Barrett Brown wrote:

Gary-

Sorry for the delay; I've been busy getting our new people set up at Enlighten the Vote. Some brief thoughts for now:

1. You mentioned you've been handing out water bottles. You might want to reconsider; water bottles have a notoriously unfavorable life cycle assessment, and the few people out in your area who actually care about such things are going to be your biggest supporters and perhaps volunteers but might be turned off by such things.

Yeah, that was a risk I had to take. I think it's paid off so far. I've handed out almost 1,000 bottles at local events, and most people thought it was rather clever. I've only had a couple of people not take them.
As far as volunteers, I've realized that hardly anybody's interested in helping a low-level candidate. Right now, my staff is me. Everyone's interested in Obama and the Congressional races and not much more than that.

2. When discussing efficiency and all that good stuff, make a point of mentioning that even the Army is using such things as life cycle assessments when they purchase such mundane things as paint, and that they do so in order to save money as well as to leave a minimal environmental impact. Points such as this should make it harder for your conservative incumbent opponents to paint you as some sort of crazy hippie.

3. I've noticed you've already gotten an endorsement from one organization. Let's go for several more; I'm compiling a short list for you this week. Let me know if you'd like me to draft an e-mail for you to send to them or write one on your behalf from me, or if you'd like to handle this yourself.

I have one more: the Democratic Party of Orange County, but I'm purposely not putting that on there since this is a highly Republican area. I'm hoping to get two more: Orange County Employee's Assn and SWMD Employee's Assn. I'm looking forward to the last one especially. No other candidate has sat down and talked with the water district's employee's assn.
If you've got ideas for other endorsements, I'd love them. A draft letter would be great.

4. Can you get back to me at some point with whatever you know about the individual incumbents other than that they're not particularly wonkish or fond of transparency?

Well, that's part of the problem with this race. For the most part, the water district is run well. The board members are near invisible. When I go door-to-door, most people don't know who they are. And when the Board votes, it's always a 5-0 vote.
The information that I have collected on them starts here: http://photeus.com/JSPWiki/Wiki.jsp?page=SMWD

5. Do you want me to do a post for Daily Kos on your behalf, or do you want to do it yourself? Let's coordinate on this. We'll also want to hit MyDD with the same post.

Hmm. It might look better coming from you. It shows support for me instead of me just yapping about myself. Just let me see the draft first, please.

6. I've attached an article I wrote a few months back for an industry pub which you might find useful insomuch as that it contains some interesting points on efficiency, LCAs, and whatnot.

Ok, I'll read it. Thanks! Please note, though, most people I talk with are completely unaware of water issues. So, when I mention the 1.6 million gallons of sewage spills and that I want the district to offer rebates, that seems to be enough.

Gary