Thoughts from the Campaign Trail

Why are politicians weird? Because politics is insane.

I have block-walked beneath the gibbous waxing moon. I have broken bread with men who would rather spit on me. And I have kissed babies who were, let’s face it, ugly.

A close friend of mine walks about 10 miles a day at his job in a micro-chip factory, running between computers and manufacturing systems. I asked him if it ever got annoying, and he simply said, “It’s my job.”

I now understand what he means. Elections are all about getting in front of voters, and you can do that one of two ways. Either buy all the signs, postcards, and matchbooks you can, or hit the pavement all day, every day. And the larger the election, the more people you have to meet. I’ve got roughly 350,000 folks in my district we call Precinct 3. Since I don’t have the collected corporate interests of the county in my back pocket, I walk a lot, every day. It’s my job.

This is the world of politics – the challenges of running for office. It’s hard at 4:30 in the morning when you’ve had one hand’s worth of sleep and can’t believe you promised to drive thirty miles for breakfast. But it’s all worth it when someone says, “My hard-core Republican friend said you were the nicest Democrat she’d ever met and that I just HAD to vote for you!”

Every day brings new challenges, from learning that yes, you actually have to ask for money from people, to an opponent who won’t debate you because he knows you have better answers than he does. Whether you’re campaigning for a month or two years, there is a never-ending stream of people who are waiting to tell you that what you did yesterday was wrong. Fortunately there are several people who don’t mind helping figure out what you can do tomorrow to make it better. But in the end of any election, the toughest part is realizing that 70,000 people who hardly know you will pull a lever to decide how nice of a person you are, and how much they trust you.