21st Century Campaigning

I believe that Tony Sanchez will be the last of the ego centric wooden heads who have a lot of money and who try to buy the governor's office of Texas with slick ads and payoffs to the press, Party bosses, elected officials, little tin demigods and other bottom feeders interested in corrupting the democratic process. 

In the 21st Century, campaigning will be focused on the internet. With pictures, position statements and streaming video (non commercial commercials) the candidate will be able to present himself or herself to their constituents for a couple of hundred dollars a month. 

The candidates will be able to respond to biased news articles and will be able to attack the other candidates' credibility and shoot holes in their hollow issues. Television and radio ads will generally become a thing of the past because people will simply go to a comprehensive political web site and find out who is running and then go to the individual sites and find out about a candidate. This will be done at anytime of the day and not just during prime time on the television and radio.

Newspapers will still report the news but it will come after the candidate has already posted it to his or her web page. The newspaper will become redundant in many ways. I think that investigative reporting will still hold some sway but via the internet whistle blowing will come of age. And what is printed by the press will be verified or denied on a candidates' web page.

In a nutshell, you are going to see an interactive between the press and the candiates and between the candidates regarding who they are and what they represent. Go to my web page at johnworldpeace.com and view the future as well as the truth.

Also, promises made by a candidate in writing will hold that candidate to those promises or they will become fodder in the next election.

With the internet, the common man can re-enter the elective process and run for any office he or she chooses. Money really become irrelevant to a large degree. There is still a need to travel the political subdivision to meet the people; that will never end. In fact, without personal appearances to support the web page, a candidate is not going to get any votes. People will want to see the real person, not the sanitized video.

With my web page, I have begun the revolution in politics. I have rewritten the play book. I have neutralized the press and held them accountable for their stories. The Houston Chronicle was forced to make available the foundation of its most recent poll regarding the gubernatorial candidates. If they had not done this, then the poll would have been dismissed as self serving nonsense. Unlike the Jeff Montgomery poll that come out in the San Antonio Express. So who is Jeff Montgomery? He has no web presence.

With literally the whole world watching via the internet, lying is going to be hard to accomplish in the 21st century.

Dan Morales and Tony Sanchez have slick ego centric web pages that do not address the issues. They do not address any of the charges that I have leveled against them. They refuse to state in detail their positions regarding their past actions. Those web pages are just the next generation of commercials that have moved to the internet. I.E. Tony Sanchez has not denied that he he was a Viet Nam era draft dodger. I guess because he is. If he is not, then he needs to account for how he avoided military service in the 1960s. The press has refused to ask the question.

Take away all the cosmetics on Tony's and Dan's web pages and you end up with an empty bag. They will not put up any real position statments because they know that I will shred them. So in the end WorldPeace.

The last component of future campaigns is going to be televised debates just before the elections. So the web pages, visiting the various Party events and the debates along with some advertising is going to be the new way to politic. Therefore, a governor's race should be possible for less than $1 million.

The below article indicates that Claytie Williams spent $20 million in his run for governor. Sanchez has already spent $10 million just on the Primary. And Perry has $13 million ready and waiting.

I have been saying for over a year, "The revolution will not be televised". And guess what, it wasn't!

Welcome to the 21st Century and the Third Millennium.

"Now go run and tell that".

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas
No more corruption. No more Monicas.
God Bless Texas 

February 14, 2002
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Opponents criticize Sanchez's campaign expenditures

By Miguel Liscano (Daily Texan Staff)
February 14, 2002

The millions of dollars Tony Sanchez has spent on his bid for the governor's seat are unnecessary and a "cancer," his Democratic opponents said Wednesday.
Sanchez, a Laredo businessman and UT System regent, has spent about $10 million on his campaign. In January alone, he spent $6 million, with about $4.4 million going to campaign ads. Dan Morales, a former two-term attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, came in a distant second by spending about $127,000 on his campaign so far. 

"It has a huge effect on us," said Jim Moore, spokesman for Morales."We're running a sort of maverick operation where we're hoping that by talking to the media and the people directly, we can get our message out. But everybody who turns on their TV sees Tony."

He said a Sanchez win would mean campaigns are more about marketing than about issues.

It also shows people interested in public service that their chances of succeeding are much better if they are wealthy, Moore said. 

"I think it's a cancer. I think it's a horrible terminal cancer that sort of indicates a cultural decline," Moore said. "It means that there's something flawed with our process. It means that we need to go back and take a look at how we elect people."

Morales has used leftover campaign money from his previous attorney general races, raised about $20,000 in private contributions and is making up the monetary gap by running a statewide grassroots campaign, Moore said.

Michelle Kucera, spokeswoman for Sanchez, said it is necessary for Sanchez to buy as much advertising as he can to gain name recognition because he is a first--time candidate. 

"Tony is not a professional politician, so he has spent 30 years in the business world, and so we need to introduce him and his message about the issues," Kucera said. "To do that, we've got a lot of territory to cover in a state of this size."

She added that spending millions on a gubernatorial race is nothing new and offered the example of Clayton Williams, a Midland oilman who spent $20 million on his campaign and was defeated by former Gov. Ann Richards.

John WorldPeace, a Houston lawyer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said it is not necessary to spend millions of dollars because modern technology allows for an easy flow of communication. 

"One of the things that I have found in this race is that the Internet is really the future of all campaigns, because on the Internet, you get beyond the skewing you get from the press, you get beyond the slick ads and you get right down to what a candidate really believes," he said. 

He said the Internet makes information about all candidates available to voters and minimizes the amount of necessary media coverage to gain name recognition. 

WorldPeace said he has spent about $3,000 on his campaign so far and $600,000 last year on an automated telephone system that informed voters of his views.

He also said there should be caps on the amount of money a candidate spends on his campaign, which would allow "the average man" to run for office.

Bill Lyon, a Waxahachie business man and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said too much spending insults the intelligence of voters and assumes that name recognition is enough to gain votes. 

"There comes a point where people feel like you're trying to buy it," he said. "I think there's a certain point you come to where you've done all you need to do in the way of money."

He also said limitations should be placed on campaign expenditures, and the best way to gain votes is through personal contact with citizens. 

Lyon said he has spent about $5,000 on his campaign, raising $101 in contributions - $100 from a friend and $1 from his mother.

Harvey Kronberg, editor of the Quorum Report, a nonpartisan online political magazine focusing on Texas politics, said it is common practice for unknown candidates, such as Sanchez, to spend a large amount of money on advertising because that is the only way to gain name recognition. 

This practice has been the case in races around the country, so Sanchez is not breaking new ground with his expenditures, he said.