I just made a $25 contribution to the Mark Fogel Campaign, so I’m feeling entitled to start giving Mark advice.
From Mark’s website: “As a young man, my need to serve and desire to fly meant only one thing: going to the Air Force Academy and I was honored to be nominated to attend by Congressman Tony Hall and US Senator John Glenn. At the Academy I learned first-hand what hard work, leadership, and integrity truly mean. Beyond academics, I ran track, was elected a student leader, and became a peer counselor and advocate in the University’s sexual assault prevention organization.
With hard work and the support of my peers, I graduated cum laude and earned a spot at Air Force pilot training. As a member of the first graduating class to serve after 9/11, the next 12 years as an active duty Air Force officer were the honor of a lifetime. While stationed overseas as an F-15 pilot, I deployed multiple times throughout Europe and the Middle East, having achieved my dream of flying and serving my country.”
Mark —
I am pitching in $25 for your campaign and I’d love to see you win District 06.
I believe that the key to your winning the district is found in your website. You make these declarations:
- “With the right leadership, we can turn the tide and create the New Ohio we deserve!”
- “I am running for State Senate because I want to bring experienced servant leadership to our state politics.”
I believe developing these declarations with a specific action plan is the key to your winning this election.
You are saying that the “right leadership” is “servant leadership” and that, whereas, our current political leadership is not sufficient to resolve the needs and to answer the challenges and crises of our time, servant leadership will be successful and will turn the tide.
That is a powerful claim and the more that you can help voters grasp the meaning of these words — and, the more that voters understand and believe these declarations — the more likely it is that you will flip this district.
You need a plan. Without a plan, you are simply articulating political speech, as is expected of most candidates.
You can show that you are the exceptional candidate, and, you can flip the vote of thoughtful Republican leaning voters, by giving a well-thought-out answer to this question:
Mr Fogel, please explain what you mean by servant leadership and please explain your plan for using servant leadership in such a way that, in District 06, we “turn the tide and create the New Ohio we deserve.”
This is a great writing prompt. I’m feeling inspired to attempt to prepare an extended answer for discussion — asking for Mark’s response — and, tying in with ideas developed in the Democratic Primary by Albert Griggs:
