Hearle for Congress | Final Words, June 7, 2006 Final Words, June 7, 2006

The California primary election was yesterday, and my campaign officially concluded this afternoon when I handed my letter of congratulations and concession to a member of Tom Lantos' staff. The bad news is that Lantos received 82% of the votes. The good news is that I received close enough to double digits in percentage of the vote that The San Francisco Chronicle, in their only mention of me in their pages during the entire campaign, rounded my total up to 10%. That was good enough for second place, beating out a Burlingame advertising and public relations executive who spent almost $10,000 of his own money to buy radio advertising, buttons and fliers. I don't know how much Lantos spent. At one point, though, he had over $1.3 million in his campaign account, so I wasn't going to get into a spending war with him.

I spent considerably less than $1,000 and focused on getting out the message about the need to defend the Constitution from George W. Bush and Co. Mostly, I relied on my own skills as a thinker and writer and on the amazing talents of my generous friend, the masterful web designer Wm Leslie Howard, and of my wonderful step-brother Bob Gladwell, the designer of the fabulous graphics for the revolutionary, do-it-yourself, downloadable lawn sign. You can see for yourself how these guys made it possible for me to present myself as a polished, serious candidate on the tiniest of budgets at hearleforcongress.org. My campaign never had a single flier or button. What my campaign did have was a great website (so good it was praised in the local papers), the 30 lawn signs I printed out personally on my home computer and printer and then (after taping it to a piece of cardboard and an untwisted wire coat hanger) placed in store windows and at traditionally congested freeway onramps and off ramps, a t-shirt I wore that had the lawn sign printed on the back, however many signs people printed out on their own from the website and displayed, and a great message that true patriotism in this country has never meant shut-up-and-follow-the-leader.

My campaign for Congress is over; however, my campaign to defend the Constitution from George W. Bush will continue. I am hoping to put together a big rally in San Francisco sometime in October to be called Poets for Impeachment. A number of major American poets have expressed interest in participating, and I'm thinking it makes sense to be broad enough in defining poets to include some world famous progressive singer-songwriters. I'll also see what I can do to attract some stars from Hollywood, academia, the anti-Vietnam War movement and the Watergate scandal to join us for brief interludes of teach-in between the poetry and music. Pulling it all together will be a major undertaking, and, if you can think of any way in which you could be of help, please be sure to let me know. That could include having connections to Neil Young, The Dixie Chicks, Bonnie Raitt, or Green Day or their managers, or knowing a progressively minded sound engineer who might be willing to donate his or her time at the event. It could also mean—if you have expertise in public relations or advertising or marketing—pitching in to help spread the word. It could even be something as simple as sharing your connections. If you have connections in a nationally known, non-profit organization that might be willing to take on Poets for Impeachment as a sponsored project (thus saving us lots of trouble putting together a brand new non-profit organization and administrative structure), please let me know. Or, if you're a lawyer and you'd be willing to draw up papers of incorporation for Poets for Impeachment, Inc. that would be great. Even if none of those things sounds like something you could do or donate, remember: there's always money. Imagine if you will, the YOUR NAME HERE stage at Poets for Impeachment, or hearing the announcer saying, "Today's reading by Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States so-and-so is sponsored by YOUR NAME HERE."

I'm dreaming here, but as Robert Browning wrote, a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for? It's time to change the world. I hope you'll stick with me.

Thank you,
Kevin (formerly Hearle of Hearle for Congress)
Poets for Impeachment
P.O. Box 5399
San Mateo, CA 94402
kevinhearle.org
Contact Kevin 650-571-6390