William Larsen

Sylvia Smith

In 2002 I ran a campaign if you could call it that. I was furious with our representative over his lack of attention to our country's financial condition. Spending was going out of site. I spent evenings and weekends attempting to get the message out, but found that many of the scheduled events during the day kept me from achieving my goal. I learned the media would not report what you said and if asked by the media what the one thing you wanted the voters to know, well let us say the media in some cases and one in particular put fourth what they thought your issue was.

In 2004, I spent less time in some areas and more in others, still attempting to work while campaigning through all the counties in the 3rd district. We did better with a seven fold increase in voter support. What did we do differently that merited such an increase? Obviously a one on one approach worked best.

I decided I needed to spend more time on my campaign and get my message out to those who were potential voters. I had to be available to meet with people on their schedules, attend functions such as debates, groups who met during the day when I would be at work. These were the people I did not reach and I needed to. Therefore, I decided to spend more time on my campaign between February and May, three short months.

On 17 February 2006, I received a phone call from Sylvia Smith, political journalist for the Journal Gazzet. She asked me about my platform. I spent about ten minutes listing and explaining in some cases my platform issues such as budget, defense, energy, identity theft, on-us-checks, illegal immigration and more. I had not gotten to the issue of Social Security when she asked me if Social Security was still an issue? I told her it would always be one of my issues.

She then asked about my age and where I was working. I told her I was taking time off from work to devote 100% of my time to running a campaign. We then completed the phone interview.

In the Journal Gazzet 2-18-2006 I find she wrote

Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, is being challenged in the GOP primary by William Larsen, an unemployed engineer who has run against Souder unsuccessfully in two other Republican primaries. Souder is seeking a seventh two-year term.

Northeast Indiana Democrats will choose among four candidates for the 3rd District nominee. City Councilman Tom Hayhurst and the Rev. Kevin Boyd are in contention with Thomas Schrader and Edward W. Smith, a retiree. Attempts to reach Schrader were unsuccessful.

Is someone who takes time off to pursue something they strongly believes in unemployed or investing in his campaign? Is a person who is retired unemployed as well?

It is not the candidate’s issues that are important, but what Sylvia Smith perceives the issues should be.

posted by William Larsen @ 4:24 AM