My Take on Carlos May

My blogging colleagues at Advance Indiana and Indianapolis Times have been pretty hard on Republican congressional candidate Carlos May in recent posts.

Terry Burns of Indianapolis Times refers to Carlos as a "failed congressional candidate" as if May blew a great chance of winning the 7th District. The race always required an aligning of the planets for May to get to D.C.. Even the primary was an uphill battle. There have been other slated Republican candidates who have gotten sidelined by Marvin Scott's substantial name ID. Oh, and I would add that Abraham Lincoln was also a "failed congressional candidate," right before he won the presidency.

Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana points out that May was given a do nothing job within the Ballard administration and criticizes him for going back to an administration that he privately criticized on the campaign trail. I actually agree with Gary that the job Carlos was given should have been more substantive. I also agree that it would have been better to not go back to the Ballard administration. But we all have bills to pay. I can imagine the financial toll that running for Congress had on Carlos. He needed a job...and it would have been better had it been a more substantive job. But sometimes your choices in life are limited by your opportunities.

I think too often people fail to understand the enormous emotional, physical and financial sacrifices that candidates running in competitive races have to make. In 2000, I ran for a house district on the northwest side of Indianapolis that had quickly transitioned from having a Republican base to one in which the Democrats had a majority. I won the primary against Shane Brinkman, the son of the State Treasurer Joyce Brinkman who had been the representative from that district. No easy feat. Still the district wasn't even on the state Republican's radar to win back in the general election until a poll showed Rep. Jeb Bardon in his first term (Jeb has since moved to a different district) was the most vulnerable representative in the house. The polls ended up showing me dead even with Bardon a week out.

I knew though in my heart the polls weren't right - the district was nearing 40% African-American who were polling much more independently than I knew they would vote on election day. I turned out to be right as African-Americans voting against Bush also did me in on Election Day.

I took months off of work for the campaign and worked extremely hard. I was exhausted mentally and physically. I remember coming out of a meeting at state party headquarters downtown and sitting down on a park bench. I had had only had one hour sleep and was so tired I couldn't remember where I parked my car. I had made enormous financial, physical and emotional sacrifices for that campaign, but came up short on Election Day.

During the primary campaign season, I saw Carlos May do the same thing I did in 2000 but on an even bigger scale. I know personally what kind of sacrifices he had to have made to run for Congress, including financially, and can't help but admire Carlos for his dedication.

Undoubtedly Carlos underestimated the power of Marvin Scott's name ID or the long shot of beating Andre Carson in a general election. Still Carlos tackled his first campaign with enthusiasm and energy you don't see with many candidates.
Carlos appears to me the type of person the Marion County GOP needs to be encouraging to run again in the future. That means not only supporting him when he runs, but also supporting him after the campaign in which he's not successful by opening the door to jobs and other opportunities. For too long the Marion County GOP has been in the business of snuffing out the ambition and energy of young Republicans who aspire to run for office.

I know I could be wrong about Carlos. I've been around enough politicians to always be skeptical about their sincerity. I can only evaluate what I saw - a young man with impressive energy and enthusiasm who was willing to be a more independent Republican voice that has potential to appeal to Democrats. Carlos may turn out to be like so many other Republican politicians in Marion County - willing to sell one's political soul and conservative beliefs for personal profit. But at least let me hold out hope that there are good people out there, people perhaps like Carlos, who truly want to be in public service for the right reasons - to serve the public.