Peter Schorsch
Most candidates finding themselves without an opponent would be perfectly fine sitting back and watching the clock count down to qualifying week.
Most candidates with more than a million dollars banked for their campaign would be content to hoard those dollars in the hopes saving them for the proverbial rainy day.
But, as we have noted before in this space, Lauren Book, 25, is not your typical candidate. This week she has launched a multimedia ad campaign airing on digital and social media, as well as television, in the newly drawn west Broward County Senate District 32. (FloridaPolitics.com has learned this effort will also be backed by direct mail.)
“We are running and we are running hard,” Book told FPC. “We are on the ground talking to voters, attending public forums and now we are communicating across a variety of platforms – and we will not rest until Election Day.”
Book said her plan has been to begin communicating early to inform voters of her campaign and to prepare for the August primary.
“The district lines are new and we are finding that most voters are unaware of the district boundaries, who their senator is, or even who is running,” she added. “Our plan is to communicate early and often and this first biographical spot is designed to do just that.”
The ad highlights Book’s work as an advocate for child sex abuse survivors and serves as a larger public announcement of her intention to move her advocacy from the streets and classrooms to the halls of Tallahassee. “I learned we can make a difference,” Book says in the 30-second spot, “… now, I hope to be your state senator.”
And lest you think campaigning is the only thing on Book’s agenda, this week she is in the Big Apple working with four Bronx-area schools adding her teaching curriculum to their classrooms, will be attending an advance premier of the documentary “Untouchable” at the Tribeca Film Festival (featuring her and her father’s work on behalf of children) and she will be honored by the New York Yankees in recognition of National Sexual Assault Awareness and Child Abuse Prevention Month.
With that kind of schedule, and as a best-selling author and nationally acclaimed spokeswoman, one might already conclude that she is an effective advocate – prior to holding elected office.
She ends the ad with the tantalizing, “Imagine how much more we can do…”
We can only …
