Cleansing My Soul

Searching For Answers In The Final Truth
11/10/06

Eighty degree days are rare in November in the southeast corner of Kansas. But God knew I needed an eighty degree cloudless and windless autumn day to clean my soul. As I hugged the curves on the lake road the hum of the two tires on the asphalt and rumble of the bikes engine acted like an ultrasonic bath. My spirit was being washed and my head was starting to clear. The past couple of days had been hell but the past two years had been the trip down into hell. Now as I accelerated up the hill and onto the Elk City Lake dam road I felt myself rising up out of the depths of the dark inferno and back into the light.
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006, election day, had started out full of promise and hope. It ended with disillusionment, humiliation and confusion. Soon the disillusionment would turn to bewilderment, the humiliation to anger and the confusion into a mind numbing understanding.

The day had started out as planned. My volunteer Ann Keeley sat at one computer while I sat at the other in my upstairs home office. She was scrolling and calling phone numbers from a disk containing data from Elk county and I was doing the same with a Chautauqua county disk. Both disks contained the information of all Democratic and Undecided Voters in both counties. I knew that getting the voters in these two rural counties out to vote was important and essential, especially Chautauqua county.

My opponent, Jeff King, had secured Chautauqua county with some fancy political maneuvering. Playing the most powerful Republican in the county like a fine tuned violin King used his school boy charm to convince her that he was just a sincere kid wanting to return home. She was so aggravated with the incumnant representative, Frank Miller, that it did not take the fair haired boy long to win her over with his pretty smile.

His next step was to have his wife Kimberly run for a Judicial position in the county. She made an empty promise to the voters that she would purchase a residence in the county if she won. She won the election but to date has not purchased the promised residence. With King and his wife both running in the primary election the county was inundated with their campaign signs.
He then had volunteers canvass the county placing door hangers on every house. King and his wife had a list of the wealthy Republicans in the county and visited them personally. This same scenario was played out in Elk and Montgomery counties also.

He filled in the gaps with appearances at fairs and rodeos asking people for sign placements. But by stealing an issue from me that I had originally brought to light he managed to finish getting a strong foothold in the county.
Representative Miller, during a speech at Sedan High school in 2005, had said, “The only reason a woman goes to college is to get an MRS degree.” I had posted this information both on my blog on MySpace and on my website www.pluribusunum.net (see “Peeling Back The Layers” 6/11/06). Soon the district was a buzz with this very chauvinistic remark. Miller campaign signs started disappearing in Chautauqua county and his large signs were being defaced with spray painted, “MRS THIS PIG” remarks. When the defacing and removal of signs began I sent the following letter to all nine of the area newspapers:

Dear Editor,

Please allow me to address this letter to the person or persons who are vandalizing Representative Frank Miller’s signs. Sunday afternoon my wife Debbie and I were returning home along U.S. 75 highway from a day trip to Bartlesville, OK. Imagine my shock and dismay when I discovered that someone had spray painted on Mr. Miller’s large campaign highway signs; “MRS THIS, PIG.” I am assuming that this vandalism is in response to Mr. Miller’s now infamous, “The only reason a woman goes to college is to get an MRS degree”, remark which he made at Sedan high school in 2005. I understand your displeasure and agree with you that the remark was inappropriate but vandalism of another persons property is not the answer!
There are far more appropriate ways to voice your anger. Letters to the Editor of your local newspaper is one way. Another way, especially if you are displeased with an elected official, is at the voting booth. If you are under 18 and cannot vote then let your parents or guardians know how you feel. The most important thing is this; Our Constitution guarantees your right to free speech and the right to use your voice to speak out about things you feel are wrong. It does not however allow you the right to vandalize, or as I recently found out was done in Sedan to Mr. Miller‘s signs, steal another persons property as a form of protest.

I therefore urge you to please use your voice properly and to cease and desist the vandalism and theft of Mr. Miller’s property, or that of any other candidate, immediately. It is not the right thing to do! Thank You.

For some reason my letter never appeared in any of the papers but a very similar Jeff King signed letter did. King used this situation and whatever pull he had with the local media to steal the issue from me and making it his issue. This cemented his position in Chautauqua county.

 
My volunteer and I had already canvassed the four towns in Chautauqua county that were in District 12 going door to door to personally talk with the voters. But with Kings established presence we knew we would need more. That was why it was important for me to make phone contact with Democrats and Undecided voters on election day in this largely Republican county.
What soon became apparent as Ann and I made our phone calls that day caused me to become greatly troubled. We were being hung up on and yelled at by angry voters. They all basically had the same question for us; “How many times are you going to call?” Apparently someone claiming to be me or a volunteer working for me was making multiple and rude calls to the voters in an attempt to turn the voters against me. How effective this illegal tactic was became painfully clear a few hours later when the poll figures came in.
Me, my wife and Ann sat in stunned silence in the court house lobby right outside the county clerks office. It was 9:30pm and the new polls had been reported. Jeff King had beaten me with 75% of the vote. How could this happen? King had not campaigned since the primary and based on our own calculations if he did beat me it would only be by a narrow margin. I had garnered only 25% of the vote and we knew something had gone terribly wrong.

That night my sleep was restless and my mind would not rest filled with a thousand questions. The mix of emotions weighed heavy upon my chest like an anvil that had been dropped carelessly which I could not remove.
The next day I awoke early to go out and collect my campaign signs. I was still feeling the humiliation from the night before and dreaded the thought of someone driving by my signs and gloating over my defeat. I soon discovered that with each sign I collected I felt the weight of my rampant emotions lifting from me more and more.

I had just removed a sign from a Main Street yard and was heading back to my truck when a car pulled up beside me. The lady inside the car rolled down her window and said, “That is a good way to teach other people manners.” I thanked her, she smiled and drove on. Even in my defeat I had still made an impression upon someone by just doing what I knew had to be done, picking up after myself.

While removing the large signs from my studio in downtown Independence when I was approached by an African American man telling me how sorry he was that I had lost the election. He went on to tell me that the morning of the election Jeff King had invited him to the victory party. “Victory party, wasn’t it a little early in the day to proclaim victory?” I asked. The man said, “Yeah, I thought that too but I told him that no Republicans wanted me there.” He said that King told him that they would but the man still refused to attend. I congratulated him on his integrity and asked him why would King invite him anyway. What I heard next about floored me. “King paid me $1.00 a sign to put them in the black hoods. Guess he wanted to thank me.”

As I finished my sign pickups in Independence I started paying closer attention to King’s sign placements and a large part of them sat in front of vacant houses or lots in the lower income neighborhoods.

I finished sign pickup in Independence and headed to Coffeyville to have lunch with my wife whose job was there. While standing in line at the local “Wendy’s” we loudly talked about the illegal phone calls made the day before and about the District 11 representative Virgil Peck who claims to live in Tyro, Kansas but in fact lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With no spoken commitment my wife and I decided it was time to start openly and loudly talking about the illegal actions of those who are manipulating and doing a great disservice to the voters of the district. People were listening and hopefully thinking about what we said. At some point people must ask questions and maybe they will with just the right amount of prodding.

I then headed for Chautauqua county to collect more signs. What I was soon to discover pushed me past the point of humiliation and straight into the realm of red faced anger. My signs were missing and in most of the locations where I had placed signs there were, in their place, Jeff King signs. I located a few of my signs still in the locations where they belonged but for the most part my campaign signs were simply gone. I had asked two of my volunteers, Troy and Ann Bell, to pick up my signs in Elk County. Based on what I was discovering in Chautauqua County I felt it would be best if I had a first hand look at what was happening in Elk county.

I drove up to the Bell residence in Moline, Kansas and found seventeen of my signs laying in their yard. The Bells were not home and I reasoned that they were out picking up the rest of my signs. I loaded up the batch of signs they had already collected and took a quick tour around Moline to make sure that they had not missed any. Finding no signs left I headed back out to the highway and north to Howard, Kansas.

I found none of my signs remaining in Howard, Kansas but did notice that at a hand full of locations where I had placed signs their were King signs in their place. I left Howard and headed for Elk Falls and Longton where I found the same scenario repeated time and again. My signs either gone or simply replaced with King signs. I was to find out later that the Bells had not made it to Howard, Elk Falls or Longton yet and when they finally did they thought I had already picked up the signs since they didn’t find any.

As I drove down the highway trying to sort this out in my mind I passed a field where I had placed four signs at 50 feet intervals. All four signs were missing and in their place were Jeff King signs. This was just too much. I drove up the road and pulled into the drive of the property owner.

The elderly farmer and his wife came out their front door as they heard my truck crunching up the gravel drive. A look of concentration on his face turned into one of recognition. He bent and said something to his small wife and she broke into a wide grin. I stepped out of the truck a shook both their hands extending a greeting. The farmer said how sorry he was that I had lost and how he wished that it was different. That was when I asked, “Did you change your affiliation from me to King?” A look of concern crossed his face and he said, “Hell no! I wouldn’t vote for that little arrogant rich bastard if he was the only candidate on the ballot! Why’d ya ask me that?” I told him how my signs had been replaced with Kings signs in his pasture. The old man turned red in the face and stormed towards his truck. “I’ll be back,” he said to no one in particular and headed out of the drive.

His wife told me that they hardly ever drive to the west past that pasture as they always shop in Independence which is to the east. The farmer returned in a few minutes and stepping out of his truck he slammed the door and pulled the King signs from the bed of his truck. Ripping the signs up he tossed them into a nearby burn barrel and set flame to their edges. He moved away from the burning signs and walked over to where me and his wife were standing.

“That takes care of that little asshole,” he said. “Not quite,” I said. I explained how what had been done was an illegal act in not only the replacing of the signs without the landowners permission but also in the terms of trespassing. I asked the farmer and his wife if they would swear out a notarized affidavit stating that they had not given their permission and both declined. “My wife and I are old and don’t need no trouble,” the old farmer said. No amount of talking and reasoning with them shook their resolve not to make any waves and I turned to leave. As I climbed into the truck the elderly farmer said, “You’ll get him next time.”

I stopped in Elk City, Kansas to pick up my signs from Wesley Hogan who had collected them that morning. Wesley tried to find the right words to say but could only come up with, “We tried.” As I continued on into Independence I marveled at not only the audacity of the sign replacements and removals in Elk and Chautauqua counties but also at the cunning way in which it had been handled. The same act had, for the most part, not been duplicated in Montgomery county where I lived but had taken place in rural areas where chances were that I would not be visiting again before the election. Signs had remained untouched in Moline where the Bells lived and might notice but had been replaced and removed in Howard a few miles up the road. We were out some 60 odd signs and could not account for their whereabouts. Someone had been paying attention and had made their illegal maneuvering at the appropriate moment and in the appropriate places.

That evening I told my wife Debbie about the days events and she became extremely angry. To quote what she had to say here would turn this writing from a PG rated blog into an NR17 rated blog.

I had picked up a copy of the Independence Daily Reporter earlier in the afternoon. There was an article about the election in it that I wanted to read and I sat down to read it after dinner. In the article Jeff King is quoted as saying that he knocked on 6,000 doors during the election. What an odd number for him to come up with, 6,000. Strangely enough that was the same number that I had mentioned in my blog on 11/06/06, a day before the election, as the amount of brochures we had handed out during the campaign.

For Mr. King to make such a statement shows the way he coattails off of other candidates statements and the twisting of the truth he is capable of. It would be almost an impossibility, during the course of this campaign, for King to have single handedly visited 6,000 homes in the district. It took me and my volunteer 8 weeks to visit the actual number of occupied residences in the eleven towns which is 4,906. Mr. King should really pay closer attention when he is taking the figures someone else has posted. However, that was not all. We only came across a handful of people that King had actually knocked on their door and these people were in upscale neighborhoods. King’s door hanger did not appear in the lower income neighborhoods until two weeks before the election and then they were just left on doors. No personal contact was made with the residents of these neighborhoods.

We won't even mention that local churches and religious leaders were handing out candidate lists to their parishioners instructing them who to vote for. This is a clear violation of the separation of church and state but apparently these organizations feel they are above the law and the constitution.
The next morning while my wife and I checked our email and had our coffee she suggested that I write an ad for the paper asking anyone with any information to come forth. I did just that and took it to the advertising department of the Independence Daily Reporter. Head of advertising Steven McBride suggested that I run it as a letter to the editor and save my money. He said that it would get more notice in the forum column. I agreed and Steven took it to the editors assistant. I will be sending the same letter to the other eight area papers.

Will anyone be willing to come forth and stand up for what is right? At this point it is just a game of wait and see. I fervently hope that someone will have enough backbone to say. “Yes, I received multiple calls and I want the person who did that to be found out” or “Yes, my sign was replaced and I’m mad as hell about it.” Until that time all I can do is expose the dirty political tricks that were perpetrated against my campaign through these writings.

So where do I go from here? Well at this time I am hesitant to say. How do I know whether or not someone will read this and steal my future plans from me just like Jeff King stole my issues and statements from me. Does the word “Stole” seem a little drastic? I don’t think so when you take into consideration that I originally voiced my concern over the Machinery and Equipment Tax Exception Bill before Mr. King ever took it up as an issue. Once I posted the facts and figures I had uncovered and the damage that it would cause to our tax base in Montgomery county King came up with the same figures and statements as me. Is “Stole” a little drastic? No, it is the perfect way to describe the actions of someone who has no issues of his own and must take the issues of others.

There are those that may ask, “Why didn‘t you bring this up during the campaign?” And the truth of the matter is this; I had promised Mr. King, before the primary elections, that if the campaign came down between he and I that I would run my campaign based solely on the issues. He promised the same thing. Little did I know at the time that he had no issues and would coattail off mine. I also did not expect the dirty tricks that were pulled off a few days and the day of the general election to ensure him the win. Was I really that big a threat to Mr. Kings political ambitions that he felt he could not win his Republican race in a predominantly Republican district? Unlike Mr. King I am a man of my word and I have the fortitude to keep it.

My wife and I have discussed several options and plans to continue involvement in the political process. We also will not stop helping people. That was a door that was opened during the campaign that we will not close. We are currently working on a project which we will unveil shortly that will allow anyone to easily help others on a daily basis.

I guess what I need to tell my readers here is this. I am a winner far and above Mr. King. I have managed, through the course of this campaign to maintain my integrity. I have had a great and unforgettable experience. I have had the opportunity to help others. I have been able to get others to reconsider their points of view and rethink how they handle situations. I have taught and been taught in return for what is a man who does not learn from others. But more than anything else I am a winner with far more riches than Mr. King may ever know because of this message I received from my son Ricky;

Dad, I have all the faith in the world that you are capable of doing the job regardless of whether or not the votes are in your favor. There is a saying that goes, "A wise man once said follow me, yet he walked behind." As I am growing into a mature adult, I realize just how much of a difference you have made in people's lives. You've made a great difference in the lives of those closest to you which only proves that you can make an even comparable change for the better of others. I sit here writing in love and dedication to a man who has more wisdom than any penny-pinching politician wearing masks to appeal in a society of ignorance. Thanks dad for helping me learn from you what a life in this nation is about; commitment, not only to the art, but to the equality and fairness of mankind.

Am I a winner? You bet I am far and above anything Mr. King or those of his kind will ever be. It is a consolation to know that people like Jeff King are at some point in time revealed for what they really are. You cannot hide your deceit forever.

I want to end this writing with some acknowledgements. First off a general thank you to all who supported me and believed in me enough to vote for me. I want to thank those who commented both negatively and positively upon my blog’s. Thank you to the few members of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee who bothered to lend a hand. Thank you to all who financially donated to my campaign. Thank you to Troy and Ann Bell for all their hard work and support. Thank you to Ann Kellie for the monumental task she undertook. Thank you for all who offered advise both good and bad. But most of all thank you to my wife Debbie without whose love and support I could have never made it through this journey.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to get back on my bike and finish cleansing my soul. Fear not dear reader this is not the end of the story…. It is only the beginning!

 -Jim George- Former Democratic Candidate, Kansas State House of Representatives District #12