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Campaign Lit, Part 1

By William Bryk, on October 26, 2009

The use of the word “literature” to describe the campaign fliers and pamphlets that fill our mailboxes at this time of year has always intrigued me. Usually, the stuff reminds me of Talleyrand’s observation that language exists to conceal truth. Sometimes, though, the truth will out. Today’s example is a mail piece from the affable [...]

Requiescat L.D. Knox

By William Bryk, on June 7, 2009

On May 29, 2009, The New York Times published the obituary of L. D. “None of the Above” Knox, 80, a farmer and politician from Winnsboro, Louisiana who had crusaded for over forty years to make “None of the Above” an option on the Pelican State’s ballots.
In 1979, he went so far as to make “None of the Above” his additional middle name and used it thereafter whenever he ran for office.

Just Say “NOTA”

By William Bryk, on June 5, 2009

From New York Press, Janury 21, 2004 One of my New Year’s resolutions was to throw out the old papers piled up on my desk. I’m not a pack rat like the Bronx guy who spent two days trapped in his apartment under an avalanche of his own magazines and newspapers, but I’ve a weakness for [...]

Another Last Hurrah?

By William Bryk, on May 3, 2009

As becomes a citizen, I have occasionally run for public office. As Edouard Herriot, four times Prime Minister under the Third Republic, said whenever he was running for anything, from conseilleur municipal to President de la Republique, “I have placed myself at the disposal of my friends and the

How I Got Out of Politics

By William Bryk, on February 17, 2009

Eleven percent of all eligible New Yorkers voted on Tuesday, November 2, 1999. I was among them. I was also among a smaller minority. I was a candidate myself—for Richmond County district attorney on the Right to Life ticket. How did an Irish Catholic regular Democrat come to this?

McCain and Me

By William Bryk, on February 3, 2009

John S. McCain won the New Hampshire Republican Presidential primary on February 1, 2000. No one reported the result of the Republican vice-presidential primary. Even the victor didn’t know the results for a week, until he checked the web site of the New Hampshire Secretary of State on Tuesday

Mayoral Election Digest: The End of Ideology

By William Bryk, on December 4, 2001

The revolutionary left did not contest this year’s municipal elections. The Communist, Socialist, Socialist Labor, and Socialist Workers tickets were not on the ballot. Somehow the ballot seemed incomplete without the SWP’s striking emblem: a lightning bolt shattering the chains of capitalism

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