Dear friends,

It is the first day after the elections, and, as an activist who ran for Congress, I have a few thoughts that I would like to share with you.

I want to thank all of you who have supported me in this effort. I have received wonderful letters from across America and even beyond our borders, and I know that there were many watching to see what would happen if an animal rights activist ran for office.

I polled 3,442 votes, for 1.42% of the total vote. To put this in some sort of perspective, most third party candidates range in the 1% area, and out of the 12 Green Party candidates running in NJ, I ranked right square in the middle. In other words, I did okay.

And thank God for that. You have no idea how hard this letter would have been to write if the only votes I had gotten were from myself and from someone whose finger slipped and hit the wrong button. So I want to thank the 3,440 other people who saved me from having to wear a bag over my head for the next three weeks.

I said I did "okay". That's one way to look at it, but I want to give you another.

My experience with the Green Party can be said to be mixed at best. I met a lot of excellent, dedicated people, but there was, unfortunately, a negative undercurrent from some about the animal rights positions I have taken. This ranged from me being asked not to talk to people about animal protection, to getting attacked for standing against Nader and LaDuke on the Makah whale hunt (more on this later), to having someone actually send me a rewrite of my campaign flier because talking about veganism was "weird". I ignored them all.

We all knew that none of us would be taking a seat in Washington next year. What, therefore, was the purpose of running? The issues. I ran for Congress to spotlight those concerns that strike our hearts and plea desperately to be heard. That is what my campaign was all about, and in this sense, I declare victory.

There were three issues that I fought for: Stopping domestic violence, ending discrimination against minorities and homosexuals, and the plight of animals, specifically, the promotion of veganism.

When I was before a large audience, this is what I spoke about. When I was at an editorial review, this is who I was. On my advertisements and my fliers, these issues were my vanguard.

And I probably lost a whole lot of votes from people who thought that veganism was weird. But they heard me speak, and they read my statements in newspaper articles, and in my ads and fliers.

There are two things above all else that I will remember from this campaign. The second is the headline that the Asbury Park Press gave to my candidate editorial: "End domestic violence, animal cruelty".

A day before the election I received a phone call. It was from a woman who had gotten my flier in a health food store. Her niece had read the back of it.

You need to understand that this was no ordinary campaign flier. To both explain it, and to take one last opportunity to make a plea for the animals, I am excerpting it here:

"Many of you have probably lived with a cat or dog at some point in your life. I would like you to think of him or her for a minute, and roll your thoughts across the landscape of their souls. See how their emotions, though bereft of spoken words, were expressed in all their wondrous ways. See their smile, carried on the waves of shaken tail, and how they shared it with you when they licked your face. Hear their gentle purrs and feel the soft beat their heart made when they laid next to you. Think of the unconditional love that they gave so freely, and how it was returned. Now turn your thoughts darker, and complete the picture. See how they cried when a bone was broken or a paw accidentally stepped on. See their fear when they were hurt and had no idea that the pain could ever be stopped, or when they were alone and felt abandoned. How far did your own heart sink when you saw your beloved animal in such pain?

Take your compassion for them, and expand it in one small step. Think of a dairy cow on a farm. Can you see the mother as her child is torn from her side? If the baby is a male, he will be chained in a tiny crate, and not allowed to move for a year and a half. This is done for fear that movement will build muscles, and make the 'veal' too tight. His nightmare existence will end when he is killed, perhaps by a steel bolt shot through his head. His body will be dragged away, cut into slices, and sold in neat packages. The mother, when she has finally been drained dry of her milk and no longer profitable, will be thrown on a truck and follow her child to the slaughterhouse.

This is the face that is drowned in your bottle of milk. It is the scream that is ground up in your hamburger. I ask you to consider this: Is their suffering any different than what your dog or cat would have gone through? For me the answer was no. What opened my heart and mind was the concept that each and every animal is a unique being that feels joy and pain, and suffers as we would when harmed. They are all worthy of our defense and compassion."

What I will remember first and foremost from this campaign is that a young woman can no longer look into a glass of milk, because she now sees that face drowned within it. If I had just gotten those two votes I earlier described and none other, I would still feel victorious.

There is a final note I must make on this campaign before I can put it to rest, and that is the Makah whale hunt.

I believe Ralph Nader is a good man, I have no doubt of that, but he made a terrible mistake when he gave his support for the Makah's "right" to slaughter whales. I tried to use my position as a Green Party candidate to reach out to both him and Winona LaDuke, but I failed.

I knew that when I went into the voting booth that the spirit of "Yabis", the young whale who was brutally slaughtered, would be there with me. So I gave her a memorial, and wrote in her name instead of giving my vote to Nader and LaDuke.

Some may see this as an angry protest or just another "weird" act. The truth is that it is neither. It is just a statement. One whale matters. She mattered.

...

This has been an extraordinary experience for me, and I hope that many of you will consider taking part in the electoral process. Never fear standing for your beliefs. Never fear being called weird. Always vote your conscience.

Stuart Chaifetz