Daniel Spisak on Technology

So I’m in a friends car last week Tuesday evening driving up to Hollywood for that evnings LA Philharmonic show at the Hollywood Bowl. About halfway up the drive I get a call on my cellphone from an area code I dont really recognize, but there are some work related activities going on at the time so I take the call just incase. Turns out its the Executive Director for the Libertarian Party in California. As it happens one of the incumbents for the position of Los Alamitos/Rossmoor Water Sewer District didnt file their papers in time, giving a 3 day window of opportunity where anyone could register with the Registrar of Voters in Santa Ana to run for the position and would end up running uncontested. I ask him to send me an email with more information because I have to admit to being at least curious as to what this is all about. Below are copies of the email correspondance, enjoy:

From: druprecht@ca.lp.org
Subject: Your elected office
Date: August 15, 2006 5:31:38 PM PDT
To: des@t-k.com
Daniel,
I’m so glad you are giving this serious consideration. I personally am running for the water district up here in the San Gabriel Valley. The office is the Rossmore/Los Alamitos area sewer district. Filing is free and very easy. You just go to the Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, at 1300 South Grand Ave., Bldg. C in Santa Ana 92711 - 714-567-7600 fax 714-567-7556. www.ocvote.com

You must do it by 5 PM tomorrow, Wednesday.
As I said, noone else has filed, so it could be a slam-dunk. If someone doesn’t file, they’ll just appoint one of their cronies… and we really don’t want that! If you have any questions, please call my home # 626-355-8529.

Thanks.
Dave
Dave Ruprecht
Executive Director
Libertarian Party of California
877-884-1776

Mind you, I found this all out the day before the deadline, and I attempted to go online and elsewhere to find information about what such a position would entail from a time and responsability standpoint and wasnt able to come up with too much beyond the fact that I would be compensated $190 per day worth of board level meetings I was involved in. But nowhere could I find a mention of time requirements which is rather critical to me due to obvious reasons presented by my classload at UCI and my consulting work and other consumptions of my time (like sleep!) so I wrote the Party back and said:

From: Daniel Spisak
Subject: Re: Your elected office
Date: August 16, 2006 10:46:48 AM PDT
To: druprecht@ca.lp.org
Reply-To: des@t-k.com
Dave,
As much as I would like to be able to help the Libertarian party in its cause I am afraid I simply don’t have the time available to be able to commit to this seat. I tried to lookup at the Registrar of Voters and a few other places what the duties of the seat are and I was able to find a little bit of information but nothing that could give me an idea of how large a commitment I’d be attaching myself to. I must also confess that I am curious how the Party came to see me as a potential for this seat? I am a somewhat colorful person and am involved already as a volunteer for the state Office of Emergency Services which I have just enough time for. Seeing as I am a full-time undergrad student at UC Irvine until the end of 2007 and I am also working for two different consulting firms on the side to help pay for my education I feel I would not have the time available to devote to the seat to be able to make a fair representation of the Libertarian Party. However I am honored that the Party would ask me for its
help.

Daniel Spisak
dspisak@nonmundane.org
http://blog.nonmundane.org/
Cell: 562.331.1603

Which elected this response back. No harm no foul.

From: druprecht@ca.lp.org
Subject: Re: Your elected office
Date: August 16, 2006 11:01:24 AM PDT
To: des@t-k.comDaniel,
Of course, that’s very understandable. We found you because you are a registered Libertarian in one of these few special districts where the incumbent didn’t file by the normal deadline and we have a 3 day window to get a Libertarian file there for what will probably be an un-contested office. And, believe it or not, being a “colorful” Libertarian is not that odd. Anyway, thanks for you time and good luck with your - what sounds like - extremely busy life.

Dave
Dave Ruprecht
Executive Director
Libertarian Party of California
877-884-1776

So that is the story of how I almost ended up being on the November ballot as a Libertarian candidate. I have to admit I did really want to give this a go but I just couldnt jump head first into something involving the city I live in without first understanding what would be required of me or what I would need to do. Perhaps next year I can think about this again with a more serious mind and some preparation.