Politics:

It has been a fabulous experience working so hard on the Bruce Roemmelt campaign for the past 6 months. My only regret is that I did not discover Bruce's candidacy earlier and work that much more. We got close, very close for a first time challenger running against a 13 year incumbent in a district that normally votes for the incumbent's party by a 25% margin. The State Board of Elections, with all precincts reporting is giving Delegate Bob Marshall by only 11.3% - so I am encouraged that we can beat him next time. Interestingly, in Loudon county, Roemmelt won by a narrow margin. I firmly believe that by working so hard in the districts that we lost, we helped put Tim Kaine over the top, and that is great news. Even more good news: several wing-nut idealogues have been beaten in other house races!

I did the numbers reporting on the Sudley North precinct, where Democrats won all races handily with 554 ballots cast (one was provisional). The machines at both my district and Sudley North were those horrible touch screen machines with no paper trail (grrrrr), but aside from that the election officials were professional an honest and the election looked well run in the two districts I saw personally. Erci said there were lines outside the voting place in Claude Moore park.

I knocked on about 140 doors today (election day) and put flyers on them trying to get people out to vote. That brings me to about 60 hours volunteering, $1300 donated to various campaigns, and one fund-raising/meet-the-candidate party hosted with Erci and help from Steve, Jeannie, and Kate (thanks guys!). If I start now, I can probably get hundreds of hours in trying to point out to voters of the mighty 13th district how silly their Delegate is now and how much we need to change. I am also going to fight to get any future debates televised, everyone who saw the debate between Marshall and Roemmelt agrees that Marshall is a wing-nut and Roemmelt is a decent man trying to work to reduce our problems. Easy choice.