#4151
Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:12pm
<--------------- YES IT IS all of us, on Election Night! I feel mildly obligated to re-introduce myself here!
Right. So what a year huh? I know I've been a little scarce but well, you know what election cycle lives are like. So here's the update in one big post.
First, I am incredibly proud of the work I did this year -- honestly, as many of these as I've worked on in one capacity or another, this was inspiring to be part of and I am not sure I've had that experience before.
Now that it's all over I can reveal what we accomplished -- my team which started out on Aug 18th with 4 folks and ended Oct 30 with 12 people knocked on 12,500 high propensity registered independent doors in Maricopa County for Obama/Mitchell and spoke with just about 3,500 people. In Pinal County working for Obama/Kirkpatrick we knocked another 2,500 doors and spoke to about 900 or so... our work largely contributed to turning Arizona purple -- indeed, for the first time in over 40 years we have more Democrats than Republicans in the Congressional delegation.
Alas, the Democrats in state and county races, which of course as a federal 527 we were not allowed to campaign for fared quite badly. I am angry on a level I did not think myself capable at the Arizona Democratic Party. They had more money across the board -- more volunteers, more IE's working in the state than ever and they blew it. They utterly failed at turning out the base vote. Our efforts went a long way to closing the 15% lead McCain had when we started to the 8% (single digit loss is not too bad-- considering it was first time EVER for McCain to win with less than a 20 point margin in Arizona) loss on Election Day. I can barely articulate how betrayed I feel by the party -- all our hard work on the America Votes side of the firewall and we had painfully low Democratic turnout --- AGAIN.
But I digress.
The kids are doing well, but things have sort of fallen apart at their Dad's house so they have moved in here full time which when work 15 hour days does considerably add to one's stress level. But all-in-all has been pretty seamless -- the kids are more stable and centered than they have been in a long while.
C1 was elected President of his speech club and he is already laying the ground work to run or Mayor in Flagstaff in a few years --where he will be attending college.
C2 is now in high school and seems to be hanging in there. He is a very private and emotionally sensitive soul -- I worry about him but C1 says ever time he turns a corner these days he sees his little brother surrounded by girls.
Flipper has hung up her grips and now she is taking dance classes and playing club volleyball....signs of world domination by her once again appear on the horizon -- what a shock.
Where do we go from here? Well I have not made any decisions but I when I do y'all will be the first know what's next.
Right. So what a year huh? I know I've been a little scarce but well, you know what election cycle lives are like. So here's the update in one big post.
First, I am incredibly proud of the work I did this year -- honestly, as many of these as I've worked on in one capacity or another, this was inspiring to be part of and I am not sure I've had that experience before.
Now that it's all over I can reveal what we accomplished -- my team which started out on Aug 18th with 4 folks and ended Oct 30 with 12 people knocked on 12,500 high propensity registered independent doors in Maricopa County for Obama/Mitchell and spoke with just about 3,500 people. In Pinal County working for Obama/Kirkpatrick we knocked another 2,500 doors and spoke to about 900 or so... our work largely contributed to turning Arizona purple -- indeed, for the first time in over 40 years we have more Democrats than Republicans in the Congressional delegation.
Alas, the Democrats in state and county races, which of course as a federal 527 we were not allowed to campaign for fared quite badly. I am angry on a level I did not think myself capable at the Arizona Democratic Party. They had more money across the board -- more volunteers, more IE's working in the state than ever and they blew it. They utterly failed at turning out the base vote. Our efforts went a long way to closing the 15% lead McCain had when we started to the 8% (single digit loss is not too bad-- considering it was first time EVER for McCain to win with less than a 20 point margin in Arizona) loss on Election Day. I can barely articulate how betrayed I feel by the party -- all our hard work on the America Votes side of the firewall and we had painfully low Democratic turnout --- AGAIN.
But I digress.
The kids are doing well, but things have sort of fallen apart at their Dad's house so they have moved in here full time which when work 15 hour days does considerably add to one's stress level. But all-in-all has been pretty seamless -- the kids are more stable and centered than they have been in a long while.
C1 was elected President of his speech club and he is already laying the ground work to run or Mayor in Flagstaff in a few years --where he will be attending college.
C2 is now in high school and seems to be hanging in there. He is a very private and emotionally sensitive soul -- I worry about him but C1 says ever time he turns a corner these days he sees his little brother surrounded by girls.
Flipper has hung up her grips and now she is taking dance classes and playing club volleyball....signs of world domination by her once again appear on the horizon -- what a shock.
Where do we go from here? Well I have not made any decisions but I when I do y'all will be the first know what's next.
"I'm a one-eyed Mormon Democrat from conservative Arizona, and you can't have a higher handicap than that."
~The ever-great and fabulous Morris K. Udall.
Updated On: 11/19/08 at 01:12 PM
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