Editorial Board at the Tallahassee Democrat

All three of us arrived early, because we're eager beavers, and also know that the hour spent with the editorial board is one of the most important hours spent during the campaign. Mary Ann Lindley came out and said they'd be a few more minutes, so we were given a temporary reprieve, but she came back shortly thereafter and said we could come in. There were seven people talking to us, including the publisher and two citizen members of the editorial board. Mary Ann Lindley told us we had three minutes to make an introductory statement, then she had five questions, and then we could have two minutes to close.

It was difficult, similar in pressure to a Supreme Court oral argument. The questions were largely issues we'd heard before, one we had at the Tallahassee Bar Association about being fair and not letting our former work influence our decision making, one about court funding similar to the one asked two years ago by the League of Women Voters in their judicial questionaire, and three others which I forget now. I closed with two minutes on how to evaluate a judicial candidate, which had one member specifically say to me, "good closing."

Another member shook all of our hands afterwards and said we were three very strong candidates. I hope someone remembers that the last time there was an open County bench seat, the paper endorsed several people.

After reading the columns in the paper by a couple of members of the board talking about how hard these interviews are for them, even implying that they are also dull, I think the group was both interested and might have learned something. Mary Ann Lindley said they'd run their endorsements day by day, ending the Saturday before the election, people not endorsed would have an opportunity to have a short letter of response printed.

After that, we all swapped cell phone numbers for election night, the guys made jokes about asking where the other was going so they could follow each other, and I went to the supervisor's office to pick up labels for absentee ballots. Then I picked up James and we went over to somebody else's house and put labels and stamps on flyers for 143 absentee voters, then we ate some supper and went door to door. There were six of us last night, so even though we just had those short hours after work and before dark, we got a lot done.

It was a busy day.