The Campaign

It is pretty difficult. I have threee opponesnts. One of them is an incumbent who is much loved by the community but is part of the reason the school district is broke and the kids cant read. One of them runs just because he is Vietnamese and gets the votes of many in the Vietnamese community, keeping them from voting for a conservative. He has run before and won, but he has refused to take office, which means the board appoints someone to fill his seat. Of course, the the board has a majority backed by the teacher's union. My third opponent is the wife of a San Jose City Councilman. I don't know much about her, but he is a race-Marxist. I also hear that the teacher's union has pleged $30,000 and 200 phone bank hours to defeat me. All I want to do is teach kids to read and write English.

And I have no money nor time. And I don't know anyone in east San Jose to donate money or hours. And I work full-time and have family and church responsibilities. People are pulling me in many directions. I met with a guy from a charter school a couple of days ago. He said, "Really? You have no organization backing you?" I'm thousands of dollars in debt because of this campaign. I wish I had never agreed to run. All I want is for kids to learn how to read and write English.