My state house seat just became vacant...

[BamaAla]

The seat was vacated by the fellow who held it for a long time and a special election has been called. Think it would be worth it for me to throw my hat in the ring as an independent? These things have stupid low turnout, so if I spent Christmas holiday driving around the district talking folks up, I might get a few votes. What say you?

http://governor.alabama.gov/news/news_detail.aspx?ID=7394&t=1

[Keith and stuff]

Candidates qualifying with major political parties must do so by Wednesday, December 19, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. The two major political parties are to certify their qualified candidates to the Secretary of State as soon as possible after the qualification deadline but by no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 21, 2012.

The Republicans won't make you their pick? What makes you think you can win as an independent? This is a college in the district with a lot of voters?

If you think you will enjoy the experience, go for it. However, it will make it harder for you to run a successful campaign under the GOP in the future if you run as an independent and do poorly.

[sailingaway]

Is there someone already running GOP? Can you ask?

Up to you, but we'd love to see you in the state house.

[tsai3904]

If you want to run as a Republican, you have to fill out a GOP election qualifying form, submit $1,000 (there is a hardship waiver) and be reviewed by the Alabama GOP's Steering Committee. They will review your candidacy to determine if you are a Republican and will endorse and actively support the principles and policies of the Republican Party. Basically, they will judge if you are loyal to the Republican Party.

If you do decide to run as a Republican, it would be interesting to see how welcoming they are.

[BamaAla]

It doesn't look like there will be any Democrats challenging. I've read that the former long time mayor of a small town near here is going to seek the Republican nomination. I'll look into it, but I'm not thinking that the R party will welcome a challenge to their man from a young upstart; I'll get a better feel for it in the coming days. I really don't want to become alienated from the local party though as I think we can make some progress for liberty movement in the future.

I've had my eye on the seat for a while because I knew our representative had designs on higher offices, but this was sort of sudden. The man who has held the seat is a friend of mine, but he's a bit of a party hack, so I'm not going to expect any substantive help from him if the party has their heart set on this other fellow.

I'm just spitballin' here as we just learned of his vacation this week. I was hoping that someone had mounted or helped mount a challenge like this that may have some pointers or advise.

[BamaAla]

The Republicans won't make you their pick? What makes you think you can win as an independent? This is a college in the district with a lot of voters?

If you think you will enjoy the experience, go for it. However, it will make it harder for you to run a successful campaign under the GOP in the future if you run as an independent and do poorly.

It looks like they already have their guy picked, and there aren't any colleges in the district; it is very rural (I think the largest town has a population of about 500.)

Your second point is the only thing that worries me. I really think there can be an ideological shift in the local Republican party, but if the boat gets rocked too soon it may hurt those chances going forward.