Cross-posted at MyDD, Digg, and Reddit
Progressive Dem Sean Tevis is an Information Architect in Kansas running for the state legislature. He's decided to retire Arlen Siegfreid, his current anti-science, pro-domestic-spying Republican state representative. Sean started with door-knocking and signatures to get on the ballot, and now he's appealing to the netroots for support. He's chronicled his political journey in webcomic format as a fundraising pitch, which drew attention from BoingBoing, Reddit, and Digg.
Sean Tevis is a geeky geek from Kansas who's fed up with his state rep, an anti-abortion, anti-evolution, pro-censorship, pro-surveillance, anti-gay incumbent. Tevis -- an unknown -- is polling within three points of his opponent, and is looking to raise some Internet dough to kick this guy's (extremely tight) ass, and to promote his cause, he's made a fantastic, XKCD-style toon called "It's Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner." Specifically, he's looking to raise $8.34 from 3,000 people (no state rep in Kansas history has ever had more than 644 donors). I'm in. Who's with me?
Sean is actually a Reddit user himself, and it was online activism that partly inspired him to run:
I credit Reddit with getting me pissed off enough to run for State Representative this year. I live in Kansas and had had enough of the Intelligent Design jokes I've seen posted here about my state so I decided to "retire" my current rep - an anti-gay, religion in schools, conservative.
Sean was told he'd probably need $26,000 to be competitive in this race, and since he's not going to find 50 wealthy donors to give $500 dollars a pop, he's hoping 3,000 people will chip in 8 bucks a piece instead. He's since shattered the 644-donor record for Kansas state legislature candidates, but he's aiming to reach 3,000 individuals. He'd be one more strong voice behind Governor Sebelius, but this is also a great opportunity to send "one of our own" in to public service. Breaking fundraising records is also a guaranteed way to secure some netroots media coverage.
Will you Digg Sean's XKCD comic homage? The "Digg effect" could help him reach the 3,000 milestone.
And here's the direct link to the "3,000" fundraising comic that's drawn so many donors already.
Context: If you're not familiar Randall Munroe's runaway hit "geek webcomic" XKCD, it's time to get acquainted. Randall endorsed Barack Obama earlier this year.