JPG: Stories: Photo Essay: Running for State Office

Running for State Office

By Eric Hart

30 Jul 2008

When my friend, Tony Michetti, announced he was running for Pennsylvania state representative, we were surprised. Here was a father and a lawyer (who also moonlighted as a nurse) deciding to give up what little free time he had to campaign. His opponent was a 26-year incumbent; Tony was alive only two years longer than this man had been in office. The incumbent was well known and loved in our district, and the few times someone had actually run against him in an election, he had won by nearly ninety percent.

This was 2006, and the fervor that was sweeping the national mid-term elections was trickling down to the state level. Pennsylvania especially had just seen a nasty pay-raise scandal, and the voters were clamoring for blood; it seemed the entire House and Senate might be replaced in November. This gave Tony's campaign the hope and momentum it needed.

Over the next few months, our small group stuffed envelopes, marched in local parades, wrote letters, met with local groups, and knocked on thousands of doors. Tony went from being almost a complete unknown to a viable candidate in the media and the minds of the voters. He appeared on the radio and opened a small store-front campaign headquarters along with local campaigners for the national offices. None of us had ever worked on a campaign before; it was our crash-course in not only politics, but also in how thousands of people in our area lived and thought about their elected officials.

In the end, Tony lost with about twenty-five percent of the vote. It was more than any other candidate had achieved in our district, and in a way, we had successfully brought a lot of issues to the attention of the incumbent which had previously been ignored. And only a few months previously, Tony had zero percent of the votes.

I hear he's running again this year.