Just who is Goodspaceguy and why is he on my ballot?
Today was a very good day. I did my civic duty and voted in the primary election, which is sort of the rehearsal for the real thing. Everyone who wants a shot on the political stage dances and twirls and spins and pivots for months just to get to this point. Thousands upon thousands of dollars are spent just to see if you can make it to the actual election, which will cost you considerably more money to win.
While filling out my especially tall ballot, I noticed something rather intriguing. My vote could actually be cast in favor of someone named “Goodspaceguy” for Senate. At first, I laughed. This is obviously a hoax.
The explorer in me wanted to find out exactly how much it costs to file candidacy for Senate. My standard Google tactic of putting my entire question into the search bar seemed to work quite nicely, as the Secretary of State’s site came up first. After a little digging, I discovered that filing for candidacy costs $1,740.00. Quite a bit of money for a hoax.
So I dug some more.
As it turns out, “Goodspaceguy” actually has a blog. The first entry contained some basic campaign information, including his desire to “unsabotage [sic] the economy…” and colonize outer space. Hence the space-age name.
His blog archives extend all the way back to September of 2005, and so I decided to keep on checking. His first entry in 2005 finally revealed his actual name to me.
Goodpspaceguy is actually Michael Nelson, and Michael Nelson actually ran for Governor in 2004 as a Libertarian.
Nelson was defeated at the primary stage in 2004 by Ruth Bennet, the party chair in Washington, 56-43. Bennet was, obviously, defeated by Chris Gregoire in the general election.
As it stands at noon on July 31, Michael Goodpsaceguy Nelson has either raised no money or reported no donations or contributions to the Federal Election Commission.
I realize this is all probably common knowledge to most of you, but I thought it would be an interesting investigative experiment. See what I could find out about this fellow. As it turns out, he’s rather interesting.
You can read his blog, Our Spaceship Earth, for more delightful insight on the world of a candidate for Senate who sees the minimum wage as “evil” and dreams of a day when we can jet around the stars in the Enterprise.
Now that’s democracy in action.
P.S. – “Mike the Mover,” another conspicuous addition to the ballot, is listed on the FEC website as “Mike the Mover.”
