I went to Jubilee Day in Mechanicsburg, PA today. As with every Jubilee Day, it was packed. It helps that the weather was absolutely perfect - which brought out even more people. Some estimate that the crowd will reach 60,000 - which is not an underestimate by any means - Jubilee Day is the largest one day street festival this side of the Mississippi if I am not mistaken.
As I wove through the crowd, I past all sorts of interesting vendors and people.
I passed the Cumberland County Democrat booth. They were hard at work talking with people from behind the tables that lined the front of their tent.
I passed by the Cumberland County Republican booth. They were doing the same thing, but outperforming their Democrat counterparts in that they were handing out balloons.
I finally came to the Russ Diamond for Governor tent. Here's what I saw: Their table was towards the back of the tent. The volunteers were barely under the tent - they were out in the street - getting people to sign petitions. These were energized volunteers. They know they are working for a cause greater than themselves - you can feel the energy, literally when you get near this tent.
The best part about this whole thing - these are real people doing this - not some high-paid consultant from New York City, or party hacks twisting arms to get signatures. Both Russ Diamond and Tom Lingenfelter were working on getting signatures as well - how often do you see candidates for higher office doing the grunt work.
On to the interview - Russ sat down with me in the tent for about 15 mintues and we chatted about the race. I asked him about the property tax bill that was just passed. Here was his response - He stated that he has a relative in California that does stand-up comedy. Russ said that his relative would find the legislation to be a good joke.
I didn't really come with too many prepared questions, I just wanted to let the conversation flow - and it did. Russ told me that there aren't too many politicians in Harrisburg that are willing to put themselves second to the will of the people. "We need people in office who are willing to do something to make some changes."
He spoke about Swann. Russ said that at first he was excited that Mr. Swann had entered the race, but, like many reformers have pointed out, there are too many ties to the establishment - how much change could Swann really bring about?
I asked him about how the signature campaign was going. He was honest - he didn't know. He said it was tough to tell - lots of people have petitions out there. They don't send them in until a full sheet is filled in. But he was very confident that he would have enough signatures to get on the ballot. He said expects to see a flood of the petitions come back to him about two weeks before the filing deadline.
We spoke about the reform movement for awhile also. He said that the reformers have to be united beind a candidate if they really want to see change. He equated the situation with that of a marriage. When a marriage is in trouble, you go to marriage counseling. In this case, you have the people and their legislatures. The only problem is that one partner isn't willing to go to counseling - legislators. In fact they have become much like an abusive spouse. If Reformers don't get behind a candidate, put social issues aside for the time being and focus on government reforms, it will be like one spouse putting up a new set of rules on the refrigerator without discussing the rules with the other spouse who won't even go to counseling.
Too many reformers are sitting on the sidelines, for fear of losing their tax status possibly - which he understands, but it still bothers him. If you are going to be for reform, go all the way. It bothers him to some degree because these are the same people he would like to have as part of his cabinet should he be elected - they have the right ideas, but they may be too locked into a particular party structure.
Russ also told me that in the near future he will be revealing what he calls an "Employment Contract for Governor." It's pretty much an employment contract. It will lay out what Russ will work on and fight for during his one and only term. He said that it would hold him accountable to work on those specific items that are a part of the contract.
Lastly, Russ said that it was exciting to see people getting excited about the reform issues he is talking about. He's always believed in them, and it's exciting to know that the rest of the public is getting on board with these same ideas. He recognized the huge effort that is before him, but his excitement told me that he was ready, and they he knew he could do it. The passion and energy of Russ Diamond and his volunteers shows a true grassroots effort that the other candidates and parties are lacking as evidenced in their Jubilee Day campaigning style - letting people come to them. Russ and his merry band of volunteers were taking their messag to the people - literally. And the neat thing was that people were listening, people were talking, people were excited, and most importantly for the Diamond campaign - people were signing their name on the petition - in droves.
PennLiberty
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