LECHTANSKI.NET

So, a couple of weeks ago, the mailman delivered absentee ballots for the Presidential Primary. It seemed Washington State had changed from the caucus system, and I was glad.

But, no. Apparently, state law requires absentee ballots be distributed for the primary; yet political parties don’t have to honor them. The parties are free to determine their delegates at their discretion. Democrats are using the caucus system exclusively and Republicans are splitting their delegates between the caucus and mailed ballots.

I went to the 2004 caucus, and even served as a Kerry delegate at the Whatcom County Democratic Convention. Frankly, I didn’t care for the caucus experience. I had a city councilman yell at me for some reason (still not sure why), and then some wacky woman tried to get me to change my vote.

Well, the 2008 Washington State primary caucus was yesterday. I decided to skip it. Not because I am indifferent to politics, or this election, but because I don’t like the way the primaries are carried out. I don’t know how much is wasted to distribute 3.4 million mailed ballots (money, paper, effort…). But it seems pretty silly.

I understand the attraction to the caucus system. It makes sense to pay a little price for democracy. You go, and raise your hand for the person you want to represent you. The problem is that realistically, you’re going to get a pretty small percentage of the electorate. You lose cats like me who don’t like to argue for the sake of attention. And that’s what goes on in my opinion.

I like ballot boxes. Even though they’re less public, you still have to make the effort to go to the polling station. The problem is the sadly small percentage of people who participate with this method in general elections. Assuming the goal is to get more people to vote, I think it is OK to make the process easier. Enter absentee ballots.

Except for the most lazy and apathetic people, absentee ballots should garner the highest voter turnout. I am totally in favor of this. Which is why I filled out and returned my 2008 primary absentee ballot the day it arrived, only to find out later I wasted my stamp.

In an ideal world, everyone would come out and raise their hand to pick their leader. But in reality, the absentee ballot makes sense in getting more people to participate. As long as the Washington State democrats decide to honor them.

For the first time in 11 years, the three primary passes in Washington State are closed due to snow and avalanche danger: Snoqualmie, White Pass and Stevens Pass. The Mt Baker Highway itself is closed some fifteen miles before the Mt Baker Ski area. So the ski area is closed.

This is some pretty serious skiing, when a ski area is closed because of too much snow. I don’t remember that ever happening at Mt. Brighton!

Thankfully, I got the Winter I asked for. Now here’s hoping for great weather on June 8.

I’ve never been a fan of marketing jargon: value proposition, consumer experience, integrated campaign, synergistic whatever.

So, to some degree, my brain shuts off when I hear these terms thrown about. But then, every now and again I discover that something I’ve been doing has a sadly jargonistic name. And “integrated marketing campaign” is one of those terms.

Here’s the funny thing I’ve discovered about creating an integrated marketing campaign. It is way easier than creating what I guess could be called a disintegrated campaign.

Basically, each of your marketing components is inspired by all of the others. Advertisements and press releases are coordinated and then timed with trade shows or product events. Web sites look like, and are organized like, advertisements and catalogs. Catalogs refer to web sites, ads refer to web sites, pretty much everything refers back to a web site that is up to date and completes the story that is started by the catalog, ad or press release.

And all of this is done to get the product in front of the customer, when they are in the mood to buy.

In an integrated campaign, you get to create the whole thing once, rather than reinventing the wheel every time you need an ad or a press release or a web graphic. You get everybody on board once, rather than sending graphics, slogans or pictures around for approval every time something comes up.

I started my ramp up for Escape from Alcatraz today.

For the last couple of months, I’ve been running 4 miles two or three times a week - just maintaining little fitness. My official training kickoff is Feb 17, but since we are now in February,  I need to do a little ramp up to make sure I’m ready.

Today was running 5 miles and it felt great. It is a beautiful sunny day, so I jumped out on the Railroad trail by my house. There were a lot of people running, biking, dog-walking and such.

Sometime in the next week I’m going to stop by the Meridian Bellingham Athletic Club and take a swim to gauge my level there. Then I can start going to the spin class on Saturday mornings. This until I get up the nerve to go for a bike ride on a cold Sunday morning. Brr.

The more I think about it, the more excited I get.