I am running for Public Office in Palo Alto, California.
I am very inspired by Zephyr’s work, as described in The New Yorker and The New York Times. (see “The Crooked and The Dead, by jill lepore)

I was wondering if she would endorse my campaign for Palo Alto City Council.

I am running on a type of reform candidacy. For instance, in two election cycles and 60 days of a third election day, I have not accepted any campaign cash contributions and have not spend any money on my campaign, in sympathy or antipathy with Citizens United and now McCutcheon (I got 800 votes in 2009 and 5,700 in 2012 and need about 8,000 to be seated).

I was the first Palo Altan to urge a repeal of Citizens United (I texted our then Mayor while listening to a Jeff Clements lecture in SF).

Palo Alto is in trouble. A Grand Jury report of June, 2012 concurs with this view, and maybe we need an anti-corruption effort here.

I am a Dartmouth grad (English, but read government, philosophy and history) and a product of local schools here. I lived in Brooklyn for one month in 2001 and visit on business — concert promoter and artist manager.

My blog, Plastic Alto, has about 900 posts, a subset of which comprises 200 articles under a tag “plato’s republic” about policy.

So far the only national figure to endorse me is Matt Gonzalez, a former Green party nominee for Vice President of US.

Good luck today, Ms. Teachout. By the way, we have a Teachout here! (Hi, Star, we need to keep on keeping on with your teen programming suggestion).

I will post this to my blog, in solidarity. Either way, I am rooting for you and look forward to reading more of your work.

Sincerely,

Mark Weiss
candidate, Palo Alto City Council