October to-do list

Thank God It's Friday, and it looks like we will be treated to fall colors near their peak in the Twin Cities, along with crisp, clear, gorgeous "football weather." I hope you'll knock off a few items on your to-do list, like:

• Take care of the lawn
• Go for a walk, run, or bike ride
• Visit an apple orchard
• Fight for freedom and prosperity

If you are anywhere near broadcast, print, or Internet media during the month of October, on city streets or country roads, or open the mail or even your front door, you will be reminded continually that this is election season. This year there is a large slate of conservative candidates running for office in Minnesota, from the legislature to Congress. Affecting change begins with winning elections, which happens when people tick items like these off their to-do lists:

• Get informed - use the Internet and mass media to understand where the candidates stand on the issues that are important to you, and use this knowledge to choose which candidates to support and to persuade others to join you.
• Contribute money to candidate campaigns - when you send money to a candidate, you not only show your support, you exercise your First Amendment rights to free speech and to peaceably assemble. Candidates must have cash on hand to get their messages out to the voters.
• Get in the ground game - campaigns need volunteers to distribute campaign literature, door knock neighborhoods, post campaign signs, walk parades, write letters to the editor, and make get-out-the-vote phone calls. These are fun and easy ways to help candidates and meet other like-minded citizens.
• Show up to the meetings - public events are a good way to hear directly from candidates and show your support for your favorites. For example, all four of the school districts within Senate District 43 are conducting candidate forums this month on education issues:

• Tuesday, October 5, 7pm-9pm - Hopkins School District Candidate Forum at the Eisenhower Community Center (School Board Room) in Hopkins
• Monday, October 18, 6pm-7:30pm - Wayzata School District Candidate Forum, location TBA
• Tuesday, October 26, 7pm-9:30pm - Robbinsdale School District Candidate Forum at Robbinsdale Schools Service Center (Board Room) in New Hope
• Wednesday, October 27, 7pm-9pm - Minnetonka School District Candidate Forum, location TBA

Contact the candidate campaigns or state or local party organizations to find out how you can help, or you may regret not doing so on the day after Election Day.

I'll add one last item: vote! If you will be out of town on Election Day, vote absentee now. Otherwise, get registered to vote if you have not done so already, and find your polling place. Get these links and more on my new Voter Information Center page.