This week’s column will open with a question. How often have you said, “None of the candidates are any good,” “all of them are liars,” “once they get elected you never have access to them,” “they only remember your name at election time.”
Let us assume that all of the above statements are true. Have you ever thought about yourself as a candidate? I have held untold numbers of conversations with those who explain why they have not run for any political office. They generally begin by stating they don’t have any money. My response is that money alone will not get you elected, but that is not a legitimate reason not to run.
The three keys to a successful election generally are name identification, money and organization, but not necessarily in that order.
If you are serious about becoming a candidate or about supporting some other person then you need to gather those who have the same concerns as you and organize. You don’t have to run just where you live, because there are political positions that are county wide, and Blacks fail to run. There are US Congress and US Senate, Pa. state senate, Allegheny County Sheriff, Allegheny County District Attorney, Pa. state representatives, county and statewide judges, and Allegheny County row offices.
In the early years of my involvement in politics there was a particular campaign that was history-making in at least two ways. The first way was we defeated a White candidate that had been in power for 24 years and elected a Black for the first time in history.
The second was that the colored voters continued to state that the Black candidate was not an articulate speaker, had limited schooling so he was not qualified. That was the first time in political history in our wards that the word qualifications had ever been mentioned.
The irony of the argument was that the White candidate who had occupied the position for all of those years spoke broken English and had less education than the Black candidate.
This upcoming election there is a candidate running for the Pennsylvania state Representative position, who epitomizes what my column is about. He has campaigned for public office several times over the years. His track record clearly proves he is concerned, committed, courageous, articulate, dedicated and his life’s work indicates that his priority is to improve the overall quality of life for his people. Truly a candidate, who understands that you can’t win an election if you fail to run, the candidate is a long time member of the Pittsburgh Public School Board, Mark Brentley.
Please remember to send a financial contribution to Kingsley Association.
(Louis “Hop” Kendrick is a weekly contributor to the Forum Page.)
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