Better to have run and lost than to have never run at all.

With all the complaining people do about politics, it seems like more of them would be willing to submit themselves as candidates. I hate the concept of an uncontested election. No one in a position of power should ever go unopposed. I also can't stand seeing an election in which all the candidates are just slightly different versions of the same person. Voters should always be given a wide range of options from which to choose. (That's why I was disappointed that no one chose to run in the Green, Libertarian, and Reform primaries in either the 6th or 1st District special elections. Those parties really missed an opportunity. So did the voters.)

Certainly, it takes a bit of courage to run a race that you know (and everyone else will know) you might lose. I can say from experience, though, that running a no-hope campaign can be fun and satisfying. Also, even a losing candidate can have an important impact on the debate, the election, and the larger political environment.

For example, Michael Cloonan, who was usually dismissed as a little-known candidate with no chance of winning the 6th District Republican nomination, had a huge impact on that race. Even though he got less than 1.5 % of the votes cast, his 425 votes probably changed the outcome. If Mr. Cloonan had not run and if his supporters had stayed home or if a tenth of them had voted for Woody Jenkins (even with the remaining nine-tenths going to the other two Republican candidates), then Mr. Jenkins would have won the Republican nomination in the first round. Instead, the Jenkins campaign will have to keep answering questions from the Left and from the Right. That's the way the democratic process is supposed to work. No candidate should be able to slip into office due to the voters' dissatisfaction with a too-narrow field of candidates.

So, I would like to thank Michael Cloonan, Paul Sawyer, Jason DeCuir, Joe Delatte, Andy Kopplin, Ben Morris, David Simpson, and Vinny Mendoza for their admirable participation in the democratic process. They fulfilled a civic duty that most Americans are either too meek or too proud to fulfill.