Here I am, one week after the 2014 mid-term elections. And I'm still trying to come to grips with everything that has happened in the past year.
At the first part of November 2013 I found out Judge Alfonso Campos, the Justice of the Peace in Caldwell County Precinct 3, was not going to seek re-election as he is relocating out of the county to take care of his aging mother.
Judge Campos has done a great job as JP for the people of Caldwell county and I was concerned all of the improvements he had implemented would be lost should the office be taken back by the other party. They hadn't had a good track record in their previous experience.
I called the Caldwell County Republican Party chairperson and asked her how I could help her keep the JP3 position in the "R" column. Her response was, "Well, YOU could run!" I thought about it for a moment and I told her, "I'm on disability and I don't know if I CAN run. I'll have to check with the Social Security Administration to find out if I can." She encouraged me to find out. I also told her I didn't know how I could afford to mount a campaign and pay the $375.00 filing fee. She told me, "Don't worry about that, we'll teach you about all that."
I called Social Security and they told me there wouldn't be a problem with me running. I qualify for the "Ticket to Work" program that allows one to try to return to the workforce without risking disability benefits.
I called the CCRP chairperson back and told her Social Security didn't have a problem with me running. I also told her that I wasn't going to make a decision right away, I wanted to pray about it for a while first.
I talked with my wife, Kristie, and she thought it might be a pretty good idea. So, I started praying about it. I prayed for nearly an entire month. As it was getting close to the day I would have to make a decision, I made a rather bold move. I made a challenge to God. I told God, "If you can provide a way to get the $375.00 for the filing fee to get on the ballot, I will run for Justice of the Peace." I didn't tell anyone about my deal with God. After a few days, I did tell Kristie about it.
Finally, the last day that I could file came. I expected to get a call from the CCRP chairperson to find out my decision. Sure enough, I get a call, but it didn't go the way I expected. She said, "Ben, we have someone who is willing to pay your filing fee. Can you run?" Suddenly, I knew it was time for me to honor my side of the agreement I made with God. "Yes, I'll run.", I said. Later that afternoon I filed as a candidate.
The next step was the primary election, it would take place on March 4th, 2014. Since I was the only Republican, I ran unopposed for the General Election ballot. There were a few other statewide races that were forced into a runoff election.
The summer was relatively quiet, but Kristie and I had some fun campaigning in the Luling Watermelon Thump Parade and the Martindale 4th of July Parade. We met all kinds of people and handed out business cards to get my name out into the public. Everyone we spoke with was very positive toward my candidacy.
Suddenly, it looked like we might have to pull out of the race. The reason was, our landlord for the property we were renting in Maxwell, Texas was forced to sell by the bank. We had 30 days to find a place to move to in the county and in the precinct. We got notice on July 2nd.
Kristie immediately started packing up our house. In the space of the next week she packed up nearly 90% of our belongings. The only things that weren't packed were the things we used every day and my office computer and music equipment.
We immediately started looking for another place to move. Just by chance, I saw a post on Facebook for some property, but I didn't know if it was in the precinct. We called immediately and made an appointment to see it. It turned out it was owned by another one of the the Republican candidates, Ken Schawe.
We went out to see it and it was actually a very good fit for us. The problem was, Ken didn't want to rent with dogs as he had just spent $3,000 fixing up damage from the previous renters. That was A-OK to us. Ken was straight-up honest with us, and we respected and appreciated that from him. He told us he had some other properties that might work out better, and we went and looked at several of them. Unfortunately, they just weren't right for us or they weren't in the precinct.
Time was getting short. We only had 11 days left before we had to move. Kristie and I decided we may only be able to try to buy a mobile home and find some land to put it on. We went out to Village Homes out on US 183 to see how they might be able to help. They had a 2 bedroom home we could afford, but then we'd have to find land. Kristie and I told them we'd have to think about it.
Two days later, we got a call from Village Homes telling us they had a home that had been repossessed and was already on some land. We went out to look at it. It was in Hays county, but it looked like it was our only choice. We asked how much it would take for a down payment, $3,000.
It looked like I would have to withdraw from the race. I didn't want to, and neither did anyone else want me to.
We talked with my wife's parents about borrowing the money for the down payment. They told us they would loan it to us. Two days later, we got call from Village Homes and they told us we needed to get the down payment to them right away as another couple wanted the property. We went to pick up the check from my father-in-law to bring it out to them.
On the way out there, we got a call from some good friends of ours, Bob & Peggy. Peggy had been in a really bad car wreck the weekend of the Luling Watermelon Thump and she was laid up. She wanted to know if Kristie wanted to come out and pick the figs from her tree as she wasn't able. We told her we'd try to get out there.
We stopped at Maxwell and I picked up my guitar. I figured I'd play some music and we'd spend some time talking with Peggy while Kristie picked the figs.
We went out to Village Homes and dropped off the check and on the way back, stopped at Bob and Peggy's.
We sat and talked for a while and played some songs. Suddenly, Bob says to us, "How would you like to rent the house up front of the property here?" Kristie and I looked at each other because just the week before, Bob had said many people had asked him about renting the house and he just wasn't interested in renting it. They were using it for storage.
"How much would you rent it for, Bob?", we asked. He said, "How about $500 a month on a two year lease." Kristie and I had to pick ourselves up off the floor. We walked over to see it.
It was FULL! Full of furniture, full of personal items, full of family pictures, there was even a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the livingroom.
Bob and Kristie started talking about what it would take to get it all packed up so we could move in. It would be a LOT of work. Then, Bob said, "if you're going to do all this work, we'll do two months for free." And we thought, "Could God bless us this much?" When we got back to their house, we told Bob and Peggy not to make a decision right away. We asked them to talk about it, pray about it, sleep on it and we'd call them the next day. On Sunday, we called and Bob said, "Let's do it."
The next day, Kristie and I went to buy a plant to say thank you to Bob and Peggy. I walked across the parking lot and halfway through the store and the back across the parking lot. By that time, I was pretty wiped out. I really felt bad and the pain in my chest was killing me. I told Kristie, "The last time I felt like this, I had a heart attack. I'm not going through that again." We drove to the emergency room right down the road.
In the ER, they hooked me up to the EKG and gave me a nitroglycerin tablet. It helped a lot. We waited. More nitroglycerin. It worked more. They kept me overnight and did a stress test the next day. Everything was fine, just the arteries around my heart in spasm. No blockages.
While I was in the hospital, Kristie started packing up the new house, 75 boxes later, she was done. All the furniture was moved to storage sheds and trailers, the house was bug-bombed, carpets cleaned, walls scrubbed, kitchen scrubbed. All in 4 days. Kristie did an awesome job while I was in the hospital and resting afterward.
On Saturday, August 2nd, on the last day of the 30 days, we moved out of the house in Maxwell and into the house here in Niederwald, 8 miles up the road. We were still in Caldwell county and still in the precinct. God had delivered us a miracle and kept me in the race.
The month of August was spent unpacking and arranging the new house and once that was done, it was time to focus on the campaign. Kristie and I started hitting some of the local gatherings so we could be seen and people could get to know who I was.
September found us in full swing. People really only start paying attention after Labor Day. Bar-B-Ques and other community gatherings in the precinct as we could find them. National Night Out in Maxwell and the Martindale VFD BBQ were just a couple of the notable events.
Finally, we got our yard signs ordered. 200 signs ready to go. Then we started driving all over the precinct putting out signs and talking to people. Handing out push cards, going to campaign events such as the Caldwell County Sheriff's Association Candidates Forum. It really became a whirlwind the last month before the election.
Then, early voting started. Kristie and I walked through neighborhoods, knocking on doors and reminding people that early voting was happening for the next few days. We also made hundreds of phone calls to try to get out the vote in our precinct. Then, early voting was over.
At this point, I was optimistic because of the response we got when we talked with people, but I just didn't have a feel for how to gauge the electorate. It was driving me crazy to get the early voting numbers each day from the elections office but not to be able to know exactly how people had voted.
Finally, Election Day was here. I got up at 5:00 am and drove to each of the polling places to put out my signs. It was a drizzly day but the forecast said we'd have the most rain in the evening. Kristie wasn't doing well with her back that day so I made her stay home to get some rest. She was mad at me because I wouldn't let her go to the polls in the morning. But, I knew it was going to be a very long night and didn't want her to be uncomfortable all day long.
I spent most of the morning out at the polling place in Martindale, Texas as that was where the largest concentration of votes in my precinct would be coming from. Turnout was actually surprising. They were busy nearly all day until it got dark. In the afternoon I decided to go check how the other polling places were doing and I went by the house and picked up Kristie. She was finally glad to be able to go.
We drove back to Martindale and waved our signs until it was too dark for people to see them. Except for Kristie running into a Texas Rat Snake about 4 feet long, there wasn't a lot of excitement.
We drove to the other polling places and picked up our signs, it was raining pretty good by that point in the evening after the polls had closed. Then, we drove to the Republican HQ in Lockhart to await the results.
About 9:30 all of the festivities at the party came to a halt to get the results of the early voting. The tally for my race was 286 votes for me to 274 for my opponent. A 12 vote lead. It didn't seem like very much to me, but everyone started telling me that it was a really good sign. I was praying they were right.
The party went on, and then things started winding down as people left to go home. The only people left were those of us who were candidates and our spouses and a few other die-hard supporters along with the editor of the Lockhart Post-Register, Kathi Bliss.
Finally, at a little after 2:00 am, Kathi Bliss started announcing the results she was getting from Central Counting. First, she announced the race for County Judge. Amazingly, Ken Schawe won! The place went wild with hoots and hollers! We were all congratulating Ken and then Kathi said, "Next, we have Judge Ben Brady..." Kristie and I looked at each other... "What did she just say?" We were both sure we didn't hear her correctly... "843 votes to 750 votes.", Kathi Bliss continued. I jumped up and yelled, "YEAH!!!" We had won!
Kristie and I had worked so hard on the campaign and it was ALL the Lord that made it happen. You see, before we started in the race, there was literally less than 10 people in all of Caldwell County who knew who I was. My opponent had grown up in the county and had previously served as JP before Judge Campos. I thought for sure that her name recognition would be a factor.
God had put me in the race for a reason. Now, I'll get to serve the people of Caldwell County and give God the glory.
