Ed Fallon’s pedometer read 141 miles before it was accidentally reset by his daughter. He’s spent two months raising the pedometer back to 40 miles.

The miles were gained from walking door-to-door, telling residents about his potential run for governor of Iowa.

Fallon, Democratic state representative for House District 66, launched an exploratory campaign to run for governor in January. In February, he began knocking on doors.

Fallon recently spent three weeks in Ames, going door-to-door and telling residents about his campaign. He talked to 700 different households while in Ames, adding to his growing list of the 5,000 Iowans with whom he’s talked.

His goal is to greet 60,000 people at their door before the gubernatorial election.

“I’ll walk in nearly every situation,” he said.

“The coldest day was in February, at 10 degrees, and the hottest day was 98 degrees.

“When the weather is ten below zero with snow blowing horizontally out of the northeast, I opt to contact prospective voters by phone.”

With the gubernatorial race three years away, few candidates are even in the exploratory stages of running for office. But Fallon believes a jump start on the competition will give him an advantage — especially with his unique campaigning style.

After a day of door-to-door campaigning, Fallon’s feet are sore and callused. But the pain is worth it — he believes personal contact with voters is the key to a strong grassroots organization for a candidate who lacks personal wealth.

Fallon said accepting large campaign donations runs the risk of “allowing yourself to be bought and paid for by corporations.”

“One reason politicians are eager to have fat cats fund their campaigns is that it’s so easy,” Fallon said. “You pop by their yacht for some wine and cheese, meet a few of their rich friends, express empathy for those who struggle with the trials and tribulations of keeping their Fortune 500 company afloat without taxpayer subsidies, and before you know it checks for $5,000, $10,000, even $50,000 start arriving in the mail.

“I won’t raise much in my campaign, but with an early start and regular commitments of modest support from many, many people, I feel confident I can raise the funds necessary to run a successful grassroots campaign.”

Fallon considers his run for governor a spiritual quest, which isn’t a stretch of the imagination for a man who considered entering the ministry.

A religion major in college, Fallon’s quest for understanding life’s mysteries led him throughout monasteries in Europe.

He considered ministry but realized four walls of a church were very confining for somebody with his level of independence, he said.

“Plus, I couldn’t drag myself out of bed at 3 a.m. for the morning vigils,” he said.

Although he didn’t take the oath, Fallon’s life resembles that of a monk. He lives in self-sustenance — not too different from a monastery — from the vegetables grown in his parking lot-turned-garden located in downtown Des Moines.

Fallon purchased the parking lot next door to his house and converted it into a garden. The garden feeds four families in the area.

“Living in the inner city has been bearable because I’ve been able to have my farm experience,” he said.

Fallon’s spiritual foundation also gave him a passion for public service and a desire to provide all people with their basic needs — specifically health care.

“Religion is meaningless if it’s devoid of human need,” Fallon said. “If it’s merely an intellectual concept it has no value. That’s why I want to help people who have no insurance.”

He has a personal understanding of struggling without access to health care. Fallon, whose family was without health insurance for eight years, dealt with an administrative nightmare when his daughter broke her leg.

Since they weren’t insured, his daughter was taken by ambulance to a free clinic in Iowa City, though the family lived three blocks away from Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.

“When this happened, my wife and I lost a whole week of work,” he said. “I spent two years haggling with bureaucrats to figure this out.

“I probably single-handedly employed a bureaucrat with all the calls I had to make and meetings I had to sit through.”

Fallon is a progressive candidate, similar to U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who is a strong supporter of social welfare programs. Because of this, he could have problems getting elected, said Robert Lowry, associate professor in political science.

“Progressive candidates have more problems getting elected because they don’t appeal to moderate voters like contemporary Democrats,” Lowry said.

Nevertheless, Fallon continues to march door-to-door despite opposition. As residents open their doors to Fallon, he hopes one day to open the doors of the governor’s office to those same residents.

“I want to open doors of state government to everybody,” Fallon said. “You wouldn’t have to be rich or hire an expensive lobbyist to get in and talk with me.”