NEWS from the Frank McEnulty for President National Committee
November 6, 2008

The $5,000,000 Question

First I want to thank everyone who supported my efforts this last 18 months especially my wife, Cheryl; my daughters, Sara and Rebecca; Dave Mangan, my campaign manager and Paul Scholz, my finance chairman.  With their help and involvement this whole exercise in Democracy was a lot more fun.
 
Second, I'd like to congratulate Barack Obama as our next President.  Hopefully President-Elect Obama will keep more promises than most candidates do and will actually work with the best interests of all Americans in mind and not just of those of the party or their big donors.  We can always hope.
 
As to my campaign, I came in 8th out of 15 candidates in Colorado and was also on the ballot in Mississippi as the VP for Reform Party.  For some reason the Reform Party seemed to completely lose their way and we only ended up on the ballot in Mississippi.
 
Overall, I believe the campaign was a success.  I was able to get my message out to a lot of people.  Met a tremendous number of people who have similar beliefs and learned more about the Presidential process than I could have ever imagined.
 
A lot of people have asked me what happens next and, to be honest, I really don't know just yet.  I've determined that to be fairly sure of getting on the ballot in all 50 states that it will take approximately $5,000,000.  That's a lot of money and I certainly don't have that or anything remotely close to it lying around.
 
However, it's not a lot of money if it's broken down over a large number of people.  It's only $20 from 250,000 people or less than .2% of those who could vote in the next Presidential election.  
 
The real question, therefore,  is how to reach out to those 250,000 people I know are out there and who I know are still totally disgusted with both of our major parties.   Regardless of the promises of change given by both candidates in the recent election, we all know that the system/machine that elected the President will demand that things stay essentially the same.  When you have a stacked deck working in your favor you don't volunteer to change it.
 
So that's the question on the table before I decide to attempt this again.  Can I and my group put together a program that would stand a reasonable chance of raising the money necessary to get on the ballot in all 50 states?  That accomplishment alone would get the campaign more press than anything else we could do and help to give us a real chance at not just affecting the next election, but actually winning the election.
 
Now that would be real change.
 
 
Thanks for all your support.
 
Frank McEnulty