Tuesday Aug 14 Primary election day

The primary election was today. Primo was unopposed, but the Stripes ran three candidates for the senate. As the only Polka Dot I want to see elected is Primo and other than that, I want Stripes, I had to vote for the best Stripe. I do not want the Polka Dot candidate for senate to win. No way.

So I went to vote and there was Primo's name on the ballot - for those of you who don't vote in primaries, even the unopposed candidates appear on the ballot. If you really, really hate an unopposed candidate, you may write in a candidate of your choice, but really, don't do that. It is such a hassle for the volunteers who work at the polls. There is a reader that scans the ballots and tallies the totals, but we still have to go through every single ballot by hand, looking for write-ins, as their totals have to be scored as well. The ballot reader knows someone voted for a write-in, but does not know who. Would you want to look at a few hundred ballots at 8:30 at night after you've been at the polls since 6:00 a.m. just to identify the seven write-in votes? Don't do it. You might think you're Sending a Message, but the only message you're sending is to the volunteers who just want to go home.

Sunday Aug 12 Bad politicians or ignorant voters?

At the fundraiser Saturday night, one of the candidates was telling a story about a candidate friend in another district.

"This guy has been going door to door. Almost everyone he meets says they have never met the incumbent and they don't even know who he is."

The other Polka Dots made vague sounds of disapproval. "How can [the incumbent] take his constituents for granted like that? He hasn't even campaigned!"

I interjected. "I have never met any of my political representatives, yet I know who they are. It sounds to me like these people are willfully uninformed."

They laughed. "Yes, that's what it really is," one of them said, "but it makes for good campaigning to paint your opponent as uncaring rather than pointing out that your voters are ignorant."

Sunday August 12 Primo is doing doors for other candidates and I won't see him for days

This, apparently, is the conversation spouse #1 has with spouse #2 on the Sunday before an election:

Me: Hi sweetie. How's it going out there?

Primo: Long day. A lot of people have wanted to talk. I guess it's the first time anyone's come to their door.

Me: Are you going to be home soon?

Primo: No. Once I'm done with this block, I'm going to a call center to make phone calls.

Me: When will you be home?

Primo: Probably not before you go to bed.

Me: OK.

Primo: And tomorrow - I might not see you tomorrow at all. I'll be doing doors in the afternoon and calls again in the evening.

Me: OK.

Primo: And on Tuesday, I'll be doing get out the vote stuff all day and then I'll be at the parties Tuesday night.

Me: So I'll see you Wednesday when I get home from work?

Primo: Maybe.

Sat Aug 11 I go to a fundraiser with Primo

Last night, I went to a fundraiser with Primo. It was for this guy, Steve, who is running in a Polka Dot primary on Tuesday against seven other Polka Dots. There will be no Stripes candidate in November, so whoever wins the primary will win the seat. Unless there would be a massive write-in campaign for someone else, which is not likely.

The fundraiser was held in an old railway car down at the intermodal station, a place where some city officials are holding out for a white tablecloth restaurant to open so they don't have to give a license to someone like Subway. They've been waiting for years, but amazingly, no nice restaurant has said, "We would really like to open a location at the train/bus station because when people think of Greyhound and Amtrak, they think of fine dining."

In the meantime, they did authorize letting someone install one of those stupid machines where you manipulate a mechanical claw to try to get cheap prizes.

There is no place to get anything to eat there.

So. Fundraiser in an old rail car. Which was kind of cool, except the food was hard to get to and the windows didn't open and the a/c couldn't keep up with the number of people.

The candidate made a little speech off the end of the railcar. He had Primo stand up there with him. I took a lot of photos, but then realized that the sign with the word "Occupy" was showing in all the photos. The sign might be some railroad-required thing. I don't know. I just know there was a sign that said "Occupy" attached to the rail.

So the photos are useless because what candidate is going to be helped by posing next to the words "Occupy?"

Maybe I can crop the sign out.

The event was long and the food was not that good, but I ate anyhow because I was starving. Then I stood next to Primo while he had a long conversation with a guy. I kept my mouth shut even though I thought everything they were saying was wrong, wrong, wrong. When Primo walked away to get something to drink, the guy finally acknowledged me. That's when we had an interesting discussion about public transportation, abortion, and health insurance. Once I outed myself as a Stripe and once I realized he was not someone influential who could hurt (or help), I felt just fine disagreeing with him.

Saturday Aug 11 I iron Primo's shirts

Before Primo left this morning to do doors for a friend running in Tuesday's primary, he asked me to iron the shirt he wanted to wear to tonight's fundraiser. He also asked me to make him a sandwich.

May I note that I left the house at 9:30 to go to the library and the grocery store. He told me he would be gone before I returned - that he had to leave the house at 10:30.

I got back at 10:39.

He hadn't even taken a shower yet.

What was he doing in that 69 minutes? Why couldn't he have ironed and made a sandwich?

I am starting to hate politics.

So he asked me to iron his shirt for tonight and hey as long as I have the iron out, would I iron another shirt?

Need I remind you what a disaster ensued the last time I ironed a man's shirts?

Friday Aug 10 Primo makes a sacrifice or says he'll make one

Primo said he wanted to donate $100 to his friend's campaign and promised he would cancel his wine club membership.

He wrote to me, "I'd like to sign up as a sponsor ($100) for Steve's event tomorrow night, and I promise that I won't make any more contributions to other candidates for this election. Can I use your name (so the sponsor list will include "Primo and Gold Digger" instead of just me?) I think that would be nice if we're going to be friends with him and his parents.

I also promise that I will cancel the wine subscription next week!"

I have been complaining that spending $90 a month on wine shipments is not fiscally prudent, especially in light of our new financial situation.

And in light of the fact that we already have 300 bottles of wine in the basement.

Who can drink that much wine?

Primo wanted to list me as a donor along with himself, but I have no interest in appearing on anyone's donor list, especially someone from the other side.

Friday August 10 I am asked to work at the polls

I got a call from the city clerk asking me to work at the polls in next Tuesday's primary. I told her I would love to but was now shackled to a desk full time and could no longer volunteer in the elections.

I would have told her that I wouldn't have been able to work this election anyhow as my husband is on the ballot, but I didn't want anyone at work overhearing me.

Primo doesn't think it would be an issue for me to work an election where he is running unopposed. Perhaps not. But it would definitely would be a problem in November.

Thursday Aug 9 Dwelling on the mean thing Harold said

Primo: I didn't go out last night. I just went back upstairs and worked.

Me: I thought that's what I heard. Why didn't you go out? You would have had some fun and relaxed.

Primo: I kept thinking about what Harold said to me. It really bothered me.

Me: He's a jerk.

Primo: It bothered me.

Me: I don't think it's about you. I think it's because he decided not to run and now you're running instead and it makes him look bad. I'll bet he doesn't want you to win because then he'll really look bad. Here an unknown comes in and wins when someone who had 20 years at the state house didn't even have the guts to run.

Primo: Maybe. But why should he be so rude to me?

Me: Because he's thinking about his own ego instead of the good of the party.

Primo: But he shouldn't! He shouldn't be thinking about himself!

Me: No, but that's human nature.

Primo: I think people get into office and then they worry more about staying in office than about serving the public.

Me: I think you're right.

Wednesday Aug 8 The guy who used to be the state rep in our district disses Primo

Did I tell you that one of the reasons Primo decided to run for the state house was because the guy in our district decided not to run this time? They re-drew the district lines and he was going to have to run against an imcumbent Stripe in a largely Stripe district.

Note that Primo will now be running against an incumbent Stripe in a largely Stripes district. Nothing like tilting at windmills.

So anyway. This guy, Harold, decided not to run again and to run for the county government instead. He won the county seat, which pays more than the state seat and doesn't require long trips to the capitol, and he has yet to resign his state seat, so until the end of December, he's being paid for a job he is not doing - the legislature is not in session and won't be - and will not be doing. I can assure you that many taxpayers are not happy that he is taking the pay.

But Harold didn't decide to run in the county race until very late in the game, after a candidate whom Primo really liked, Blake, had declared and had already been campaigning for a while. Primo worked on Blake's campaign, but Harold won because he had name recognition. Name recognition for 20 years in the state house, accomplishing - nothing. But perhaps that's the kind of politician people really want. Someone who goes to the capitol and does nothing. Actually, that's what I would prefer. I just want them to leave us alone.

Now we're here in the now. Tonight, Primo went to another fundraiser for Stephanie Perry. Stephanie is running in the Polka Dot primary against three other Polka Dot candidates in a primarily black district. She is the only white candidate. She, too, was drawn out of her district, so she is running in a different district. She'll move to the new district if she wins.

There are some people who are unhappy that Stephanie is running, saying that it is a black seat and she should stay out of it. Today, one of the black candidates issued a statement that Stephanie is a "hate-filled extremist" and likened her to George Wallace.

I'm getting the popcorn.

Stephanie, whom I have met, is about as far from hate-filled as you can get. True, I think her political opinions are wrong. I absolutely disagree with her on almost every issue, but she is not a hate-filled person. She is a nice lady. Not like George Wallace. Not hate filled.

Enough of Stephanie. She's not the story here. Harold was there. Primo wanted his endorsement. He approached Harold. Harold's response? "You didn't me very much in the spring. I see facebook too, you know."