Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Memorial Day

The local VFW post #3308 has a cemetary in Wakulla County, so we all met out there at 11:00 o'clock in the morning for a service for Memorial Day. It was bright, sunny and pretty hot. A local ROTC color guard was there, and they had a rifle salute and played taps. I was proud to be there, proud to be able to honor people who had died in service to the United States. Recently, I heard someone commenting that when service members are sworn in, they swear to uphold the constitution of the United States, not allegiance to a particular person or political party, but to a document.

http://www.wctv6.com/home/headlines/2891191.html

Monday, May 29, 2006

My picture on the front page of the paper

Sort of. It's an overhead crowd shot, and even though I knew what I was wearing and where I was standing, I had a hard time finding myself. We went to a march commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Tallahassee bus boycot of 1956, which began the city's integration in earnest. James, who was standing in front of someone to my right, can't be seen at all. There was an interesting mix of ages, little kids from about James' age, middle aged people, people in their 20s, and some old people. It was tremendously hot, probably mid-nineties at 5:00 pm. We were, for the most part able to stand in the shade, and I liked walking along and singing "We Shall Overcome." My kid did not know the song. It was important to me to take him to this event because I want him to know that he's from a place that used to be very different. I know it's inconceivable to him to have a segregated classroom, but I want him to know. I want him to see. I saw several people I knew there, Lee Cardice, Fred Lee, and Brenda Hawkins, and it was nice to see them. The elected officials and the pastors led the march. Since I am neither, James and I walked along with everybody else.
http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Friday, May 26, 2006

Veterans

A data analyst with the Department of Veteran's Affairs took his laptop home with him, which he'd been doing for years, to do a little evening work. Burgalars broke into his Maryland home and stole his laptop, which contained the names, birthdates, and social security numbers for 26 million veterans, including every veteran discharged since 1975. The records were not encrypted. Congress held hearings yesterday, but the VA has had dismal grades in information security for years. Last night I went to the American Legion and gave them a check list of things to watch for so they'd know if their identity had been compromised.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Surrogates

Yesterday someone said she would go to her neighborhood association and pass out flyers for me and I was so grateful I could have kissed her. On Friday, another friend took flyers to take to her neighborhood association meeting, too. Since I can't be everywhere, that my friends will tack on to their busy lives one more thing to remember to do when they go somewhere is heartening.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Drowning

The problem is that it is not physically possible to be at every event, to write a note to every voter you speak to, to knock on the door of every primary voter, to prepare for a jury trial, to keep the house clean, do the grocery shopping, take James to a play date, spend time with my spouse, sleep, eat and exercise. Yesterday I was at an event and spoke to a working mommmy who was talking about how she just runs from one thing to another, from work to brownie troop to the grocery store, etc., and I realized that I'm doing the same thing, only campaigning, too.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Even I am amazed at how busy I am

Last night I attended the Air Force Association meeting, which was really nice because my neighbor, Don Coon, was awarded their science teacher of the year award, and now goes on to compete at the state level. I love going there because the people I meet there have such broad backgrounds. I talked to an accident reconstruction engineer, a retired diplomat, and a former U.S. senator's aide last night, and it was a typical evening there. Then this morning I stood at the Senior Center Expo for nearly three hours, handing out flyers and talking to people. This afternoon all judicial candidates had to appear for a training on judicial canons of ethics, which went as expected, except that there were some candidates from other circuits there, who were in Tallahassee today and couldn't make it to the seminars in their own circuits. I was pleased to meet Angela Ball, who is running for County Court Judge against a 22 year incumbent in Taylor County. Here is the difference in the sizes in our races. In the last primary, 4500 people went to the polls in Taylor County, and 56,000 went in Leon County. But tonight my whole family is going swimming, and then we're going out to dinner, and I'm so glad.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Tough Day on Boot Hill

So work was fine, I'm preparing for a jury trial in early June. Yesterday was a consumer law seminar, and I enjoyed that. But today my two opponents, who know people that belong to the Tiger Bay Club, got to have a lovely lunch at the highly political Tiger Bay Club, while I, as usual, didn't even know it was happening. And they probably got to hand out lots of flyers, and everyone probably said how marvelous it is that they have decided to run for election and how much they respect them. So instead of having lunch with the Tiger Bay club, I went and ate lunch with my first grade son's class. One of my opponents pointed out recently that although I may be very popular with the grade one class, they cannot vote for me, so I should not spend so much time with them. I haven't given them any flyers, but I'm sure they would appreciate them. Although I gave a flyer to a seven year old recently and he made a paper airplane out of it.

Mother's Day

James had his last day of catechism for the school year, and we all went to church together at noon, and brought up the gifts before communion, so it was nice. Most of the people at church know my face because I've been a cantor there for eight or nine years, but they don't know that I'm a lawyer or that I'm running for judge. I'm mildly amused at how surprised people often are that I'm an attorney. One person actually said, "But you're so nice!" Perhaps being pleasant and a competent attorney are mutually exclusive.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

James

Apparently James wrote a message to his classmates, as follows:

Hi!

Do you know my mom? Well, she is special to me because she is funning sic for judge! She is really working hard! But she is on the ballot.

James
May 2006


Now, I love my son, but at 7, he needs to consult with someone before engaging in marketing activities. I am less than enthralled with having a group of people, even people who are in grade one, informed that I am "funning" for judge. Second, and in this case it may be a good thing, he fails to mention my name.

I, and several thousand of my closest friends, went out to the Relay for Life on Friday night. The event had front page coverage on the local paper.
http://www.tdo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060513/NEWS01/605130315&SearchID=73244528347616

Friday, May 12, 2006

Qualified

Yesterday I went to the Supervisor of Elections Office to formally qualify to run for judge. I swear I signed enough papers to buy a house. It was the same experience, "Sign here, here and here, initial here, we'll give you a copy, you don't need to read it."

I was the last of the three to qualify, my file was all alone in the file drawer when I arrived on Thursday afternoon. My husband, Jim, was with me, and since my mum couldn't be here, my friend Claire Kelly stood in loco parentus. James, who is 7, declined to come, saying it would be boring. The staff at the elections office reported that another candidate brought his young daughter when he qualified, and that she was, in fact, bored, and turned over every item in the office while she was there. So perhaps it was just as well.

Before I came, the elections staff asked if I had called the media. The media is not interested in this race. It appears so far down the ballot, you have to turn the ballot over.

But I am, nonetheless, very happy to be on the ballot, and I'm going to frame one when this is all over.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Standing in the Rain

Last night was the Council of Neighborhood Associations' annual awards dinner. Once again, my campaign manager, Jennifer Kilinski, and her husband, Jeff, and James and I were standing outside handing out flyers. Only it was raining, so we stood inside the door, and nobody threw us out. Oddly, there were a number of people there I knew from church. Jennifer's mom babysat Wyatt, who is a toddler, and my husband, Jim, stayed home and cooked supper for James and me, so we could all be there. Campaigns require a lot of back up support, I'm discovering.

Friday, May 05, 2006

My mother always said

That I could get on a bus, and by the time I got off, I'd have the life story of the person I was sitting next to. But I like meeting people, and hearing their stories. So today I talked to the federal express guy who delivered my signs.

I was the last delivery of the day for him, and his last delivery for the particular shift he's been working. He lives in Valdosta, and drives to Tallahassee to make a "city run" four days a week. They are ten hour days, but often stretch to 12. He gets Wednesdays and weekends off. City drives are hard, because he makes lots of deliveries to places like the Supreme Court, where it is very narrow to back in his truck, which is a semi with a lift on the back. He let me ride on the lift with him. It was fun.

He is 32 years old, and is married to a woman 5 years older than he is. They have two kids, 13 and 2 and a half. The younger one is a girl, and just like her mother. He has an undergraduate degree in criminal justice with a minor in psychology, but while he was going to school, he started working in trucking, and by the time he graduated, was making more driving a truck than he could make in any entry level criminology job, so he just stayed with trucking. He leaves his house in the morning, drops off the big kid at school, and then he heads in to work.

While he was in school, a buddy of his who also majored in criminology, finished school and went to law school. But his friend dropped out of law school and is teaching political science in high school now.

He was particularly happy today, because today is his last day on the shift. On Monday, he's start a night driving shift, that doesn't involve deliveries, just a destination run to drop off and pick up one load and then home again. He thinks it will be better for his family, since he'll be gone at night when they're asleep anyway, and probably up shortly after they get home from school. Right now, he frequently gets home just as they are going to bed. Plus, he's getting a 30k a year annual increase.

His wife wants some new kitchen cupboards and a privacy fence. He likes to work on old cars, so he figures some of the money will go into that hobby, as well.

They just got Blackberries in the trucks, he has to input every stop and then estimate the time he'll arrive at his next stop. Yesterday he was answering it, they often send updates via the Blackberry, and he got pulled over for doing 40 in a 35 zone. The officer let him off with a warning, but the police have been very strict with commercial truck drivers in the city since a DHL driver killed someone here in Tallahasssee recently.

Federal Express is a good employer, they pay for everything, the truck, the gas, the Blackberry, even the uniform. He left my place at 5:15, having been there about 20 minutes unloading 4 pallets of signs into my garage, and estimated that he'd be back in Valdosta by 6:40 pm. He was amused by how happy I was about receiving the signs, and helped me take one out so I could look at it.

Before that today, I went to the Retired Educator's Association's installation of officers. I handed out flyers and told people I was running for county judge. Folks were very nice, and several people said they would vote for me. And I saw a lady there I had met at the Kiwanis Club, and the speaker was someone I had met at a Rotary Club last fall. Progress is always measured incrementally. I think I'll go out to the garage and admire my signs now.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Financial disclosure

Every year a host of state workers fill out financial disclosure forms, so when I was told I had to fill out a financial disclosure form to run for office, I wasn't particularly concerned. After all, the Form 1 just asks for debts that exceed your assets, and income that exceeds 5% of your total income, just enough so financial interests that could affect one's judgment are disclosed. All very reasonable.

Now I discover that candidates do not fill out Form 1, we fill out Form 6, a form which is impressive in its invasiveness. Anyone who is interested in my methods of asset allocation will have a clear view after this. I feel miffed. I feel put upon. I feel that the Ethics Prosecutor will have a field day if I make a mistake.

I've spoken with the Ethics office and they've explained that I can't lump anything together, that every separate index fund has to be listed with the amount in it. I'm dying, here. I haven't gathered together a list of everything I have and where it is since I got married. Oh well, I still have a week to organize so that I can bare my financial soul for the sake of standing for election.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Tired

I was dragging up the hill to work this morning, because I'm tired from all my extra-curricular campaign activities. Walking up with me was a woman who used to be a secretary to a guy while he was running for County Judge. She said he was tired the whole time, and he won his very first time. For some reason this story heartened me, as though because I am tired, this makes me more likely to win.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Name Recognition

Aside from the problem that nearly 60,000 voters will show up at the primary this September, and most of them never heard of me, my campaign has no problems. This weekend my family and I went to the Master Gardener Open House, and gave people flyers. Then yesterday someone I know but did not see there said she saw one of my flyers at the open house. She politely did not mention whether she saw it because it was on the ground, or if she fished it out of the trash, where it resided with many of my flyers.

Actually, one of the great things about campaigning in the South of the United States is how polite everybody is. For example, I tell people my name and the office I'm running for, and instead of being told to go away, I am usually met with a polite response, or even a pertinent question. It is actually infrequent that people brush me off completely. Now, it is clear that they view me as slightly lunatic, but it is a fair view, as I am the one approaching complete strangers and asking them to vote for me. In September. For an obscure down the ballot race.