Kokesh's 700 mile NW Campaign Swing

[ronpaulhawaii]

Ok, we are on the road, (where I am most at home ). It has taken a couple days to get settled. Now, I'll try to get a thread going to keep you guys updated on our progress. We started in Santa Fe where Adam and the team canvassed the Farmers Market. While there we registered our first new republican of the journey A good beginning. We drove north and stopped in 2 small towns, (including the incumbents small hometown) where we set up the RV, talked to a few folk, signed up some volunteers, got a spontaneous donation, and lots of smiles... (The ukulele might help for the drive bys - hehe) We stayed overnight in Espanola where it was pretty quiet.

Yesterday we drove north to the small town of Abiquiu, where we had a meeting set up with a General Store owner. Bob was a democrat but openminded and made some phone calls to his friends to come down and meet Adam. We stayed a couple hours and Adam met with 15 to 20 people while I stayed outside and manned the rig.



By the time we had left we had signed up 5 former Dems as new Republicans. We are finding out that most people here are registered dem but vote republican due to machine politics...

Continuing north we drove to the town we are in "Chama", set up roadside, where Adam started redoing the simple window dressing until a GOP exec came down to talk and give us contacts and a local newspaper owner came down to interview us, etc.

It is morning now and Adam is out talking to some Elk hunters who are dressing their take. About to head into Chama proper and canvass some businesses, then off to Dulce...

I'm going to try to get Adam to record a short vid to recap the journey so far. Things are going well for this, our first "shakedown cruise" As alaways we need to ask for donations, in this case for fuel/etc. costs, so I've set up a chip-in for $500. Fuel should be about half that, but every penny will be put to good use. Help if you can, whether by donating, or posting the chip-in around

http://michael4rpr.chipin.com/kokesh-rv-fuel-fund

Oh, and Adam says Aloha



PS, donations of $20.10 to the chip-in will also enter you in the raffle below

[ForLiberty-RonPaul]

lol

[Kevin_Kennedy]

That's great! I can't think of too many candidates that would have the dedication to go around their district in an RV. Sounds like a good time though!

[ronpaulhawaii]

Will try to write a post about the last day or so. Very busy... Adam did a local radio interview this
am that covered a large area and nailed questions on health care and veterans issues. He recorded it on his I-Phone and we'll try to get it up later. For now here is a vid from yesterday when we stopped at the Jicarilla Apache Nation government building to introduce ourselves to the officials.

YouTube - Kokesh at the Jicarilla Apache Nation

[ronpaulhawaii]

Busy busy...

http://kokeshforcongress.com/node/410

by Adam Kokesh

Today is officially day 3 of the Kokesh for Congress RV Trip Shake Down Cruise and I am reminded at every turn why New Mexico is called the “Land of Enchantment.” On Saturday we kicked off the tour in Santa Fe. We started at the Farmer's Market before catching Nathaniel Mahlberg performing at the Collected Works Bookstore. The Santa Fe community is distinctly “left leaning” but because of the dissatisfaction with the Democratic party, almost every one we spoke to there was willing to hear our message and most were supportive.

We were on the road by one-thirty, since we had three more stops that day. Our first was the Tesuque Village Market where we got our first spontaneous donation, and Baloo got some treats from a local, who was supportive of the campaign too! He was a transplant, and after making some insightful analogies about Mayor Daley, he said, “I'm from Chicago, so I know what you're up against here in New Mexico!” A lot of people in the district understand what it means for us to be challenging “the machine” and are deeply appreciative of what we've taken on.

In Pojoaque we parked the RV in front of the True Value and met with supporters while enjoying a great place for signage visibility right on the side of the busy 84/285/503/502 interchange. When it got dark, it was on to Espanola for dinner at JoAnn's Ranch O Casados Restaurant and an early bed time for a Saturday at the end of a long day of work.

The next morning we headed up to Los Trujillo's in Abiquiu for a meeting with members of the local community. We heard some incredible stories about the local corruption in the Democratic party and how the county officials have been destroying the economy and exacerbating poverty by making Rio Arriba County one of the most difficult places to do business. There were a total of 6 Democrats at the meeting, and by the end of it, five of them were registered Republican!

Then we headed further north to Chama and set up our table near the Lowe's Supermarket where we met with some local vendors, a couple veterans, and Bruce Harshman of the Chama Courier. Most of the Democrats we've met with thus far have been very resentful of their party and those that were supportive but did not want to change their registration cited “business reasons” for maintaining their party affiliation, even though they often vote for Republican candidates. It seems Republicans have a hard time getting permits around here and don't do so well with elected Democratic officials.

This morning, as we were heading off to breakfast at Fina's Diner, I got a chance to speak with four hunters who were cutting up a bull elk on the back of their truck. They were from Farmington and had heard about our “Out Shoot a Marine” event to celebrate the Marine Corps birthday. We took a few hours to meet with local business owners, then it was on to the Jicarilla Apache Nation. Just before crossing onto the rez, we had lunch at the Morning Star Cafe with Darell Vigil, who gave us some great insight about native issues and the Jicarilla economy. We introduced ourselves to tribal officials who were very enthusiastic about the message and seeing a young candidate getting involved in politics. We talked about tribal sovereignty, religious freedom, and leveling the economic playing field by ending corporatism and getting back to sound money . . . and it really resonated with them!

From my travels around the district so far, I've already learned a lot about how people feel about national politics. It seems that the grassroots base of both parties are so grossly misrepresented by their leadership that they have more in common with each other than anyone who represents us in Washington. When I tell people that I'm running to not only challenge the Democratic machine here in New Mexico, but also to redefine what it means to be a Republican to reflect the grassroots, it really resonates across the board. When you have a message that speaks to that, it's guaranteed to bring people from across the spectrum together around a campaign.

[ronpaulhawaii]

We've been way too busy to do much updating. That is a good thing...

We finally made it to our GOP opponents stronghold where we were pleasently suprised to find many people had already heard of us, had signed our petition, etc.. The local volunteers are busy I posted about the "Outshoot a Marine" contest in the other thread. No-one outshot Adam... We parked in front of a busy gun shop and signed up a few new voters; got a bunch of signatures on our nominating petition and generally just made a good impression. The next day we did media outreach in the morning, scored another AM interview that we recorded this morning. In the afternoon we visited businesses in Aztec, with two very active local volunteers, it went very well. Again more new voters and lots of sigs on the petitions.

We ended the day in front of an Auction House on a busy highway owned by supporters where we parked our mobile billboard and talked to some key people from the area.

This morning we did the radio thing. Then headed out towards Shiprock, stopping at roadside businesses where we secured a sign drop at very high traffic location. Looking forward to be able to afford 4X8 signs (hint hint).

We had lunch in Shiprock at the largest Chapter House in the Navajo Nation. We met with soem officials who gave us their blessing to canvass the area. They also booked Adam to speak at the Sunday meeting. Sharing Mutton Stew with Navajo elders is a memory I'll treasure... Finally we left Shiprock and headed deep into the reservation, stopping at a few stores and another Chapter House, which again booked Adam to speak. Now we are at the house of a Medicine Man who is introducing us around, more to come... here are some pics

Business visiting


MTK Auctioneers


MTK 2


Nelson Cambridge, our Navajo guide


In front of the Gun Shop in Farmington


And Baloo keeps us busy


Still time to enter the Rifle Raffle. Needless to say we will need your donations to win this seat. Click the pic in my sig and Be a Part of It

[torchbearer]

thanks for the update.

[AdamT]

Lovin' this thread.

Just entered.

[Eric21ND]

Awesome update! Nothing beats pounding the pavement and meeting the locals face to face. Keep up the good work, btw do you have a map of the district Adam is campaigning in?

Are you guys really having a rifle raffle??

[DirtMcGirt]

Awesome... you guys are doing it the right way!!!
I dream of the day when our Liberty candidates get together for a group victory picture...