Aftermath

Early, early this morning I removed my campaign signs throughout town. Sleep wasn't easy with some feeling of disappointment from the results of the primary election. Of course I had hoped for a different outcome, but it was clear to see that my message did not get out to enough people.

I have zero regrets though about getting this involved and putting my name on the ballot. I did get to say some of the things I wanted to during the campaign in public, and in private conversations I said the rest of the things that needed to be said... but just not to enough voters.

I think the turnout was great, over 4,000 or about 25% of the registered voters and I was lucky enough to garner over 700 votes. I'm proud of that. I'm not going to argue the results of the voters, they let it be known what was on their mind. They liked who they liked.

Before the vote, I had been asked a few times if I didn't make it to the general election if I'd consider running again in two years. Right now it is too early to make that kind of decision. This election was fairly easy to be involved in for me because the housing market is slow, I have been in a volunteer mode on behalf of others for the last five years, and there were no incumbents in the race. Also there were obvious issues that I wanted to have a say in that will be coming up within the next two years.

For now I'm going to concentrate on improving my business (I even sold one of my listings on Monday so it wasn't all bad news this week). I'll likely be spending more time with my wife in Minnesota once it starts to warm up there (I hear the fishing is good in that part of the country). My mother-in-law was recently given some bad news health wise so I'll be helping out there as much as possible. My sister is expecting her second child later this week and since they live in Las Vegas now instead of Hawaii, I'll get to be more involved with my own family. And maybe, just maybe... I'll manage to get a round of golf in sometime in 2008. I'm sure I'm going to focus a bit more on 'Todd-time' for the time being.

For the 700 plus friendly voters that honored me with their vote... I'll be voting for Keith Walker and only Keith Walker in the general election. He is the only candidate remaining that proved to me that he'd give an opportunity to developers looking to front the costs for infrastructure needs of the community and explore a public/private partnership. Even though I consider him a 'good old boy' because of his close ties and friendships with that group, he did appear to be genuine when speaking on the issues that were the most important to me.

The newly elected mayor says he's an 'average guy' and ran on no agenda (according to this morning's paper)... well I do hope he realizes that many average folks around here are looking for work and other opportunities. It is no time be 'average'. The last two years of 'average' hasn't worked out for many families in Kingman. I know all too well his direct ties to the long time power brokers in Kingman and my guess is that the new mayor will do what they tell him before he answers to the 'average guy'... but I hope he proves me wrong. He is the candidate that said he would protect us all from the 'wolves at the door'... and for someone like me that doesn't equate progress with a pack of 'wolves' his comment is not very encouraging.

I'd like to offer my sincere best wishes to fellow candidate that also didn't move on to the general election, Allen Mossberg. He was a true gentleman and I thought he would have made a great council member. If he decides to run again and I don't, I'd probably like to help him next time.

To the many readers from across the world here at MOCO, my friends and family throughout the country that kept encouraging me, the local folks that voted for me, the local Realtor Association that financially backed my campaign with PAC money, and my incredible and beautiful wife Gail that was there for me every step of the way... I say to you all thank you. This has been a great experience in my life, one with no regrets.

Cheers Kingman.