Running for Office: It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner

Sean Travis is a geek. Pure and simple. And has decided to run for office. He has clearly identified a group he believes can help him take down the current Kansas State Legislature representative (described by others as “an anti-abortion, anti-evolution, pro-censorship, pro-surveillance, anti-gay incumbent.”), other geeks.

He’s calling on them, precisely 3000 of them, via an xkcd style comic style page to donate precisely $8.34 each and help him with name recognition advertising as he has identified this as the key to winning (xkcd is a very geeky, minimalist comic famous for using stick figures for its graphics, yet being very clever, funny and a pillar of high geek culture, you can see it here : http://xkcd.org ).

He’s currently polling within 3 percentage points of his opponent. And he’s got 2,894 donors as of this morning (which is a record for donations to a Kansas rep)

In terms of a clearly identified group, goal, and change he wishes to happen (as well as a focused communication that appeals to his target influence group), it’s a great example of strategic campaigning well executed (so far).

UPDATE [19 jul 2008] : Sean blew away the 3000 mark in just over 36 hours and is now coasting close to 5000… and has added onto his comic. Very impressive.