MAKING LOVE OUT OF NOTHING AT ALL

Air Supply's famous tune Making Love Out of Nothing at All springs to mind when I think of the campaign Cheryl Hudspeth waged against Lynn Jenkins.

I know just how to whisper
And I know just how to cry
I know just where to find the answers
And I know just how to lie
I know just how to fake it
And I know just how to scheme
I know just when to face the truth
And then I know just when to dream

Hudspeth's Dream was to bring a voice of moderation and sanity to politics. She hit the campaign trail and carried the message. 65,434 voters, or 32%, saw it the way Hudspeth saw it.

The noble experiment of running a congressional campaign on the cheap remains as counterintuitive today as when Miguel de Cervantes penned his quixotic opus Man De La Mancha.

As of October 13th Cheryl Hudspeth raised $12,075, spent $11,755, and had a whopping $730 for the last two weeks of the race. Cheryl Hudspeth put her money where her mouth is self financing 75% of what her campaign raised. Lynn Jenkins raised $1,371,315, spent $874,838, leaving a balance of $532,979. Jenkins didn't donate a dime to herself. Those figures courtesy of the Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets.Org at: http://www.blogger.com/goog_613940415

Two years from now there will be another election. Kansas Democrats in the Second Congressional District will have to acknowledge that to be competitive they will have to raise and spend more money than did Cheryl Hudspeth. The change that ends the corrupting influence of special interest money in American politics will have to come from steel willed politicians from both parties.

Jesse Unruh, the 54th Speaker of the California State Assembly

Jesse Unruh, a Newton, Kansas native, made a career in California politics. Unruh, were he speaking from the grave would remind us that "Money is the Mother's Milk of Politics." Then he'd speak to the resolve it takes to do the right thing for the people and tell us" If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women and then vote against them, you have no business being up here."

 

Don Quixote

Those who change the system and kick corporate money out of politics will have to eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women, and vote against them. Don Quixote will not prevail against their windmills.

I can make the runner stumble

I can make the final block
And I can make every tackle at the sound of the whistle
I can make all the stadiums rock
I can make tonight forever
Or I can make it disappear by the dawn
I can make you every promise that has ever been made
I can make all your demons be gone

But I'm never gonna make it without you
Do you really want to see me crawl
And I'm never gonna make it like you do
Making love out of nothing at all