Hello! Since the news reported that I was considering a run for the US Senate many of you have responded in a most encouraging and positive way and I thank you for this “vote” of confidence. The fine print in the article was more accurate than the headline, however, in that I am truly considering any and all viable avenues for public service. The Senate is such a dream and in reality is such a long shot that it seems most improbable.
I only allowed myself to dream this vision publicly after some others had, over the last 6 months, encouraged this gigantic reach. I cannot emphasize this enough—this would never have reached this stage without the urgings of a few close friends, and the further prodding of a savvy political marketer (Dea Riley, thank you (I think?) Dea!) who I met by sheer coincidence through a mutual friend on Facebook.
I must also note that the political pros, the real insiders, have discouraged this effort, saying that it will be impossible to raise the necessary millions in such a huge statewide race, especially for a political outsider with no previous elected experience. I quite understand and for that reason never seriously considered this quest until the wave of serendipity moved me in a different direction. I try always to let the Spirit lead, and to do as my late fraternity brother, Norman Vincent Peale taught: “Think Positively.”
My “Pre-Exploratory” Committee met last week. These are some very sharp individuals and together we spoke about all the options, the pitfalls and opportunities and while we agreed the Senate is a long shot, the group unanimously agreed that we should do a POLL that would assess my message and prospects for both statewide and local options. They also directed me to raise the funds by asking for $200 from whoever may be so inclined, BUT of course being grateful for whatever one offers.
I have been calling and writing friends over the last few days and I am most uplifted. I am struggling to find the right words here…every donor, every well-wisher, has truly heartened me. But when one makes a financial donation at such an early stage, it is such a show of confidence that who I am, that the principles and values I represent are so right, and so needed by our ailing political system, that I am truly, truly humbled. I darn near feel like Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life!
Since I believe in what I am doing, since I know I am in it for the right reasons, that I have no ulterior motive and am not beholden to any special interest or agenda save that which best benefits the Greater Public Interest I have had no hesitation in asking for assistance. I am not seeking to serve and possibly to run for me, rather I am doing it for YOU.
And for that reason I invite you to help me in any way you can. Funds yes, but more. I seek and WANT your ideas, your concerns and your input on how we can better our world. Anything that concerns you concerns me too.
I have spent a lifetime listening to others and responding to their wants and needs, be it the customers I served, or the manufacturers with whom I built win/win relationships the world over. These same principles, when combined with the values (honesty, integrity, fairness, compassion) instilled in me by my parents, uncles, and aunts and of course God, are exactly what our political process needs.
I invite you to engage with me in this quest. I invite you to envision an inspirational future, while savoring the precious present. I invite you to dream big, to think long term and to walk in faith no matter what.
I invite you to Believe With Me.
Richard Frank Dawahare March 6, 2009
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Considerations on a run for the Senate
What do I want to do with the rest of my life? What is the true desire of my heart and soul? These are the questions I perhaps have avoided most of my life and that I now muse and pray about.
This is what I know: that I want to make a positive mark on the world and to help others while letting my spirit soar. Beyond that, I’m not sure what truly makes my heart sing. Career interest tests confirmed that I was in the right field as I had a high aptitude for marketing, advertising, promotion, but also in writing, teaching/counseling. To that end I am considering both teaching or consulting.
But serving in politics has always been a dream. I grew up with the image of the politician as a person of the highest integrity performing one of the noblest roles in society. I suppose the story I heard many, many times that my grandfather wanted one of his sons to be president—and naming three of his sons after presidents—helped cement this image in my mind. Having an uncle (Willie Dawahare) serve as the mayor of Hazard and another (uncle Hoover) in the legislature solidified my absolute conviction that there could be no higher calling for decent, honorable community-oriented people. My parents, my uncles and aunts hung the moon. They were of the highest character and morality, the very personification of the Golden Rule.
When I was a young boy, 7 or 8, Uncle Willie would talk to me about great political leaders. He spoke with the highest regard about FDR and Churchill. He told me of the JFK-Khrushchev conflict and then gave me what was to become my most prized possession: a Kennedy dollar inscribed with “Ask not what your country can do for you, rather ask what you can do for your country.” I was awestruck by that coin and clung to it as Frodo did the ring.
From that day forward the highest calling, the most good a person could do—in my young mind—was to serve as an inspirational political leader. Such people had, I always thought, the highest moral principles and clung tenaciously to truth and justice. And regardless how many dispiriting examples of political self-dealing, dishonest acts abound, I still believe in this ideal.
But surely, I thought to myself, there are many other ways than politics to use these values in serving society. Of course there are and I—like most people—have served and helped others in many different ways throughout my life.
Yet I feel uniquely privileged by the happenstances of my birth, my upbringing and my life’s course that thrusts me in this position. I almost feel duty-bound to take advantage of this opportunity to help others in this way, to bring to the political arena the high ideals and values that my family instilled within me, to campaign and then to serve wholeheartedly with these values, no matter how severely they may be tested, being guided solely by what will best benefit the greater public interest.
I know I can bring positive energy and influence to Washington for I understand that it is the process and the attitude that matters most to ideal policy-making. My whole career was based on listening to others’ needs, seeking—and reaching—win/win solutions with suppliers and customers alike and leaving both happier than before we interacted. Thus, I know I can add civility and improve the legislative process through open-minded and empathetic engagement while holding firm to immutable principles of truth, justice and our social compact.
My philosophy is always about putting people first and legislating on behalf of their highest welfare. Yet I realize that it is a multi-stranded yarn that weaves our complex social quilt. Commerce and capitalism is essential to making our system work for people just as it is the people who make commerce and capitalism flourish. Thus, balance is key as well as focusing on facts, not emotion.
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But what about other candidates—can they not do the same? And others who might run have more experience, a track record in politics, connections and MONEY (and/or contacts to a big purse), so how can I even begin to think about this pipe dream?
Whether it’s fate, karma, whatever our company’s closing removed a major obstacle to this opportunity. Others always encouraged me to be in politics. Many years ago I started to get involved in the Young Democrats, but this kind of political involvement seemed forced and unnatural. So I was determined to just ride the course I was on: be the best person I could be while helping my dad, my family and our business. If there ever was to be a future for me in the political world, I thought, God would open that door. I’d say that an unplanned and historic end to a 100-year-old business is a pretty big opening indeed.
Then there are the “signs.” Random encounters with messages such as ‘the saddest thing a man may ever face is what might have been,’ to Keith Olbermann’s quote on the Starbucks coffee cup that exhorts one to go for any job, seek any dream. Everything, it’s all positive-go-for-it messaging.
Still, I am not yet sure. The cake’s in the oven, but it’s not quite done. So for the moment it’s still a dream, and a sweet one.
RFD 2/11/09
