Howdy, Hoosiers. The time has come again for yet another Hump Day Update, where I tell you what I’ve been up to, keep you up-to-date on the campaign, and give you a glimpse of what’s planned for the immediate future.
Last week, I completed Part 6 of the Anti-Corruption Act video series, which would recognize running for office as a fundamental right in Indiana. Most people don’t realize this, but there were zero barriers to running for office beyond what is laid out in the Constitution until 1888; just 34 years after the Republican Party was founded. Before that, third parties in the United States would often rise up and displace one of the top parties. Since then, the two parties have continued to conspire and pass laws to make it progressively harder for anyone to run outside of their duopoly. Whenever independents or 3rd parties have started gaining in popularity, they have worked together to create more obstacles not grounded in the Constitution. I could go on a whole spiel, but I’ll just leave you with that to chew on for now.
Friday, I had lunch with a good friend of mine that works in realty. He reminded me of the importance of marketing in a political campaign. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this website, I’m actually an introvert, so sales was never my forte. I’m more of a strategy and analysis kind of guy. We talked about some of the struggles of running as an independent, which largely amounts to not having an established donor base, media contacts, or pre-existing relationships with influential people in the community. We also discussed strategies I could employ to help combat those struggles, and some of the places I should be going to more in the community. All in all, it was a productive meeting, and a good chance to catch up with a friend.
Unfortunately, I had to miss “Detrash the Wabash,” but I did get out this last weekend to collect signatures near campus. I got to meet a very smart young lady majoring in communications and political science at Purdue, and she helped me set up across from the new Target. Together, we greeted students and visiting parents alike. Considering there was so much going on last weekend, we probably would have gotten more signatures had I chosen a different day. However, the signatures still came faster than going door-to-door, so I’m going to be doing that again, for sure. We even got a few students to register to vote so that they could sign the petitions. Also, I got recognized from TikTok for the first time, and that was pretty cool. I have a feeling that if we did this on a better day, we can foster a lot of support from Purdue students.
I made my weekly trip down to Montezuma on Monday, and things are still looking good there. They were less than 10 pre-enrollments away from having the minimum they needed to get the charter school off the ground, but I’ll bet they have those last few needed by the end of the week, if they don’t already. The big news for the meeting, at least for me, was the pre-school enrolment numbers. Oh, my gosh! The school corporation had decided to close the school, in part, because they predicted a steep drop in enrollment numbers, but boy were they wrong. Let’s just say the COVID boom is here and it’s about to start Kindergarten. Anybody else remember being “bored in the house and in the house bored?”
Yesterday, I did a lot of work on Article VI of the Anti-Corruption Act, which covers the objectives articulated by the Citizens’ Coalition for Legislature Accountability (CCLA) on their website [https://fixmylegislature.com/]. I believe they wrote their language to be an amendment to the state’s Constitution, so by including it in my bill, I ran into a lot of the same issues I ran into with the Term Limits Article. I had to rewrite most of the language to respect Constitutional boundaries. As with the Term Limits, though, I will likely introduce a complimentary amendment alongside my Anti-Corruption Act that uses the CCLA’s original language.
Tonight, we have the Area Planning Commission meeting for the Industrial Solar Farm ordinances in Tippecanoe County, and this time we know they will be opening it up to public comments. I’ve been warned that there will probably be a lot more people, and that we may very well be at it until 2AM. I’ll bring a snack. For all my Tippecanoe County neighbors out there, this meeting will likely decide the fate of industrial solar farms in our county, so if you have a strong opinion on the matter, I suggest you come. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I stand by solar energy, but not on productive farmland.
A quick look ahead: We’ve got Part 8 of the Anti-Corruption video series coming up tomorrow, which proposes laws against mass public deception. Campaign yard signs are about to start coming in, so let me know if you would be willing to place one in your yard. We the People Indiana Revival is putting on another town hall for us, featuring candidates for Tippecanoe County Commissioner, Clerk, and I think there was even a Sheriff. The deadline for campaign finance reports is coming up on Friday, so I’m glad I got my accounting all caught up last week. Purdue Bug Bowl will be this weekend, which is always a treat. Finally, I’m going to be shifting a lot of my focus on getting signatures in the coming weeks, as the deadline in June is coming up fast. I really wanted to collect all the signatures myself and a proportionate amount from each county in my district, but that may no longer be a realistic goal, if it ever was to begin with as stretched out as our district is. I’m going to have to recruit petition circulators to help me if I want to meet our requirements in time. Shifting from asking people to sign to asking people to collect signatures has opened up all kinds of strategies, though. If there’s any chance at all that you could help with collecting signatures for this campaign, please don’t hesitate to reach out. These petitions are only for ballot access. It’s not an endorsement, per se. You’d only be asking people in the district to give Hoosiers a chance to vote for me in November. The hard part of actually convincing people to show up and vote for me will still be on my shoulders.
Anyway…
Until next time, District 23, have yourselves a better-than-great weekend. I’ll be thinking about ya.
Genuinely,
Joshua Brant
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