Back on Track

Ok, so I originally developed this blog in order to easily keep people updated on how everything was going with me during my stint as a professional campaig worker – I hit a few snags along the way (mostly that I couldn’t talk about the training) and have had a complete lack of time to update this.  But I have today off, so here is some basic information on how things are going.

I have been placed in SE Ohio (to keep a level of protection, I will not name the town right now) working on a state house race.  The town is home to Ohio University (google it, you’ll figure out exactly where I am at) and I really like it – it reminds me a lot of Marquette and most people are incredibly friendly down here!   It is surrounded by mountains and rivers… it is officially part of ‘Appalachia’ which is kind of cool.

The race is incredbily important in OH as the Democrats only need to pick up 4 seats in the House in order to claim a majority; things are looking very good right now for this seat.  My candidate is an AMAZING woman who nearly beat the incumbant last year (lost by less than 2% – somewhere around 800 votes) and in the two weeks I have been here, I have really developed a sense of loyalty to the campaign and especially to her (which is why I am being vague about some stuff to make sure this can’t be used against her).

I am doing a lot of finance work for the campaign and some communications stuff as well – I’m liking it most of the time, although it is sort of frustrating to walk into a situation I don’t know much about and figure it out.  I’m putting together fundraisers and helping get everything in order so my candidate can call more people.

I went to Columbus and Cambridge this past week and had a lot of fun… we took a lot of pictures and did some TV stuff.  Oh, by the way, I’ll be on TV in Ohio in a few different districts since I was an extra for some of the other campaigns.  I’ve also been to two county fairs so far, two parades, two demolition derbies (awesome!) and a plethora of other events.

The office is just me, the candidate and our campaign manager… we’re getting one more person sometime this week to do field work.  We also do have a bunch of interns working on the campaign doing a lot of the ground work, which leaves me to really experience the inside of a campaign; it’s pretty cool to have a ‘desk’ and specific work to do!

I lived for a week with a very nice couple with a small 14month old boy… he was adorabled and the people were incredibly friendly and I really enjoyed staying with them.  Now I am living with a very sweet couple who both run nonprofits and are just all around amazing people.  I’ve got my own room and half bathroom which is awesome.  I’m making myself right at home and really enjoying what little time I have off from the campaign.

It should be noted that I had a ton of fun at the training and my team actually won the competition (I’ll be able to give a thorough description of the whole process next time I see you).

Well, I am going to go do something fun like rollerblade or something.  I’ll try to update this as often as possible, but it’ll most likely be once a week or so… most likely on Sunday!  I hope all is well with everyone who reads this and be sure to drop a comment or leave me a e-mail (you should have my address) and let me know how things are going with you.