It should come as no surprise that I'm a pretty BRIGHT guy.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Astrobrights Papers by Neenah Paper for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I ran for Judge two years ago, I had a shoestring budget (my only campaign contribution came from a lawyer who treated me to lunch.)  So I had to do something to make myself stand out, and I didn't have the money for a TV or radio ad.

What I decided on was the good, old-fashioned standby of the local politician: Flyers.  Specifically, little printed flyers of me, with a few points about me and a website, and I'd go around handing them out to people and putting them in doors and under windshields.

So when it came time for my campaign committee (me, plus my then 4-year-old twins) to choose the flyer paper, we went with AstroBrights papers, of course.

AstroBrights paper is paper that GETS NOTICED.  It comes in the brightest, most fun colors you can imagine, and probably some that are brighter and more eye-catching than you can actually dream up.  They're THAT bright, and hence that interesting.

These colors POP out, and just call out to whoever's looking at them.  They're impossible to ignore; they're like little fireworks of paper sitting in your hand or inbox, and so when I wanted to make sure that people would read that I was honest and reliable, I used almost-neon yellows and bright greens to make people want to pick up my brochures.

That's why I'm happy to help out AstroBrights, now; the difference they made by being brighter and higher-quality than every other paper (and more affordable than most papers, for a shoestring campaign) makes me want to give them a some props, and especially now that they're doing the "Give a Brighter Year" sweepstakes-- a contest that'll let you win money for the school of your choice.  How much? A LOT: Cash and merchandise worth $30,000, all for the school of your choice.

And you can get prizes for yourself -- make a craft project using AstroBrights and enter it in the "Make Something Astrobright" design challenge; post your entry on Twitter or Pinterest (hashtag #goastrobrights) and let people see your brightest ideas.

(Get it? Brightest ideas? BRIGHTest? I'm awesome.)