http://www.apnic.net/mailing-lists/s-asia-it/archive/2002/03/msg00006.html
By Ela Dutt, Indo-Asian News Service
New York, Mar 3 (IANS) Shukoor Ahmed practises what his technology preaches,so the Indian-American founder and CEO of statedemocracy.com, which helpspeople to reach out to government officials, plans to run for Maryland StateSenate.
In the process, he is pitting himself against Democratic incumbent Senator Leo Green in the September 10 primary.
When he started V-Empower in 1999, he had grown tired of the "disconnect"
between elected officials and their constituents, Hyderabad-born Ahmed says.
Standing for elections from one of the poorest counties of the state, Ahmed channelled all his experiences from his failed campaign for the Maryland
State Assembly in 1998 into V-Empower and developed statedemocracy.com.
"What statedemocracy.com does is connects you to elected officials at federal and state level. Once you are connected, it makes communication
easier and gives you the options of sending them e-mail and feedback when any legislation is being debated," Ahmed told IANS.
Once a user triggers an e-mail letter, Ahmed and his colleagues make sure it the right person. "For instance, if you want to send a letter saying
you want more funds to go to India, you could send it to all (officials) from the (U.S.) president down to the state."
Statedemocracy.com also offers its services to all public officials. "The
thought was to provide an easy way to communicate between citizens and
elected officials," he says.
Ahmed plans to provide a periodic "report card" to users about how their various elected officials did.
The site may be a few weeks old, but Ahmed says he has 1,200 registered users.
If his ability to attract users is any measure, it might indicate his acumenin keeping in touch with voters in Prince Georges County from where he
plans to spring his campaign for state senate.
But Ahmed believes his Arab-sounding name may work against him, especially after September 11 because anti-Muslim emotions may be higher than otherwise.
Some 110,000 voters live in the 23rd district of Maryland, says Ahmed. His is one of seven districts and is 56 percent minority or non-White -- 48
percent African American, two percent Asian, three percent Hispanic, and two percent others -- and the rest whites.
Ahmed, a bachelor of science from Osmania University who worked in Saudi Arabia from 1983 to 1987 before coming to the U.S. in 1988, has a couple of
reasons to run in the elections.
"My county and district has major issues like education. It ranks at thebottom on several social indicators. Thats an issue where I have always felt my background in public policy helped me put together a good platform,"
Ahmed says.
He believes a majority of his constituents want public school choice. "Ihave been engaging citizens on different issues. I think I have reasonable rapport to be a viable candidate."
In 1994-1995, he says, his interest in public policy and computers came together. "Although I was a recent immigrant, I ran for office. This is one of the countries where people will vote for you if you have the right solutions."
He says his ethnicity may be a problem. "But a majority of my constituents know my name.
"This is the beauty of America, citizens would look at me as an individual, rather than my race. Theres not much I can do about it (race). I really
have to take the initiative. Otherwise I would never find out."
Ahmed considers himself a progressive and independent Democrat. He has been a member of the steering committee (Prince Georges County) for Kathleen
Townsend Kennedy for Governor of Maryland 2002 and candidate for Maryland House of Delegates 1998 among other things.
He built his dot.com company from scratch and expects to market itstate-by-state. Already, he notes Washington State and New Mexico state
legislators are directing constituents to his site.
Statedemocracy.com has 51 domains -- one for each state and one for the
District of Columbia and they run like nydemocracy.com or pademocracy.com.
Ahmed bought the domain two years ago in 1999, when he figured the Internet was the tool of the future for democracy.
There have been competitors. While he was developing the technology for statedemocracy, three competitors emerged -- voter.com, speakout.com and
grassroots.com. Of the three, voter.com closed down operations in February 2001 and is believed to have burnt many millions before going down.
"We had near death experiences in the last two years. Those have strengthened us to deal with market uncertainties and survive and become profitable," he says.
A "lifelong political junky," Ahmed says: "I always felt politics was an area where a lot of minorities look at the daunting task and just shy away."
Armed with an American University, Washington, D.C. masters in public policy, his past political experience and technology background, plus a passion to make things better, Ahmed believes he has all the ingredients for public service.
"At the end of it the only loss I can see is of money and time, and if I lose, I may lose because of the power of incumbency," says Ahmed who has been married to Nabeela Ahmed 14 years. They have two daughters -- Raaheela,8, and Shabnam, 6.
-Indo-Asian News Service
Date - 3/4/2008 6:23:25 PM
