Well, I didn’t win the primary, but our election results were impressive.

In a five month campaign with a handful of volunteers and $4,200, I took 15% of the vote from 36-year incumbent George Miller, the second most powerful congressman in the house. I literally ran the campaign out of the back of my pickup truck while painting houses and bidding on jobs.

And I did this under a total corporate media blackout. The Contra Costa Times refused to mention our name unless we spent thousands of dollars on advertising, KGO and other corporate radio stations wouldn’t let us on the air and corporate TV stations filming my Memorial Day speech started breaking down their gear as soon as I exposed their complicity in lying to the American people about the wars. Foundation-funded “progressive” blogs like the Huffington Post, MoveOn.org and the Daily Kos were just as complicit in the blackout.

But Truth and Responsibility still exist in the independently-owned media. The Martinez Gazette, Benicia Herald, Vallejo Times Herald, the Globe Newspaper Hour and others were unafraid to let me expose the private Federal Reserve and the need for a fully independent 9/11 investigation. I thank you all for demonstrating why we need what’s left of our First Amendment.

But most of all, I want to thank everyone who voted for me, volunteered your time, handed out flyers, made phone calls, contributed your hard-earned money and spread the message of our campaign at home, at work and in your communities.

I’m not going away – this was only my first battle. I’ll keep running until I get to Congress and expose the corruption at the heart of our corporately-owned government. To quote Thomas Jefferson again: “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

I’ll be there in your communities, your churches, union halls, schools, festivals and parks, continually campaigning for we the people to bring truth and responsibility back to Washington. I fully expect to be ignored, attacked or smeared by the corporate media, but I welcome it, as long as they spell my name right. They can ignore me, but they can’t ignore all of you. People are waking up, and the corporate media’s plunging ratings confirm it.

Again, I want to give my heartfelt thanks for your votes and support. You’ve sent Washington a powerful reminder; we’re supposed to have a government of, by and for the people – not the corporations.

Thank you.

John Fitzgerald