Sean Shepard on Last Tuesday's Special Election

This is from Sean Shepard, Libertarian candidate in last Tuesday's special election for the 7th Congressional District:

"Whew. The first stage is over.

It has been 24 hours and I've gotten some rest and tended to the sun burn I got while out greeting voters for several hours throughout election day. It was great getting to shake hands and speak with so many people on their way in to cast ballots. Let's look at some of the great outcomes from this election!

HIGHEST PERCENTAGE EVER!?

While our final number of around 3% may not sound impressive, it did represent a new percentage record for Libertarians vying for this seat. It was nearly a full 1% of the vote higher than the last time there was a Libertarian candidate running for the 7th. Our campaign staff should be very proud for having helped move more voters towards seeking freedom and liberty and away from voting for increased government spending, control and authority. I cannot thank everyone enough for their efforts and their support.

Don't think for a moment that for every one thousand voters out there, having just a few more wake up and decide they've had enough of politics as usual isn't important. For everyone that showed up and cast a ballot in our favor, how many more would have not stayed home if we could have just reached them somehow with a flyer or a TV ad? As we look towards the future, please consider contributing to our campaign fund at http://shepard2008.com/contribute/ or to the Libertarian Party of Indiana at http://www.lpin.org/contribute

WE WON THE DEBATES!

I have been told repeatedly that we won the Indiana Equality forum debate and the crushed our opponents in the IUPUI debate. Democrats and Republicans both sent kind words and made respectful blog posts indicating that we were the best prepared and could talk through the issues much deeper than the others. I worry that many Libertarians might have been turned off by the softened tone of our message and the fact that we didn't beat people over the head with the Constitution every 10 seconds, but I've decided that it is important to talk about issues with voters in ways that seem measured and pragmatic.

We didn't get the bloated government we have overnight, we're not going to unwind it overnight... well, short of pitchforks and torches that is.

MEDIA ATTENTION

Our campaign received more media attention than any other Libertarian campaign I can recall. We were not excluded from anything, we were given more space in the Indianapolis Star than any Libertarian ever. Jim Shella (WISH) and John Ketzenberger (Star) both said great things about our debate performance on Indiana Week in Review last week (you can watch the replay on-line at http://www.wfyi.org/indianaWeekInReview.asp until probably Monday morning (March 17). We're mentioned in the first 10 minutes of the show.

THANK YOU

This was just the first step and a tremendous experience. We've made lots of friends and hopefully few enemies. I cannot thank everyone enough for their support, especially our staff and contributors for getting us through this first stage, the Special Election. We have some things in the works behind the scenes, may be making a trip to Washington D.C. soon and still have an election coming up in November to start making decisions about!

Stay tuned!!"