This entry is going to be a long one, but it's all in tribute to you....so stay with me, OK?
A year and a half ago, I decided to take out petitions to have my name on the ballot for US House of Representatives here in Ohio's 16th District.
In October of 2003, my petitions were completed and I was declared a candidate.
On January 2nd at 4pm, no other candidates had filed with the board of elections, which officially gave me a primary victory and placed my name on the November ballot.
But my campaign didn't really begin until the night of April 4th, 2004.
On April 4th, I placed an ad here at dKos. A lot of candidates placed ads on blogs, but this one was unique. I placed it here out of frustration. Many of you may recall, Kos was under attack from right-wing ideologues because of a statement (which, having regretted writing such words, he later retracted) about 4 civilian contractors killed in Fallujah. The RW managed to get all 5 Democratic candidates who had previously placed ads to pull their sponsorships.
I saw it as yet another attack from a machine which claimed to love America but clearly hated Americans and their rights.
So I placed my ad. It went up at 1130pm on Sunday April 4th. Within 24 hours, the response was overwhelming. Over 10,000 dollars was contributed to my campaign, I received nearly 1,000 letters of encouragement, and one late-night caller claimed that I would regret my decision because "a storm is headed my way, one I would never recover from". That storm ended up being 88 pieces of hate mail, almost all of them exactly alike. Pathetic.
From that moment, I was shown that the blogosphere (and dKos specifically) was an amazing source of inspiration. A virtual think-tank, dedicated to progressive ideas. Did I take advantage of dKos? Hell yes, I did. I'm no fool.
We reached out to you and you sent us your thoughts and your ideas. You came from all over the world (both electronically and physically) to help. You arranged an entire day of my schedule in early October. In short, you BECAME my campaign.
Many other candidates used the internet in amazing ways, but no other campaign was more in touch with the online community as mine was. My Communications Director Tim Tagaris and I recognized the power of net-roots and we are so very proud to have been your candidate. We NEVER held a high-priced fundraiser and yet we raised more money than any opponent to Ralph Regula. We had the largest on-ground staff of any campaign in the history of Stark County...and only three staffers were actually FROM Stark County. And we made Regula spend more money than he had ever spent before on a race. He was planning to spend millions on other campaigns around the country, but had to shut that operation down just to hold onto his own seat.
And in this bellwether area that is Stark County, john Kerry won. He needed energy in this area and he had it. But it was our additional energy that pushed him over the top in this county....and nearly gave him the votes to win Ohio.
That is ALL because of you. April 4th was the birth of this campaign, and it's because you wanted the same things I was standing for....a backbone in the Democratic Party, transparency in the way a campaign is run, and never backing down in the face of Republican dirty tricks and bullying.
This is my thank you to all of you. But it's not a farewell. I know a lot of us are feeling hurt and lost...but two days ago we were dancing to Springsteen while watching Kerry on TV. Do the words "no retreat, no surrender" still have the same meaning to us? Hell yes, they do.
Get your chins up and fight back right now. There are 728 days until mid-term elections. Use every one you can to make sure we take our country back.
You created a monster in me, and I will not stop fighting. You helped us train and give experience to new young Democrats who will fight for what is right for this country. The army has been born....now you must become commanders of that army and take back our party and our country.
I wish I could find each and every one of you and give you a huge hug. I suppose I'll just have to save your hugs for when we all finally meet. In the meantime, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I couldn't have done it without you, and I hope you know that.
Keep fighting,
Jeff Seemann
Candidate for US House, 2006