My absence from the blogosphere has been noticed far and wide—my mother called me the other day to ask if I’m feeling well.
Actually I’ve been surprised by how many people have asked me about what happened to my blog in the last few weeks.
The explanation is quite simple. After I got back from a brief vacation at the end of August, and got my classes rolling at Temple, I was first distracted from the blog by the effort to get Neighborhood Defense.org off the ground. And then, I did some speaking on public transit issues both in general, and as they affect the proposed casinos. I’ll be blogging about this very soon.
But the main distraction is my nascent campaign for City Council.
As many of you know, I have for some time been thinking about running for City Council at Large in the Democratic primary in May. The recent controversy over the special election to fill the open at large seat as well as the open seats in the 4th and 7th districts has kick started the spring campaign. I spent a few days working with members of Neighborhood Networks and Philly for Change and others to plan the event at Lucy’s Hat Shop that raised our concerns about the special elections. The event also gave me, and other candidates, an opportunity to declare our readiness to run in May and, if a miracle occurred, in November.
A miracle didn’t occur. But all of a sudden the campaign for the spring took off and I was invited, or decided to attend, events and meetings of all kinds—averaging about four a day for the last two weeks.
I intend to keep the pace up from now until the primary in May. A long primary gives me a chance to get to know people around the city who don’t know me or who are not familiar with the growing progressive movement in the city.
But, at the same time, I hope to keep blogging, if at a somewhat slower pace. In a month or so, there will be a blog at my campaign website, www.stier2007.com, which right now is still mostly under construction. I will post some shorter pieces there. But I will continue to write in this space, addressing issues in some depth. I like to think that these essays contribute something to the public discourse that is hard to come by even in the best campaigns.
Some of you may disagree with what I write here. Others will agree. But no one is going to be surprised about what I do once I’m elected.
And I’m also going to use this space to reflect about what campaigning is like. Too many people who would be great public servants are afraid to run for office. I’m going to tell you what the process is like, with the hopes that more good people get involved. For the short answer is that, as I learned when I ran for state representative in 2004, campaigning is an enormous amount of fun and, if you do it right, perhaps the best way to learn about the city and what it needs in the future. I’ll explain more about that as we move forward.
And, one last point: I’m going to have a formal kick-off of my campaign, after the November election. But I’m not playing coy. I don’t have a city job I have to quit to run for office. And I intend to follow the limitations on campaign contributions from the start. So I don’t have to say I’m just exploring a run for Council.
The secret of the name of this blog is thus now revealed.
I’m in.