The March of Democracy

$3.75 each from Zazzle.

As I was coming home with the groceries I met Michael J. Dilger on Broadway around 79th Street, where he was gathering signatures for his independent run for the 10th Congressional District, the Upper Left Side seat that has been occupied for 11 terms by Democrat Jerrold Nadler, generally regarded as so safe that it could have been designed by Volvo.

I signed his petition without hesitation, on principle, and only then asked him how his policy ideas were different from those of the incumbent. He came up with two [jump]
issues, one of which was unfortunately so boring that I can't remember what it was, and the other campaign finance reform. I may say that Nadler is solidly and unimpeachably progressive on questions of campaign finance reform, and I imagine he is on the other issue too, whatever it was. Michael J. Dilger seemed to think Nadler had proposed some legislation and not stood by it, but he wasn't very specific.

He didn't have any literature for me to take home, but he did agree that I could probably find out more about him on the Internet, and gave me his name. As it turns out he really doesn't have much of a Web presence either, but I was able to find out a few things, especially that he had already run for New York City mayor, just last year, which surprised me somewhat, as I thought I had been following the contest pretty carefully.

In that campaign he had represented a pretty minor party, and by pretty minor I mean much less visible than the Libertarians or the Rent is Too Damn High, which a lot of people from outside the city have probably heard of. His party was called the Flourish Every Person Can Shine Like the Sun party, and finished dead last, well behind the comparatively popular Affordable Tomorrow and War Veterans parties, with 55 votes or 0.01% of the electorate.

That's about it, really.  He graduated from Loyola University in 1999, and he's the author of a novel published online in 2003 or 2007, Doc Pete Wilson and the World, which is probably not about the former California governor (1991-99) but still seems to have fallen out of the aether and is no longer even electronically in print. Is that even possible? I mean, once it's been advertised on Mobipocket can it just somehow no longer be there?

He is definitely the same Mike Dilger who was running for Congress in the Illinois 14th district when Denny Hastert stepped down in late 2007, although he was living at the time in the Evanston YMCA, which is not in the district. I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this. I'm not going to vote for him, or it's at least highly unlikely. I don't have any reason to think he would be a very good congressman, though I still don't regret signing his petition. I will cheerfully and proudly vote for Jerry, as I have done since moving to the district, because he's a great congressman. I'm writing this up mostly because my sister Nancy has recently started reading the blog regularly again after a long iffy period and I think she would like this, and she would certainly agree that every person can shine like the sun, more or less.

Note the date and time on the Tweet:

Now it's Burger time. Yee-Haa! pic.twitter.com/Vvr3zEjpf0
— Michael Dilger (@nycmayordilger) November 6, 2013