I had no choice. As George Bush would say this candidating thing is haarrrd! Well, not so much hard as time consuming.

I had to go to a wine fundraiser at a restaurant in Naperville for township candidates. My township got half the take from any of our folks who showed up. It was an opportunity to network with volunteers and other candidates I couldn't in good conscience pass up for the sake of the ticket.

But talk about worthwhile. Within five minutes of walking in the door I talked to the local electrical union head who said he'd get us some money and boots on the ground. Then I met another guy who is a candidate for trustee in Naperville who has a skill set we need that's gonna come in very handy very soon. I'll talk about that in a future post, gotta keep that under wraps for the right time cuz you never know who's reading this.

Then I walked around schmoozing with people, listening to mini speeches from their candidates and trying to poach any likely volunteers I could. Karol, our highway commissioner candidate said she's heard from other union guys they're looking for us to pay their canvassers cuz they have a lot of people out of work in the construction trades.

Chatted with a nattily attired young man named Tom Castillo who is running for Lt. Governor. Don't know too much about Tom yet but he does have some impressive people I know around him and he isn't shy.

Saying my good nights I was buttonholed by another township chair who asked me if I'd be willing to join a little vocal ensemble she wants to organize. She likes my voice and I hope maybe more. I've been kind of sweet on her since the state convention down in Springfield last summer. But if we're gonna make sweet harmonies of any kind together it's gonna have to wait til after the election. *sigh*

On the ride home I heard the last half of Jindal's response on the radio. His delivery is pretty good. Hits his marks, doesn't stumble over words, emphasizes what he's saying like he means it and sounds like he knows what he's talking about. And if I didn't know better I'd think anthrax and tire rims are just what this country needs for dinner. 

So I got home and turned on MSNBC. Looked like Barbara Boxer was gonna start crying tears of happiness. Then KO introduced Howard Fineman and asked him what he thought of Obama's speech. Fineman said it was the best financial speech he'd ever heard. Check that, he didn't just say that, he said it with that stunned, "I'm supposed to be too jaded for this kinda stuff, but goddam that was the best financial speech I've ever heard and to hell with the years I've spent crafting an image as a professional skeptic"  kind of wonder in his voice that I recognize all too well in myself. Reminded me of my own reaction to Obama's speech the night he lost New Hampshire. There was no quit in the man. Not an ounce of sheepishness, no defeat, no surrender, just an unrelenting determination to rally supporters, pick us up and move us forward. I stood up and with the hair rising on the back of my neck and pointed to the tv and yelled to no one in particular, "That man is going to be the next President of the United States!" He knew it, I knew it and I was damn well gonna make everyone I talked to for the next 10 months know it and believe it too.

And with that I'm really sorry I missed the speech tonight. I like it when the hair stands up on the back of my neck. That's also why I haven't been commenting  much lately at TPM. Haven't even had time to catch up on my daily fix of DickDay's Camelot saga.

But I gotta do what I gotta do and what I've been doing lately is putting together a campaign budget, begging for campaign cash, staying up late pouring over township financial docs, figuring out how to answer open ended newspaper questions like "Why are you running? What will you do if elected? and Why are you the best person for the job?" in 200 words or less, recruiting volunteers, knocking on doors and writing press releases and what I hope are inspiring emails to the rest of the ticket and local newspaper writers hoping they'll cover our race. 

I'll have more, much more on the race later. But in the meantime I have to sleep. Tomorrow I'm writing a skinny kid with a funny name who says he has 351 high school kids at his school who might canvass for us. And all I have to do is write an email as inspiring as an Obama speech. No sweat!

So once again, if you have any cash to spare please hit the website (http://dgdemocrats.synthasite.com/2009twpbrochure.php) and scroll down to the Actblue link and contribute if you can.

I'm Mark Garrity, I'm running for Township Supervisor and I'm here to recruit you.