couldn’t hold my head up with any sense of pride or dignity anywhere in this town, regardless of the outcome. I wasn’t going to put my character on the line just to win an election; our city deserved better than that.
Rather, the campaign was going to be based on our community’s collective future. I spent time introducing myself to voters, talking about my ideas and my credentials. I listened to our friends and neighbors talk about how housing, daycare and transportation were real felt needs in our community. Likewise, I observed actions that put pedestrians in our downtown at risk; actions that continue to put pedestrians at risk even to this day. I even spent a day shadowing officers with the City’s Police Department, getting a real first-hand view of how our police officers are more than just law enforcement officers, they are often the first-line of problem solvers for issues that aren’t easily addressed, such as drug abuse and mental health crises.
Methodically, I poured over voter rolls and previous election results. I knew the precincts I needed to carry, and I identified voters that I knew were going to go to the polls on an off-year primary election. Efforts were made to reach out to those voters through events, mailings and phone calls. Voters were engaged on social media and when some of our social media allies went too hard or too harsh on their efforts to get to support our campaign, I tampered it down where I could. If this campaign was going to win, we were going to do it the right way.
The first returns on election night were promising, our campaign had won the early vote by 17% and the absentee vote by 23%. It was at that point, I believed that the plan our campaign had set out to achieve had been successful. At best, our campaign was in a good position to win. At worst, our campaign would have gone through a competitive race, and we kept our character intact by talking about our community’s future and the ideas to make our campaign’s vision move forward. An opportunity to continue to engage the community was emerging, regardless of the result.
In the end, our campaign lost a race, but it would be a far cry to say this campaign was not successful. Why? Well, that is where this publication comes in.
After the campaign, the issues that were put forward by our campaign, didn’t magically go away. In many ways, these issues seemed ignored and disregarded. There was still a large hole that needed to be filled by having positive and productive conversations about our community. This publication was created to held fill that gap.
Perhaps that gap was no more evident than it was the day after the election as I was picking up yard signs. On many occasions, people came up to me and plainly stated that they didn’t vote. One person didn’t realize the election had come or gone, another readily admitted that they didn’t understand the issues facing the community and didn’t feel prepared to vote. Either way, it became clear that a loss of civic capacity was at hand in our tight-knit and hard-working community. While it seems like everyone had a social media megaphone, there were fewer and fewer places where individuals could learn about the decisions facing their community and the reasons certain decisions were being made.
That is why Civic Capacity was formed. One of the things I wanted to do if I were elected Mayor was exactly this kind of work. Talking about and opening up the gates of local government to give our friends and neighbors a better understanding of the workings of city hall. If I couldn’t be Mayor, I could at least do those things I wanted to do if I were elected.
And in all honesty, the response has been tremendous. Each day, nearly 500 people visit this website and over 1,400 people have signed up for the free newsletter. I am especially grateful for the over 60 of you that have made a financial contribution to this budding small journalistic business by being a paid subscriber.
The question gets asked quite a bit whether I would change anything. The answer is no. I learned through this campaign, as well as other challenges life tends to throw at us, that the hardest person to compete against is often yourself. If you can go through a campaign without losing your character and have something more amazing and meaningful happen to you on the other side, it just goes to show that the entire effort was well worth it.
So, that’s my story. What’s your reaction? Feel free to leave your ideas and questions in the comment thread below, and thank you for reading today!
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Bill, excellent essay! You are doing positive things to influence Troy’s future outside of elected office. Proud to call you friend.
You ARE making a difference in our community! Thanks!