Campaign Journal
November 9th, 2004I was on Rob Hunter’s morning show today. He asked me on to basically describe what the race was like for a newcomer in politics. We discussed the problems that I had. The fact that Bobby Jindal was able to raise enough money to make contributions to the other candidates seem meaningless was a key issue. Other issues where the fact that the district is very gerrymandered and the lack of media interest. I believe it went well. Unfortunately, someone called in and made a comment about my saying that Bobby Jindal was not qualified because he never had legislative experience. I never said anything close to that. Perhaps the caller was confused when I stated my surprise that someone with no legislative experience was able to raise that much money. I was very surprised at the large number of out of state donations received by Bobby Jindal. This will be the last journal entry on this website. My new website will have a journal as well as some political and sports commentary. I will be leaving a couple pages available to the public on this site. Thanks for reading and for all of your support! November 1st, 2004With one day left in the election, I am making my rounds in several parishes to make sure that the vote gets out. Today I will be spending the day in Kenner. I will then go back up to Bogalusa to speak with some supporters there. On Tuesday I will be making the rounds in Metairie and Kenner to get the vote out. This will all lead up to the victory party at Mr. Gyros on Tuesday night. Regardless of what the final poll results are, this campaign will have been a victory because I was able to help people. October 27th, 2004In entering the final days of the campaign, I have many items on my schedule. Tomorrow I will be setting up my final days of advertising. These ads should run on Sunday and Monday and should help to reduce the effect of the wool being pulled over the eyes of the voters in District One. I wish that I could run more ads. However, unless I get a large influx of donations in the next day or so, these will have to do. I plan on going back to Hammond on Friday during the day. Saturday will be spent partly in Washington Parish and partly doing some door-to-door work. Sunday and Monday will basically be spent in key areas all over the district. This will lead up to election day, where we will see if all of our hard work has paid off. I need to also thank Christopher Tidmore for allowing me to come on his radio show and share some of my views. I am glad that I was able to tell more people that I am the only candidate in the district to make Coastal Restoration the top priority. I was also glad to be able to give the website address so people can learn more about me and why I think I would do a great job for the citizens of the First District. October 26th, 2004I went to Hammond today and got some more support from the College Democrats. The more people that I can get to spread the vote, the better. I plan on going up there at least one more time. I was concerned when I got a phone call from my girlfriend about a co-worker who went to cast an absentee ballot. Apparently a Bobby Jindal supporter felt that it was his responsibility to violate election laws and inform them that they should vote for Bobby Jindal. Unfortunately, her friend did not act on the matter A.S.A.P.. If you encounter people like this when you go cast a vote on November 2nd, please notify the people at the polling places so they can be dealt with accordingly. I then got a rather amusing call. The following is a more concise version of the call. Caller: Hello Me: Hello? Caller: Hello? Me: Hello???? Caller: Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Kim and I am with the Bobby Jindal campaign. Me: Yes? (I was thinking that they where informed of my complaint to the polling place) Kim: I was wondering if Bobby Jindal has your support on November 2nd. Me: Do you know who you are speaking with? Kim: No. Me: Well…. I am Daniel Zimmerman Kim: Oooh… I’m sorry. Me: Well, since I have you on the phone I wanted to notify you that one of your supporters was informing voters casting absentee ballots that they should be voting for Bobby Jindal. While I do not blame you for this incident, I would recommend that you contact your supporters and staff immediately and make sure they know not to violate any election laws or I will take the appropriate action. Kim: Ok, I will make sure that someone is notified. Are Bobby Jindal’s supporters really that scared about him losing that they need to resort to illegal tactics? If you see anyone doing anything illegal at or near a polling place, please inform the officials in the polling place immediately. October 23rd, 2004The year of the come from behind victories continued this week when the Red Sox did what nobody thought they could do. They came back from a 3-0 and won the A.L.C.S, something that no other club has done. Perhaps my campaign can do something that nobody expects as well! I had an interesting day at the Washington Parish fair on Friday. Somebody with a Bobby Jindal sticker was taking pictures all over the place. It was really great to see someone so young take an interest in politics. However, I hope he takes the time to do some research on his own as he learns more about our system. I was discussing my problem with Bobby Jindal’s support of a co-payment system in Medicaid. His response was to ask me whether or not it was the government’s responsibility to provide Medicaid in the first place. The problem with that argument is that Bobby Jindal is not saying “let’s get rid of Medicaid”, even though the co-payment system that he supports could cause the system to have large increased costs that, in the long term, could cripple Medicaid. I have more work to do this weekend to get my message spread out. If you are reading this and you support my campaign, please make sure to tell everyone you know about it so we can shake things up in this election. October 18th, 2004This weekend was a very busy one. I managed to attend 4 different fairs. I am still amazed at the lack of support that I am seeing for Bobby Jindal. It really makes me believe that they are rejecting his stance on Medicaid co-payments and are looking for an opponent who will think in the long term. I just hope that I can find some people that will look beyond the flawed polling data and will contribute some funds to enable me to make an advertising run during the final week of the election. I was mentioned in two articles this weekend (news) . One article in The Advocate focused on the people running in this race and that most of us are considered underdogs. While this is true, I also believe that if the word gets spread that one of the “underdogs” will be able to force a runoff with Bobby Jindal. The Times-Picayune article focused on the stance of each candidate on the current military conflict in Iraq. While the paper properly covered some of the quotes that I gave, I feel that the article left out one very important statement that I had given. I wanted the readers of the Times-Picayune to know that I do not think that we should be playing partisan politics when it comes to the safety of our citizens and our troops. I feel that of the 6 candidates, I am the least likely to play those partisan politics. Perhaps quoting me on that stance would make the article seem biased. I can understand that, and it is why I am sharing with you what was left out. I have several more events to attend this week. I will also be working hard to go door to door in some areas where I feel that I can get more votes. So if you see me out and about, do not hesitate to say hello. October 15th, 2004Apparently the “sepia mutiny” forum has a bug that does not allow html tags to carry over into a new paragraph. This was the source of the error on the forum. I appreciate their quick action in editing my post to how I wanted it to look. This weekend will be another busy weekend in my campaign. I have at least 3 different events to attend. This will give me more opportunities to get to know the people in my district. That is something that I really enjoy about the campaign. It is also interesting to listen to the radio and then hear your voice on a commercial, especially when you are not expecting to hear it. I hope this past commercial run will encourage people to help me spread the word. October 13th, 2004I have a gripe with a certain website called “Sepia mutiny”. There was a thread that referred to a Times Picayune article that discussed this race. Apparently someone in that forum edited a post to change the context of my post. When I initially made my post, I had put two lines in italics. My post was edited to only place one of those lines in italics. This makes it look like the second line is now a quote from me, it is not. I have emailed the administrators so they can fix the problem. October 11th, 2004As the campaign continues I really have to wonder where the support for Bobby Jindal is. I went to two more fairs this weekend and spoke with more people. The response I get is still the same. One or two people will support Bobby Jindal because of a singular issue. That is all the support that I am seeing for him. I really believe that I will be able to force a runoff election if I can get some financial backing. I understand that people may not want to donate because everyone in the media has called this election already. However, nobody in the media has focused on the actual issues that Bobby Jindal supports. So I will need to rely on advertising to let people know about them. I will also continue to work hard at fairs, forums, and going door to door. October 4th, 2004This weekend was an amazing weekend. I was able to go to 7 fairs and spread my message in 3 different parishes. The weekend did leave me wondering where the support is for Bobby Jindal. His campaign says that they have over 70% in the polls. I saw less than 1% who want to vote for Bobby Jindal. While there where a handful who did support him at these fairs, I would have expected to see a much larger percentage supporting him. I speak with new people everyday and the answer I get is pretty clear. They do not want somebody representing them who supports a co-payment system on Medicaid. They do not support that issue and they worry about what other issues would be supported by a candidate that supports this proposal. I was also stunned when I read the paper this weekend. Candidates get many surveys from many different organizations that want to know where a candidate stands on the issues. Timmy Teepell, Bobby Jindal’s campaign manager actually said that Bobby Jindal “cannot complete all of the dozens of questionnaires he gets”. I got many laughs from people in my district on this statement as well. If representing the public is what you want to do, one would think that one would make the time to fill out the surveys. I will admit that I have not filled out every one of the surveys. However, the reason for not filling those surveys out was because of the “yes or no” nature of the surveys when a “yes or no” answer would not adequately explain my stance. Mr. Teepell also stated that “he has stated his positions in more than 50 neighborhood meetings and other forums.” This would be stating issues in a private forum and not a public one. Why is the Jindal campaign afraid to share its views with the public? Mr. Teepell claims that they have “got nothing to hide. People know where he stands on the issues,". However, it is obvious that people do not know where Mr. Jindal stands. When telling the people in my district that Bobby Jindal supports a co-payment system on Medicaid, it is the first time that they have ever heard about it. October 2nd, 2004It already has been the start of a very busy weekend. Yesterday I got to speak with a lot of great people in the city of Amite at their fair. I also went to the St. Agnes fair as well. Both fairs left me with one large big question, “Where is the support for Bobby Jindal?”. Out of all the people that I have spoken to in this campaign, very few want Bobby Jindal as their Congressman. It really makes me wonder if the polling data that we have seen is either biased or if it is just a bunch of hype. Either way, the results I am seeing makes me that much more confident that I can do well as long as I get the help of the good people in my District. I will be going to 5 more fairs this weekend. Maybe my results will change a little but I doubt it. September 23, 2004Today was a very good day! More commercials played on the radio. I dropped off some items to the Land Art warehouse to be sent to Florida tomorrow. I filled out a couple of candidate surveys and put them in the mail. When I checked my post office box I got a nice surprise in the form of a campaign donation. I think things are really beginning to pick up. I faxed a candidate survey to Planned Parenthood the other day. It was one of the “yes or no” surveys so I called them up and asked if I could attach an explanation of my stance to them so they could be clear about where I stood. They agreed so I felt a little better about answering their survey. As you could probably gather from my website, I am not “pro-abortion” but I also do not think a general ban is the answer to reducing the frequency of abortions either. Education is the key and I let them know that I would want to focus on education if I am elected to be Congressman. September 21, 2004Today I taped some spots for WYLD AM and WODT AM for my hurricane relief drive. I look forward to seeing what kind of response they will get. I really want to do something good for the hurricane victims. I also looked at Bobby Jindal’s website today. His new issue is education. While my commentary on where I think Bobby Jindal has it wrong on education will be on the “challenge” page, I did find one thing amusing. If you read his ideas on education, he seems to want to promote vouchers as a partial solution to the education problems in Louisiana. However, he never actually says the word “voucher”. September 20, 2004Overall, last weekend was a good weekend. The Alligator event was really great. I was able to talk to some really good people who liked what I had to say. The food was very tasty and very cheap as well. I am looking forward to going to more fairs where I will be able to get some good food and spread my message to the people of my district. I also was able to go door to door on Sunday after the Saints game. I got several people who said that they would vote for me. A lot more at least agreed with what I had to say about my positions. And finally, today I taped my radio spots for WTIX FM to advertise my hurricane relief drive. It went really well and I hope that I will get some good exposure and a lot of support from local people and businesses to help the victims of the hurricanes. September 17, 2004Today I taped a radio show for WTIX FM 94.3 with the host Jeff Crouere and a candidate from the Second Congressional District. I feel that it went pretty well and I made a good showing. I wish I could have had a little more time to discuss the “socialist” comment made by my counterpart about one of my health care proposals. However, if you look at my issues page, you can see my feelings on labels like that. Tomorrow I will be heading to the “Annual Alligator Day” in Hammond. I look forward to being able to speak with other people in different parts of my district. I would love to find some more hard workers who would be willing to just spread the word about my campaign. So if you know of any events in your neighborhood, let me know and I will make sure to come and meet you as well. September 16, 2004Well, that was an interesting "vacation". It took me 7 hours to get from Metairie to just outside of Baton Rouge. By the time daylight broke, the news was reporting that the New Orleans area would have at most gotten tropical storm conditions. Having lived through a couple of tropical storms, we decided to head back home. I figured if Ivan made a sharp turn westward, I would have been able to go to my work for safety. All this made me think about a better way for evacuating the population of New Orleans. Maybe in the next day or two I will post a couple of ideas that may make an evacuation quicker and safer for the citizens of Louisiana. I do not think that we should be playing the "blame game" when it comes to the evacuation details. We should just take this as a learning experience and make better plans for next time. So now I can get back to running a campaign. I plan to do some more door-to-door work this weekend. I will just have to make time to cheer for the Saints on Sunday. Hopefully, they will be able to do a better job of stopping the run. If anyone would like me to come to their neighborhood to speak with their neighbors, make sure to contact me and let me know. September 14, 2004Because of Hurricane Ivan, I will be leaving town for a couple of days. I hope that everyone in the storms projected path will be safe and get out of town as well. I look forward to coming back and being able to do some more door-to-door work. I was able to talk with a couple of people on Sunday and I thought that I got some really good responses. I spoke with some more people who are pro-life. These people, however, seemed to appreciate what I had to say on the issue of abortion. I believe that they appreciated the common sense approach that I will take on the issue of reducing the frequency of abortions. Many also rejected the "no abortions, no exceptions" stance. I believe Sunday was productive and I hope for more opportunities to be able to speak with as many people in the district as I can. I hope everyone will be safe and will take care of themselves and their loved ones. September 9, 2004Well, today I had an interesting day. I was leaving to go to work and my truck wouldn’t start. It makes you wonder if the car companies purposefully design your vehicle to break right after the warranty is up. I purchased my truck in late August of 2001. So its been roughly 2 weeks since my warranty would have expired. Luckily, I am the type of person who believes that it is good to spend a little more money in the short term to save money in the long term. When I purchased my truck, I got a 6 year, bumper to bumper, warranty on it. I just hope it all is covered. While I was waiting to get my rental car, I had the opportunity to discuss some of my views with another customer. He was an older gentleman and he quickly moved the discussion to the topic of abortion. I told him that we should work to find a common sense solution to reducing the total number of unwanted pregnancies. I quickly learned that he also shares the “no abortions, no exceptions” view of Bobby Jindal. Since one out of four people in Louisiana believe that way, I was not all that surprised. However, what was surprised me was that he was a pharmacist and did not know that there is a chemical treatment that can be used to treat an ectopic pregnancy. I also discussed abstinence only education with him. He believes that by handing out condoms, you encourage sexual activity. I do not believe that we should hand out condoms either. I explained that if someone is going to make the decision to not abstain, that they are better off using a condom than not using one. At the end of our conversation, he advised me that I would not win the district with a stance on abortion with so many holes. I refuse to change my stance on abortion because I believe my stance is based in common sense. We will only solve the abortion problem by treating it with common sense. And I believe that those people who are pro-life and actually want to work on reducing the frequency of abortions will find comfort in the fact that I want to work to reduce abortions. At the end of our conversation, I shook his hand and went to work. September 6, 2004I believe that this is the year of the comeback. This time it was the National Champion LSU Tigers who came from behind to win a victory in overtime. It just goes to show you that what Yogi Berra once said is true, "It ain't over till its over". And this election is far from over. I am not only excited about being able to spread my message to the citizens of District One, it also feels good that I may be able to use the campaign to help people as well. If you go to my events section, you will see details on the hurricane relief drive that I am putting together for the people in Florida. I will also be keeping a sharper eye on the media during this election. All media outlets will state that they want to give each candidate "equal time". However, as we all saw the night that Steve Scalise dropped out of the race, saying something and doing something are two separate things. I think that if the media gives a minute of unpaid airtime to one candidate, that they should give a minute of unpaid airtime to all candidates. This will allow the citizens to see each candidate and help them to make an informed decision. September 3, 2004The Times Picayune had an article about the websites in the 1st Congressional District race. Bobby Jindal claims to not be avoiding debate. However, his answer to the Times Picayune can only be described as a dodge. I am sure that Jindal has discussed some of his ideas with the people that he has spoken to. This is not what people call “debating the issues”. When privately discussing the issues with people, he can talk about those issues that he wants to talk about. He is also free to dodge questions with simple answers that do not adequately explain his stance. If Bobby Jindal really is a good candidate that can represent us, he should welcome any criticism about the policies he supports. Failure to do so will only make people believe that he wants to hide something. On another note, I had a discussion with a Bobby Jindal supporter yesterday. When I was bringing up why she might consider changing her mind I mentioned my argument that as an extremist, Bobby Jindal will find it hard to reach out and form bi-partisan relationships across the aisle. Her response was, “good point”. I don’t think that I won her over, however I did make her think. And you should be thinking about this issue as well. He may have the support of some local Democrats. However, as you well know, a Louisiana Democrat is usually a much different animal than the Democrats that he will find on Capitol Hill. Are they really going to want to work with a “no abortions, no exceptions” extremist? This is the answer that each and every voter has to ask him/herself. If Bobby Jindal will be unable to form those relationships across the aisle, he will not be able to get support on issues like coastal restoration. August 31, 2004I did some research yesterday on the issue of abortion. According to a Southeastern Louisiana University poll, only 26.5% of the citizens of Louisiana support the "no abortions, no exceptions" policy that Bobby Jindal supports. I knew in my heart that a majority of Louisiana did not support this extremist view. I am glad that my heart was correct. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that the Jindal campaign mentions "attacks" but does not mention specifically who is attacking and on what issue. Could it be that Bobby Jindal knows that if more people knew about his cold, cruel, and extreme view on abortion that his poll numbers would drop? I think it is very odd that someone who is against abortion would not even mention it in his campaign. You can see more about Bobby Jindal's stance on abortion here. Unfortunately, I did not reach my campaign fundraising goal that I set for the end of August. However, I have not lost faith in the people of my district or in my desire to serve those people. When people tell me that they will be voting for me, it gives me that much more encouragement to double my efforts and spread my message. I reject the assertions of people who believe that this race is all but over. Stephanie Grace of the Times-Picayune does not give the other candidates in this race the "respect" that we deserve when she wrote her editorial. The media should be encouraging the democratic process and not making assumptions 2 months before the race is over. I may be an unknown in the political world. However, that does not mean that I will remain that way. Bobby Jindal may have a lot of support. However, that does not imply that he will maintain that support. It will take hard work, but with your help we can spread the word and make a difference for Louisiana. We can show the media that there are other candidates who deserve equal time to share their views. The public should be allowed to make an informed decision. August 19, 2004I spoke to a member of the National Rifle Association today about the survey that they sent in the mail. I had concerns about the "yes or no" questions posed to me. As a general rule, I believe that criminals do not care if the gun they use to kill or mug you with was obtained legally. I also do not see how stopping law-abiding citizens from owning a firearm will stop gun-related crimes. However, because the second amendment starts with the words "A well regulated militia", the framers obviously knew that some regulation of arms would be appropriate. What suprised me was that at the end of the conversation, he was laughing at me for thinking that I had any chance of beating Bobby Jindal in this election. He even said he would "pay me $10,000" if I am able to pull it off. I do have an uphill battle in this election. But if life were easy, it would also be very boring. Bobby Jindal may have some high poll numbers. However, just because he has a lot of support does not mean that he will retain that support. And sometimes, the guy who is written off as having no chance of winning can actually pull off a victory in the end. Just look at the Olympic Games yesterday. Paul Hamm did not just give up when he stumbled. He kept trying and after an awe-inspiring effort, he managed to win the gold. So it will take a lot of effort on the part of myself and my supporters, but we can do this. That is why I ask every one of you who is reading this to go out and just talk to people about me. Spread the word. Get people to contribute $50. This is not about winning a gold medal, but it is about something much more. It is about making sure the people have solid representation in Congress. Bobby Jindal is not the man to do that. I am. |