Press Kit
Don Scott is running for Bedford Town Supervisor (Bedford, NY) with a self-imposed total spending cap of $49.99 — no fundraising machine, no mailers, no robocalls, no consultants, no door knocking. Instead, the campaign builds public civic tools, uses AI openly and with human review, and publishes its spending. This page is built so you can understand it in under 20 minutes, with links to the receipts.
Everything below points to something already published on the site. Where an asset is still being captured, it is marked as such. We would rather show our work than describe it.
Fast Facts
Don is the candidate. AI is a tool. Every position attributed to Don is human-reviewed, not AI-generated. Where a number appears here, it is mirrored from a live page on the site; the linked page is the source of truth.
Start Here
If you only have a few minutes, read these five things in order. Each links to a page that already exists on the site.
The $13.12 / $49.99 campaign~1 min
A published comparison of this campaign’s spending against the $118,021 spent by the last contested race’s winning campaign (2021), with all expense records sourced from the New York State Board of Elections.
AI transparency and published prompts~1 min
The campaign lists its AI-assisted tools and publishes the actual instructions behind them, framed as reusable. Every position is human-reviewed before it carries Don’s name.
The civic tools — Voter Report Card & plain-English town code~1 min
Tools that help residents regardless of who they vote for: a private look at your own voting-participation history (it never shows who you voted for and stores nothing), and a plain-language guide to the 762-page town code.
The pre-written victory and concession speeches~1 min
Both speeches were written and published before Election Day. The recurring line in each: “Bedford still deserved a choice. That was the point of this campaign from the beginning.”
The one-party-town argument~1 min
The civic case behind the campaign: why uncontested local elections are unhealthy, and how moving local elections to even years can let national races crowd out local ones.
Top Story Angles
Each angle is grounded in something already on the site. Proof links go straight to the page. The “how not to overstate it” note is there because the campaign would rather you cover it accurately than breathlessly.
Angle A
A candidate for town supervisor has capped his entire campaign at $49.99 — and publishes every dollar against the $118,021 the last winning campaign spent.
Why it matters: It reframes a familiar question — what does a serious local campaign actually need to cost?
Angle B
Most campaigns hide their AI use. This one publishes the exact instructions behind its tools and insists a human signs off on every position.
Why it matters: A concrete, documented model of disclosed, human-reviewed political AI — the opposite of a black box.
Angle C
A Republican argues — citing a Yale law professor’s research — that the real risk to Bedford isn’t the other party; it’s uncontested elections.
Why it matters: A structural argument about local democracy and even-year election timing, made without nationalizing the race.
Angle D
The campaign built a tool that shows you your own voting-participation report card — and a plain-English translation of the town’s 762-page rulebook.
Why it matters: Utility over persuasion — these help residents no matter who they support.
Angle E
He wrote — and published — both his victory and concession speeches before Election Day.
Why it matters: A disarming, human artifact that opens the door to the whole story. The concession is the more powerful of the two.
Angle F
The campaign estimated its own emissions — about 53 kg CO₂e versus roughly 9,662 kg for the last winning campaign — and showed the math.
Why it matters: A novel lens on campaign waste (mailers as paper and emissions), with a published, deliberately conservative methodology.
Angle G
The prompts, tools, and methods are published so another small town could copy the approach.
Why it matters: Replicability as the legacy — a documented model for low-cost municipal campaigns, running on free infrastructure.
Angle H
Instead of buying ads, the campaign built a town typing contest, a cutest-pet vote, and town-code trivia.
Why it matters: Lowering the barrier to civic life — “participation can start with a dog.”
Proof Assets
Most of the proof is simply the live site — click any link in the angles above. The items below are being assembled into a downloadable evidence set for reporters and researchers. Items marked TODO still need manual capture.
Asset capture instructions live in the repository under /press-kit/evidence/, with a README in each folder describing exactly what to capture. Nothing here is fabricated: where an asset does not exist yet, it is labeled TODO rather than shown.
Quote Bank
A few representative quotes are below. The full quote bank, organized by topic, is in the kit. Quotes drawn from existing site copy are marked as published; the rest are suggested quote language for review and should be confirmed before attribution.
“There is no Republican way to fill a pothole. There is no Democratic way to answer an email.”Local over national · Published (/pages/odds)
“Bedford deserves a choice. This campaign is trying to prove that choice does not have to be expensive.”Why he’s running · Published (/pages/press)
“AI helped build this campaign. Not to replace judgment — to reduce cost.”Why AI is disclosed · Published (/pages/ai)
“You are allowed to buy bananas in peace.”No pressure tactics · Published (/pages/rules)
For Researchers & Academics
The campaign is transparent by design, which makes it a workable field case. Documentation, prompts, public materials, and process notes can be shared with qualified researchers where appropriate.
This is not a perfect campaign, and it may not win. That, too, would be useful data.
For Campaign & Civic-Tech Professionals
The campaign is being documented as it is built — prompts, tools, spending, and decisions — primarily so the approach can be examined and reused. If it’s useful as a case study in low-cost or AI-assisted local campaigning, the material is here to support that.
We’re documenting the work; we’re not claiming awards, press interest, or outcomes that haven’t happened. If you want the behind-the-scenes material, ask.
Contact & Interview Requests
The fastest way to reach Don for a press conversation, a tool demonstration, or a research inquiry is to send a short note through the chat request — it goes to a real person, and Don will follow up to schedule.
TODO: a dedicated press email will be added here once established. Until then, the chat request above reaches the campaign directly. Questions about the tools, the spending, the AI, or the experiment itself are all welcome.
Step 1 of 3
Would you prefer to meet virtually or in person?
Step 2 of 3
What time of day works best for you?
Step 3 of 3
Thanks. Don will reach back out shortly to schedule.