{"id":9248,"date":"2010-10-20T19:17:40","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T02:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=9248"},"modified":"2010-10-21T17:30:02","modified_gmt":"2010-10-22T00:30:02","slug":"tk-arnold-farrah-douglas-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=9248","title":{"rendered":"TK Arnold: Farrah Douglas At Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Farrah<\/a>In these days of millionaire politicians and campaign budgets that rival the gross national product of some fair-sized nations, it\u2019s heartening to see some good old-fashioned campaigning going on here in North County.<\/p>\n

Most candidates have been stung by the economy and aren\u2019t collecting as much money as they used to. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the total price tag for North County elections is less than it was four years ago, when many of the same seats were up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Oh, we\u2019re still seeing our share of slick mailers, glossy campaign pamphlets and ubiquitous signs. But we\u2019re also seeing candidates taking to the streets, ringing doorbells and shaking hands with voters\u2014far more than in the past, most observers agree. We\u2019re seeing neighborhood meet-and-greets, barbecues, and candidate appearances at all sorts of community and neighborhood events.<\/p>\n

And of all the people running for office, perhaps no one is working harder than Farrah Douglas, the Carlsbad planning commissioner now making her second attempt to land a seat on the city council.
\nDouglas is the James Brown of North County politics. He was the self-proclaimed \u201chardest-working man in show business.\u201d She\u2019s giving him a serious run for his money.<\/p>\n

Back in May, nearly three months before the filing deadline, Douglas was already walking precincts. She estimates she\u2019s personally knocked on some 10,000 doors. Douglas also attends three or four meet-and-greets a week, some for as few as five or six people, others for groups of more than 100, such as recent gathering at the Rancho Carlsbad clubhouse. And each evening, Douglas spends two or three hours answering emails and phone calls.<\/p>\n

Douglas also has harnessed new technologies. She\u2019s on Twitter and Facebook, and personally maintains each account, frequently interacting with comments and responses. She\u2019s launched a YouTube channel with nearly a dozen videos, including testimonials from community leaders like John Heidrich of Tip Top Meats and action shots from the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

Douglas also has launched her own Internet radio station on the blogtalkradio network, on which she interviews Carlsbad merchants and, lately, candidates in other local races, including school board and the Carlsbad mayor\u2019s and treasurer\u2019s races.<\/p>\n

All this appears to be paying off. Other candidates may even be trying to ride her coattails: last week the Carlsbad Police Officers Association sent out a mailer endorsing, and picturing, Douglas alongside mayoral contender Keith Blackburn, even though Douglas supports both pension reform and Proposition G, the Carlsbad pension measure the police and fire unions, and Blackburn, oppose.
\nIf hard work and perseverance can win an election, Douglas should have nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In these days of millionaire politicians and campaign budgets that rival the gross national product of some fair-sized nations, it\u2019s heartening to see some good old-fashioned campaigning going on here in North County. Most candidates have been stung by the economy and aren\u2019t collecting as much money as they used to. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9248"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9248"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9252,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9248\/revisions\/9252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}