December 26, 2007 I changed registration to vote for Ron Paul again! I thought social security was a bad idea in 1980 when I got my first job out of school.

January 26, 2008 I got to vote for Ron Paul again!

August 11, 2008 I am now on the Brevard County Republican Executive Committee, I've seen better organization in my high school Key club.

August 26, 2008 I am now an elected Republican precinct committeeman.

October 10, 2008 I had to get all my precinct information myself - All voter information in my precinct or county for $10. Then I found only one precinct in five has a committeeperson - ripe for the picking in this very Red county! This could lead to a Campaign for Liberty sweep!

November 5, 2008 I was an election poll watcher. I even got an hour of training. It was interesting, Precinct Clerk told me I was the first poll watcher in years!

November 19, 2008 My application to serve remainder of a vacated city council seat was accepted, but a prior councilman was selected.

December 11, 2008 Now I've done it. Elected District 4 Secretary for the Brevard County Executive Committee. The new chairman is open to listening to the Paulites, need to bend his ear. I asked a county commisioner to assign me to a county advisory board.

February 6, 2009 Completed conflict of interest information with employer's legal department. Approved, but will review activity on regular basis. Actualy, I appreciate the help. County advisory board - $1,062,000,000 BUDGET REVIEW! Boy do I have my work cut out for me!

February 17, 2009 unanimuously appointed by Brevard County Board of Commissioners to the County Citizens Budget Advisory Committee.

February 19, 2009 Attended first Committee meeting. There is a good chance to learn the workings of county government, and make a difference here.

May Day: Attended all meetings of the Budget Committee. There is a storm brewing with county budget topics hitting the front page every day. I'm impressed with the staff's dedication to this task tho most are 'interim'. Revenues are down about 30% so the budget is goina take a rippin'. Next year looks even more dire.

August 1, 2009: The county commission voted 3-2 to retain the current tax millage. Rockledge City Council voted to set the maximum up 0.5 mil, but that is a maximum (attended all their meetings this year). The delayed property assessors report has driven most communities to do the same. Lot of work to do before the final taxes are set.

Strange, the county spent $1,186,000,000 of a $1,065,000,000 budget. My chemical engineer's common sense is tingling; spending 11% more than budget is surreal.

It was a strange feeling sitting in a huge room full of county depatment managers and hearing a commissioner telling the interim county manager he would have to lay off another 40 people. At the next meeting it was another 200 people.

I'll need to decide this week if I will run for city council. Two other candidates will be running, a guy who headed the planning and zoning committee, and the county PR spokesperson.

OK, I did it! I'm running for Rockledge City Council Seat #6.

I had a long talk with the county Community Services Council director, a very dedicated person who I have long admired for her work at the Salvation Army. Now, as head of a 'public' agency, she is always having to scramble for funds to get matching grants from Feds and state just to provide the basic needs of people in her care. If the money going to the feds and state were kept here, I'm sure it would be better mismanaged. While we need to defend liberty, we also need to construct a charitable method of providing for those in desparate need. Their fear of losing their "safety net" is the chain that holds them with the liberals. Dr. Paul provided services without taking medicaid. Is that the real solution, keep aid personal and hold to the Golden Rule?

Well, November 6th and it is all over but closing the campaign account. A city wide non-partisan election with 16700 voters possible, only 13.3% voted. It was great that 794 people voted for me, and I won the two precincts near my home. After all the votes were cast, I lost by 40 votes cast November 3rd. I thought was pretty good given this was a three candidate race. The issue I have is; the absentee 700 ballots were heavily for the democrat candidate and I lost by over 400 votes. Still, I was only 9 votes away from a runoff election!

Lessons learned: You must reach out with your mailed flier to absentee voters on the day they are mailed their ballots. The Supervisor of Elections will provide a mailing list and even print the mailing labels if you ask. So write your mailing card and have them printed and ready to go that day. Every few days new absentee voter requests are sent to you, and you can mail to them too. There, I just told you how to with 1/4 of the vote.

December 29, 2009 Take every opportunity to be involved. I submitted an application to Florida Today to be on their editorial board. I had a call today from the Editorial Editor John Glisch asking me to a meeting in January... to explore this further.

January 13 ,2010 Meeting with Florida Today Community Advisory Board where I will be an 'Opinion Matters' blogger.

Jaunary 20, 2010 Attended Rockledge City Council meeting. A member of the Planning Commission resigned. I have had an application on file for a couple months, and I was there, so I was appointed to Planning Commission.

January 21, 2010 Attended my 12th County Budget Review Committee mmeting. Housing management and Solid Waste management answered two hours of questions. At end of the meeting the County Budget Director showed me a letter from the County Commissioners meeting January 12th that I had been replaced on the budget board.

June 9, 2010 I have attended all monthly meetings of the planning commission and biweekly meetings of the city council. Still looking for ways to effect changes for liberty, but the system is definiely locked in cruise control.