Better to fight and lose than to not even try

Click here for the unofficial results

Heading out of the Holiday Inn after the election results came in last night, I heard a voice call my name.

It was Stanley Arnold, who had volunteered for me. Stanley put out hundreds of door hangers for me and other candidates during the campaign. His wife made phone calls.

"It's not that we tried," he said. "We did something. We actually did something."

His knee hurt from all the hills and driveways, but Stanley beamed from the effort. Just like I don’t mind the blisters on my feet so much. We did something together. We took action.

Two years ago, my entire involvement in politics amounted to checking the polls on fivethirtyeight.com and yelling at the TV. That only left me feeling helpless and frustrated. 

Fighting and losing feels much better than never fighting at all. 

And as an entrepreneur and inventor, I am used to a new idea not working out the first time around. All you have to do is go through the process and figure out where your mistakes were and how to eliminate or mitigate them. So, we did it.

A Democrat had never run in this district before. Now, one has. 

But we have put a chink in the armor of some misconceptions:

“If you want to have a voice in this community, you have to join the Republican Party.”

“The Democrats will never field a candidate.”

“This is a Republican district, so the Democrats shouldn’t even be trying.”

When I announced in May, I took a look at the voter registration numbers. Sure, more Republicans than Democrats in the district (1705-1043 at that point) but there were also 834 unaffiliated — “blank” — voters. In a district of 3885 voters, here’s a fun fact: Most of the registered voters in the 4th district were NOT registered as Republicans. 

Of course, you don’t know which way many of those non-GOP voters lean until you knock on their doors and ask them, but it definitely seemed worth the effort.

At least now the voters of the 4th district don’t feel taken for granted. At least I hope so. 

At least it is a chink in the metal, a scratch in the surface, and one thing I have learned from working with various materials is if you can make a scratch in the surface you can eventually cut all the way through.

So my take-away is this: The voters of the 4th District are worth fighting for. They do want someone who will listen and respond to them and you should not accept the misconception that Republicans will always win. 

The 4th has awakened!

Questions and Answers

Earlier this month, the Elmira Telegram website sent me some questions. Here are my answers:

Name: Ed Bond
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Occupation: Entrepreneur, owner/operator at DreamGames 
Background/ Experience: 25 years in journalism as a reporter, editor, designer and journalism professor. 
 
What made you decide to run for election or re-election?
I’m running for office because unchallenged elections – or elections decided only in primaries – are unhealthy for democracy and open government. People deserve a choice. In uncontested elections, large segments of the population do not get a chance to be heard. Many don’t bother voting. They feel like their votes don’t count. They feel helpless.

If elected, what county wide issue is your #1 priority to address?
Jobs and the economy. I would support policies that create local jobs and help the residents start new businesses here in Chemung County. Money going into the pockets of the middle and working class would get spent at local businesses and local professional services.  This multiplies into a sustaining cycle of spending and hiring in the county. The result is a healthy economy and a better outlook for everyone.

What concerns are unique to your district? How will you address them?
Horseheads needs to take advantage of its proximity to the many great destinations in the Finger Lakes and become a destination itself. When we invest in our community by fostering attractive and fun destinations, residents would stay here to spend their money. Visitors would come here to spend their money. But maintaining infrastructure is key to becoming a destination. Roads and flood control are the other big issues I hear from residents, and these are resources that all areas of the county compete for. The new legislature and executive will have to address how to meet all these needs fairly. As I often say, we will have to “Do what we can, with what we have.”  But if we make the right investments into our community, the payoff will help us all.

There is a resurgence of enthusiasm and hope for the future of the City of Elmira. If elected, how would you propose the county help to keep that energy and momentum moving forward?
We need to end the animosity between the city and the county so that all parties can work together for the common good. Issues should not be addressed as County vs. City or even as Towns vs. City, We are all in it together, and a boost to the city is a boost to all of us in Chemung County. We need to find policies that are best for our individual communities and the county as a whole. We need to communicate with each other, understand the financial situation in each municipality and understand what each needs to succeed and how we can help each other. if we can dig down into the facts, we may be able to find solutions. Digging into the facts and communicating those facts to others is what I did as a newspaper reporter. So I would use those skills to help solve problems.

What personal skill set or personality trait do you feel would be a benefit if elected?
I’m a former newspaper reporter. I listen, take notes, ask questions and am endlessly curious about a wide range of topics. Everyone has a story, and the story of how Chemung County provides the services we need is one that has not been properly told. As a former reporter, I believe in open government, fiscal transparency and being financially responsible. Being a reporter means diving into complex situations and discerning quickly how a proposal would affect the lives of the residents. To ensure open government, I would put my all of my actions and interactions as a public official on the record.
Journalists watch the results of good and bad policies. We spend hours interviewing the people who made the decisions in the key events of our lives. This has created a wealth of pragmatic advice in my head that I want to put to use. 
Government must be run efficiently. Some would say that government should be run like a business, but I don't agree with that analogy. Government is more than a business. Here's the difference: If a business loses customers, that business is free to retool itself and seek out new customers and markets. They can write off those old customers and move on. Government can never write off its customers. A government will always have the same customers -- its constituents, who are the customers AND the employers of the government.

Do you favor term limits for County Legislators?
Yes. I think the county government benefits from having legislators of a diversity of backgrounds, professional experience and of different walks of life. A diversity of legislators creates a diversity of ways to solve problems. So, a frequent overturn of legislators would be healthy.
My only concern with term limits is the loss of institutional knowledge. It may take a couple of years for a legislator to get up to speed on how things work best. They may learn lessons the hard way when they pursue a course of action that had failed in the past. So, if term limits are established, I would recommend county and local governments create a volunteer board of advisors made up of retired legislators who would offer advice and insight to newcomers. 

What differentiates you from your opponent(s)?
Unlike my opponent, I’m not from Horseheads, but this town has become my adopted home. My wife and I chose to move here in 2001 to be close to her family. We chose Horseheads after living in California and considering other places to live, and I just can’t imagine living anywhere else right now. I’m originally from New Jersey and I’ve been a reporter in 5 states. I’ve written about issues at all levels of government, from planning and zoning all the way up to the federal level. I’ve watched as government officials and residents grapple with a wide range of problems. This gives me a broader experience to draw from and helps me see the big picture. I would also pursue more proactive contact with the residents. Rather than waiting for a problem to arise or for an election,  I would be continually connecting to the residents by networking, holding town halls, coffee talks and sending out regular newsletters and blogs on local issues.

Anything else you would like to say to voters?
VOTE! It all gets better when everyone gets involved and votes. I have been saddened to watch as voter turnouts drop. Too often the voters tune out politics because the atmosphere has become poisonous. Both sides yelling at the voters and telling them what to think doesn’t help. When elections come down to a bitter battle between the "never this" and the "never that,” the average voter just wants to sit it out. But it is better to be FOR something than AGAINST something. So, when you vote, you should know what you are for. Use your vote to take positive action. Choose leaders who are willing to listen and find solutions. www.edbond.com/elected/

Approaching November

As November 2018 draws nearer, I'm thinking about the lessons learned from November 2016.

Fundamentally, the 2016 election should have been seen as a wake up call to both political parties.  Money and insults flowed from the leading candidates, and it turned off the voters who stayed home in droves.

The flow of power should come from the other direction. It should be that the politicians and government leaders listen to the public first rather than use power and money to twist opinions to serve their own interests.

Instead, the politicians told (yelled at) people what to think rather than listen to the average person. The election came down to a bitter battle between the "never this" and the "never that." The average voter in the middle kept being asked to be against something.

But it is better to be FOR something than AGAINST something. So, when you vote, you should know what you are for. Use your vote to take positive action. Choose leaders who are willing to listen  and find solutions.

Accuracy

I've been writing a book for the past few years. It's a complicated book about a disease dogs suffer from called canine distemper.

Experts and professionals who have been involved in this story have been reviewing the manuscript to make sure it is fair and accurate. One professor sent me back his comments and corrected me about his job title.

After I sent my thanks in reply, what I wrote seemed to apply in so many other situations in life:

"Thanks for correcting the mistake on your title. It's important to get the facts straight. I'm an old fashioned newspaper reporter, and to me credibility flows from getting the small details right. If you don't get the small details right, how can someone trust you with anything bigger?"

Cynicism vs. skepticism

The best distinction between cynicism and skepticism I’ve heard came from Terry Anderson, the former Middle East Associated Press bureau chief who had been held hostage in Lebanon from 1985 to 1991.

When I was a journalism professor in California, I got to watch Terry address a conference of student journalists in Fresno in the mid-90s.  At one point, he asked the students if they understood the difference between skepticism and cynicism.

As he explained it:

A skeptic would say, “Is that true? Show me.”

A cynic would say, “Don’t bother showing me. I already know you’re lying.”

Skepticism is healthy. It is how the best reporters function. It operates on doubt but with an open mind. You wait until you have the evidence before making a conclusion.

Cynicism is not healthy. It assumes the worst of others and forms opinions before the facts are in. And when facts do come in, it twists those facts to fit the opinion.

Unfortunately, too much of our politics is driven by cynicism than skepticism.

Thought of the day

At one door, the voter I was trying to reach wasn't home. When I told the man who answered what I was doing and that I was a Democrat he said, "That's not good."
"It's called Democracy dude," I said, a bit surprised I spit it out that way.
But it should be seen as a good thing when you come across someone with a different political view. If we lived in a country where everyone had the same opinion -- or HAD to -- then we'd be in trouble.

In this day, technology has allowed us to develop our opinions in an echo chamber. We are then free to project our worst fears on anyone who disagrees with us.
But when you come across someone of an opposing view, take a moment and say to yourself, "Ah, good, democracy lives."

My evolution of thought

This blog began in December 2007 mostly as a way to keep a diary of my thoughts on politics, science, history, religion, philosophy and other topics that interested me. For the first couple of years, the blog was not public because I was still employed as a journalist.

As I read through it, I can see my evolution of thought, and when it comes to the role of government this is how I'd summarize where I am at today:

Government must be run efficiently. Some would say that government should be run like a business, but I don't agree with that analogy. Government is more than a business.

Here's the difference: If a business loses customers, that business is free to retool itself and seek out new customers and markets. They can write off those old customers and move on.

Government can never write off its customers. A government will always have the same customers -- its constituents, who are the customers AND the employers of the government.

Here's some snippets from a couple of posts from 2010, which also helped form my thinking:

October 21, 2010

October 28, 2010

New banner

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, I am thinking about my Dad, who served in the U.S. Navy in World War II. His ship was the U.S.S. St. Paul, which fired the last salvo of the war. His older brothers -- James and Jack -- served in the U.S. Army. All three brothers made it home safely. All three now rest in peace.

I never served. So, what I think whenever I see veterans is, "They outrank me." They risked far more than I ever could. All I can do is be grateful and make the most of what they have given us.

In 1776, the Founding Fathers told an English king what needed to be said:

• All men are created equal.
• All men have a right to Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

We now understand those words need to include "all people" but the point is that those words would not have been worth the parchment they were written on without a military to back them up. "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately," Benjamin Franklin said.

The fledgeling U.S. Army and Navy made the words of the Declaration of Independence come to life.  That's what they did for the Founding Fathers. What the Founding Fathers did for those soldiers and sailors was to give them something worth fighting for.

For more than 200 years, our military fought for democracy. The least we can do is use this gift. "Earn this."

Some facts about the 2016 election:

• Only 58 percent of registered voters -- 139 million out of 232 million eligible voters -- cast a ballot.
• About 93 million of registered voters did not vote.
• About a quarter of the people who could be registered were not.
• 62 million voted for Donald Trump.
• 65 million voted for Hillary Clinton.
• Total vote for president: 127 million (many who voted did not bother voting for president)
• The population of the U.S. is about 326 million.  About 74 million of those are children. So, about 252 million of those are adults. This means, according to my rough math, about 125 million people sat on the sidelines.

Aside from any political preference, that statistic is what I cannot stomach. This is what our military fought and died for through how many wars?  125 million is more than the population of the United States in 1932.

My point is this: Register to vote ... and then vote. I don't care if you are Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Libertarian, Conservative, Green or even Whig. Engage in the political process. But do it respectfully. When you encounter someone who disagrees with you, say to yourself, "Hooray, democracy works." If you lived in a country where everyone "agreed," you'd be in trouble.

Don't expect to win every argument, but if everyone participates and votes we can at least know that the election results truly do reflect the majority of the people. I could live with that.

That is what our veterans fought and died for.

Check on your voter registration status:

https://voterlookup.elections.ny.gov/votersearch.aspx

Register to vote through the DMV:

https://voterreg.dmv.ny.gov/MotorVoter/

Separation of Church and State

As I've written previously on this blog ... before I became a candidate ... my faith is important to me. But so is the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

As a writer, former newspaper reporter and former faculty adviser to college student newspapers, the freedom of the press has been crucial in my life. But that's not all the First Amendment is about.

It reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Freedom of press comes in third in this list. Our founders saw the separation of Church and State as so essential they made it the first clause in the first paragraph of the Bill of Rights.

"But aren't we a Christian nation?" I've heard many say.

We are a nation founded mostly by Christians, but these were Christians of different flavors. The Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock because they fled the persecution of an English king who disagreed with their brand of Christianity. Anglicans and other kinds of Christians landed on other parts of the North American coastline.

They landed here knowing the history of religious strife in Europe. Wars fought between princes on behalf of one Christian sect against the other.

Only a few decades after the Puritans landed in Massachusetts, a Puritan in England named Oliver Cromwell would defy the English king and spark the English Civil War. The king would be captured, beheaded and Cromwell would become Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. He would rule that nation for five years until he died.

With his death, his government collapsed and the British monarchy was restored. When the royals returned, they dug up Cromwell's body and posthumously executed him. His body was hung by chains, thrown into a pit and mutilated. They stuck his head on a pole outside Westminster Hall. Cromwell's head would bounce around England for nearly two centuries, going from owner to owner until finally being buried in 1960.

The British colonists on the shores of North America watched from the sidelines as their home nation tore itself apart with religious conflict. Their descendants would remember this when it came time to write a constitution for a new nation. They knew the only sane choice was to keep religion out of government.

Our founders ensured church and state be separate. This also ensured the everyone could worship as they wanted to because no one flavor of Christianity or any other religion could hold power over any other. The separation of Church and State spared our nation from the religious conflicts that had plagued Europe and the rest of the world for centuries.

As candidates for office and as public officials, we must not allow the government to be used as a weapon to promote a particular theology.

No man is an island

[Reposting this entry from October 2007 because I recently came across the photos about this story]

In the early 1990s, I was a reporter covering the protests in Allegany County against plans to build a

low-level radioactive waste dump somewhere in that county. Hordes of protesters showed up whenever the state sent out a siting commission to pick where to put this dump. They would lock arms and block roads and do everything they could to stop or slow the commission from reaching a potential site. And, along a country road somewhere in Allegany County, I found a large group of protesters blocking the road and waiting for the state police to move in, arrest them and carry them off.

In that crowd, happily clinging to the arm of someone I took to be a younger relative, was M.M. Alexandra Landis. Dr. Landis -- who told me she had a Ph.d. and had taught at Harvard -- was an elderly woman who seemed to be delighted at the prospect of being arrested. I asked her why she was there, risking arrest. I have always remembered her reply.

"Are you familiar with John Donne?" she asked. Then, with no prompting, she launched into his poem:

"No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee. "

I thought of Dr. Landis this morning as I watched the EMTs take my elderly neighbor out of her home on a stretcher and put her in an ambulance.

Posted by Ed Bond at 11:01 AM 0 comments Friday, October 26, 2007

What it means to be a reporter

Last year, my buddy Jeff Schnaufer and I went to Washington D.C. to visit some museums. We spent part of one day at the International Spy Museum and later on went to the Newseum. What struck me was the contrast in the two experiences. One institution explored lies and deception. The other celebrated the search for truth and facts.

At the Spy Museum, we had the opportunity to go on a simulated spy mission. We had to solve puzzles, use surveillance equipment, infiltrate a bad guy's headquarters, interrogate a possible double agent and ultimately decide whether to deploy a black ops strike team. At the end, we got to watch the news reports on what had happened, knowing that we could never tell the real story. (They also had a massive display on the Bond movies, so my name got a bit of attention when we picked up the tickets.)

At the Newseum, the experience had been much more static. What stayed with me had been the memorial for all the journalists who died in the line of duty. A pickup truck riddled with bullets. Many reminders of how dangerous journalism could be.

When I had been a journalism professor, the Newseum's website had been an invaluable resource for my classes. But after being at the Spy Museum, the Newseum was a bit of a let down.

If only the Newseum had an immersive experience too. To me, it would be fun if visitors to the Newseum would be handed a notebook and pen and be told, "There's a zoning board meeting in the next room. Go find the lede."

Next they are told, "There's a politician giving a speech in the next room. Go get direct quotes despite the bad acoustics and his habit of occasionally mumbling. Oh, and be ready in case something unexpected happens like a protest or the sudden appearance of his opponent."

Then, "Ok, there's a crime scene next door. Try to get the story even though the police have the area cordoned off and the officers on the scene are instructed not to talk to you."

Then after the Newseum visitor goes home and goes to bed, their phone rings at 11:30 p.m. An angry editor yells at them for flubbing the lede or questions how they got their facts or quotes.

Then as they wake up the next morning, wondering how it all worked out, the clock radio goes off and the morning news announcer reads their lede to them.

Truth be told, I loved being a reporter. You didn't do the job for the money. You did it as a service to the public. The payoff was the adrenalin rush of getting the story, not just first, but correctly. I was despondent when I had to write a correction, but you could not shirk that part of the job. If a mistake happened, you had to correct it and figure out how to avoid that mistake in the future.

Despite what some politicians would tell you, I believe that most journalists work very hard to get the facts right and do it dispassionately. I will have to exclude 24-hour news channels from this. They don't provide 24 hours of news every day. It's more like 23 minutes of the same news, repeated over and over and over, intermingled with spin doctors and pundits.

Here's what I do for my mental sanity. If a major news story breaks, I may turn on the 24-hour news. But once they give the initial facts and start repeating those facts, or when the anchor says, "And now we turn to our panel of experts," that my cue to either switch channels or turn off the TV.

Being a reporter taught me how to listen, how to read people and how to be a quick study on complicated issues.  One downside has been that since I stopped being a reporter, I've had to learn how to be a human being. No, I shouldn't call the same person three times a day until they give me an answer. Human beings don't do that. As a reporter, I learned about life through a unique filter -- everyone I ever talked to knew I was a reporter and was consciously or unconsciously on guard about what they said.

But as I get into politics, I realize my reporting skills are invaluable. It also makes sense to operate as if everything is a matter of public record. Because of my career in newspapers I have already lived a very public life. For example, you can go Google "Ed Bond Los Angeles Times" and read stories I wrote more than 20 years ago.

The advantage to this also goes back to a lesson I learned way back in politics class at St. Joseph's University.

There are no secrets.
At least not permanently.

Even though the International Spy Museum is a monument to lies and deception, its very existence tells you that eventually truth will come out. The Newseum is the testament to that side of the story.

While working on my announcement video, I ended up scanning in a lot of my old clips to pick out which ones to use. So, in the interest of time for anyone who would like to do some background research on me, I am posting all those clips here. Think of it as my own personal Newseum exhibit.

Or if you just have about 3-4 minutes to spare, you might check out this video I made to get a quick overview of what it was like to be a reporter and how I got here.

Cheers!

Congressional Primary June 26 - Democratic candidates

I've been knocking on doors, talking to people in my district about the upcoming New York primary for the 23rd Congressional District on June 26.

Five candidates are on the ballot on the Democratic side:

• Linda Andrei
• Ian Golden
• Tracy Mitrano
• Max Della Pia
• Eddie Sundquist

I have met and/or listened to all of these candidates. They all have their own strengths. I became a volunteer for Linda Andrei back in March because as a retired cardiologist, she can speak authoritatively about the health care system. My initial impression of her was she had an intelligence and empathy that had been shaped by a long career of making life-and-death decisions.

All of these candidates support health care reform in some measure, and it is high time to realize this country needs a single-payer system.

A few anecdotal reasons why I think so:

• Chicken dinner fundraisers

As admirable as it is for members of a community to band together and raise money for a family with a kid sick with leukemia or a dad injured in an accident or a mom with some form of cancer, you have to realize there is something wrong when families have to go to such a struggle to pay hospital bills. These would not be needed with a single-payer system.

• The recalled ambulance

As a reporter, I'd sometimes hear about a car accident on the newsroom scanner. Then we'd hear the  ambulance dispatched to the scene. Then, a few minutes later the ambulance would be recalled. The injured person has declined care. They didn't want to go to the emergency room because they couldn't afford it.

• My $34,000 hospital bill

In 2006, I was hospitalized for two weeks with a clot in my liver. At the time, I was covered by Blue Cross, provided by the Star-Gazette. But a few weeks after I came home from the hospital. they sent me a bill for $34,000. Sticker shock! This had been caused by a billing error, and after repeated calls between Blue Cross and the Arnot Ogden billing department, it eventually got resolved. But I would not forget this lesson on how it felt to not have health insurance. Scary!

• My sister Jane, who has Multiple Sclerosis

In March 2017, I was headed to a town hall meeting with Congressman Tom Reed. I asked Jane to toss me some facts to throw at Reed. She said, "It's very scary to have a disease that can knock you out of life without warning. It's scarier still to worry that you won't be able to get the treatment you need. There's no cure (yet) but there are meds and treatments that can help folks live an easier life, but meds can cost $50-80k annually. It's difficult to communicate the level of fear, but it's very real."

• The numbers

The costs of public vs private insurance coverage can be debated, but Medicare operates with a much smaller overhead (about 3 percent) than private health insurance (about 10 percent to 20 percent). Why does private health insurance cost so much more? Bureaucracy -- at both the insurance companies - who often require patients to jump through hoops to get their treatment approved - and at the hospitals and doctors offices where staff must fill out the documentation to get the bills paid.

...

Old habits die hard, so when I attended the debate of these congressional candidates in Elmira a couple of months ago, I jotted down some observations.

"Tracy spoke with an authority and expertise and used compelling devices to capture our attention. 'Call me progressive' over and over effectively. Punctuating every point she made."

[... I make a big distinction between "progressive" and "liberal." I don't like the word liberal because in any kind of fiscal equation, liberal means "I will waste your money." But I do believe it is possible to be careful with money but also be socially progressive. The slogan for this blog "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are," comes from Teddy Roosevelt, the original progressive president ... and a Republican. I do like the way Linda describes herself as a progressive because she believes we still need to make progress.]

"Linda still brought through her commitment and compassion for health care reform ... The only contentious moment of the night was when Tracy said Linda was attempting a straw man/dog attack on single payer. Both support single payer, but Linda insisted it could happen immediately. Tracy argued for a plan to implement it in 5 years to avoid a tax impact. It seemed an attempt to artificially create division. I think either Tracy or Linda could do the job. They are both well-educated, insightful in their own way and hard working."

"Ian was the common man who displayed an undeniable compassion for others. He offered a lot of insight into issues. He would be an excellent Congressman. He might have more of a problem of overcoming the "Ithaca liberal" label when going against Reed. Tracy and Linda have the same issue, but Tracy overcomes it with a diverse and impressive educational resume. Linda, because of her education and experience, but also because she worked as a doctor throughout the Southern Tier, including Arnot Ogden."

"Eddie always came across as smart and well-prepared. I liked that he was able to talk about growing up in farm country with guns as part of the family tradition. He is quite far from an 'Ithaca liberal' but he was the one who adamantly embraced the "extreme liberal" label."

I have had a few conversations with Max, and I have been impressed with him because of his military and legislative experience. He commands a respect that goes across party lines, and that would serve him well in a general election. That one fact may be the deciding factor.

So, I'm volunteering for Linda, but I'm not going to tell people who to vote for in the primary. We have nearly two months until the June 26 primary, and I would encourage everyone to do research on these candidates and decide who you would prefer. The links to their websites are above.

Here's a copy of the flier handed out in advance of the candidate's debate in Elmira:

Sadly, Rick Gallant has since dropped out of the race. As a teacher and union organizer, he brought a lot of useful perspectives to the issues. 

I would also be remiss if I did not mention there are two independent candidates in the race:

• James Classy
• John Hertzler

Hertzler poses a problem of loyalty for me, only because I am an avid Star Trek fan. Hertzler played General Martok, a Klingon warrior, on Deep Space Nine. He was a popular and brash character as a Klingon, and he is just as colorful when you meet him in person. 

K'plah!

Press release on 'May the Fourth Be With You'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 4, 2018 – HORSEHEADS NY

Ed Bond, a Horseheads resident, entrepreneur and inventor, announced May 4, 2018, that he will be pursuing the Democratic nomination for the 4^th District of the Chemung County Legislature.

Bond is also a former reporter for the Star-Gazette in Elmira who had spent 25 years in journalism as a writer, copy editor, page designer or journalism professor. After getting his master’s degree in journalism from Indiana University, his first full-time job was to cover the Steuben County Legislature and other local news for the Star-Gazette. That experience had been an invaluable education in public affairs, Bond said.

His next job was to cover the city of Burbank for the Los Angeles Times. He then took over a series of columns for the Times about the people in the community who made a difference in the world. He left the Times to become a community college journalism professor, but in the meantime he also helped launch a newspaper in Santa Monica called The Observer.

He had met his wife, Amy, in the newsroom of the Star-Gazette, where she had been an editorial assistant. In 2001, they moved from Los Angeles to Horseheads, where Amy had grown up. Ed took a job as a copy editor at the Star-Gazette and occasionally wrote opinion pieces and columns for the paper. He also taught at Ithaca College on either part-time or short-term assignments. 

“I’m running for office because unchallenged elections – or elections decided only in primaries – are unhealthy for democracy and open government. People deserve a choice. In uncontested elections, large segments of the population do not get a chance to be heard. Many don’t bother voting. They feel like their votes don’t count. They feel helpless.”

“If you want to ensure openness in government, improved communication and have a representative willing to listen to people, elect a former reporter,” Bond said.

FUN FACTS

• Ed and Amy have two sons, John [Jack], a student at Corning Community College, and Liam, an eighth grader at Horseheads Middle School.

• They also have four cats, one dog and a pirate ship treehouse.

• He’s also been an activist, trying to save the lives of dogs with canine distemper. 

• Ed has a patent for a board game called MetaCheckers, which combines checkers, chess and dice. He will be launching a Kickstarter for a new version of the game, MetaCheckers: Soccer, later this year. 

• Ed co-wrote a story for “Star Trek: Voyager,” which aired in March 1996. In the episode, one of the characters uses the skills of an investigative reporter to expose a spy and save the ship.

• Ed is an unapologetic sci-fi nerd, which is why he has launched his campaign on May 4: “May the FOURTH be with you!” 

www.edbond.com/elected/

-- END --

Talking points

[My notes as I was getting ready to film the video announcement]

Hi, I’m your neighbor, Ed Bond, and I’m running for the Chemung County Legislature – 4^th District.

Yeah, I know most people around Horseheads know me as another dad,

Or as a board game inventor

Or a sci-fi nerd

Or from when I was a volunteer with the Boy Scouts

Or as an advocate for animals …

But before I was laid off in 2009, I had spent 25 years in journalism.

I’d been a reporter in 5 states.

I’d covered stories at all levels of government from school board and zoning boards up to state and federal government. My first job out of school was to cover the Steuben County Legislature for the Star-Gazette. I then went on to cover the city of Burbank for the Los Angeles Times.

I met a lot of people who made a difference in the world. They taught me that democracy works if ordinary people are willing to step up, get involved and work together to find solutions to problems.

To be a journalist, I had to listen, to learn and get my facts straight. And when I made a mistake, I had to correct it. People relied on me to get them the right information.

But I’ve grown tired of sitting on the sidelines. I want to make use of all the memories, the people I’ve met, the meetings I’ve gone to, the events I’ve covered, the lessons I’ve learned as a government watchdog.

So, this is me, jumping in. I’m not saying I have all the answers. That will come from listening and learning to the residents of the 4^th legislative district like you.

But I think my starting point is this:

We need openness in government, fiscal transparency,

better communication within government and between governments

and better communication between the government and the people.

Want to hear my campaign slogan?

Well, we’re in the 4^th District...

And I am a sci-fi nerd… 

So … May the FOURTH be with you!

What I've written

So as I get ready to make my first run for public office -- Chemung County Legislature -- here's some of my opinion writing as published in the Star-Gazette.

Campaign announcement: May The Fourth Be With You!

Some thoughts reached as of April 2018

... Nearly half of registered voters in the United States did not vote in the 2016 election. As if they felt helpless ... as if their vote did not matter ... as if no one was listening to them ... because the leaders were all busy yelling at them, telling them what to think ...

... one party rule is not healthy for democracy ... neither are uncontested elections ...

... with the collapse of traditional journalism, the government does not have as many watchdogs as they had in years gone by ... who can watch them now?

... government must be fiscally responsible, but you can have empathy -- a social conscience -- while also being smart with money ...

... men and women experience the world very differently ... so do white people and people of color ...

... politics is not a spectator sport ...

stay tuned ...