This has been a very interesting and revealing process. I would really like to make a run for a Provo City Council seat this year. I would love to win that election and do my best to help residents of Provo live their lives as free from government interruption as possible. I would love to go through the municipal code and identify bad or useless laws and streamline that thing, cutting out as much as 30% of it.
I would particularly love to sit in council sessions and be the guy who regularly says, “That’s all well and good, but do we really have any business sticking the city council’s nose into this issue?”
But this isn’t the time.
It’s become clear that the financial commitment for a winning campaign is greater than I feel comfortable committing my family to. It’s also clear that my writing would suffer pretty significantly if I ran for and secured this public office.
Most importantly, it’s entirely possible that we will be moving out of the city within the next 2 to 3 years. That is in no way a certain thing, but I wouldn’t want to act as if I were able to fulfill the duties of the public office for the entire term, when I know perfectly well that such a thing is not necessarily true.
So for now, it’s a “No.”
That being said, I’m not done with the municipal code. Not by a long shot. I am going to continue studying it and I plan to write up an editorial on a crummy law at least once a month. I don’t have to hold public office to make a real difference in my world.
Thanks, everyone, for your advice and encouragement. My goal to run for public office by the time I am 40 remains.