Sam Young, who has identified himself as a pro-independence candidate, is running for Governor of Vermont. A recent press release states:
A community organizer, entrepreneur and web developer from Glover, Vermont, he has announced his candidacy through the popular social networking tools MySpace and Facebook. He was emboldened by the groundswell of grassroots activism among 18-29 year-olds in this year’s presidential primaries, noting that in some states participation among this demographic has quadrupled.
For Young this campaign is about helping people to reform political parties instead of waiting for incumbents to make reforms from within. His ideas of open democracy contrast the lack of transparency of the Douglas administration.
“This is about knowledge vs. power and about the difference between democracy that is open vs. closed,†says Young. In the new era it will be the people who participate that have the voice. Young’s campaign is about giving voice to Vermonters of all political persuasions. “It is only through having this public debate that we will find solutions to the problems facing us. Things have become too critical to wait another two years for Douglas to offer us a solution – we must act on this ourselves.â€
Mr. Young intends to wage a campaign which is almost entirely virtual, and depends heavily on social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook.