In which Primo does not win

And it's over. Primo did not win.

I am sure you are shocked, shocked.

But I have to tell you guys that it is super thrilling to see my husband's name on the ballot and then to look at the election results on cnn.com and see his name.

He did not do too badly, considering. He was running against a 30-year veteran while he was working full time at a very demanding job and with almost no money. He and his team raised about $10,000, I think, and that was all spent on door literature and for creative services. There were no radio ads, no TV ads, no newspaper ads. That is for candidates with money. We are not candidates with money.

He got almost 30% of the vote, which is really not shabby at all. Perhaps he does have a future in this.

Sly and Doris even called to congratulate him. They almost never call him. He has to call them. They called and they were sober and they were nice. It was a red-letter day.

Primo for Congress

Posted by Primo · November 5

I need to repeat this on its own instead of having it buried at the end of my "Thank you" post from late last night:
Congratulations to Congressman [incumbent] on his nth successful re-election campaign. He deserves respect as a seasoned professional in this business and was a formidable opponent.

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• Recent Activity

  Mary , Kathy , Jennifer  and 4 others like this.
• Kathleen  Nice of you to be magnanimous but he's been sucking off the public teat for too long. Old white men are part of the problem with this country.

  Like · Reply · 3 · November 5 at 2:02pm
• Nancy Classy Primo.

  Like · Reply · 1 · November 5 at 6:23pm
• Leslie Sorry Primo. I'm with Kathleen . [The incumbent] sits on Science & Environmental committees while denying climate change. He's not to be respected. He's helping kill the environment and my grandchildren's futures.

  Like · Reply · 1 · November 5 at 2:13pm
• Kathleen  Just another way to say "seasoned".

  Like · Reply · 1 · November 5 at 2:02pm
• Primo for Congress Kathleen and Leslie, I understand how you feel. Congressman [incumbent] may not deserve respect for most of the policies he supports, but he does his job in a professional manner. He doesn't conduct himself in a way that brings shame and ridicule upo...See More

  Like · Reply · Commented on by Primo · November 5 at 5:07pm ·Edited
• Blue State Thank you and you're being entirely too nice.

  Unlike · Reply · 1 · November 5 at 9:15pm
• Primo for Congress No mud was slung at me in this campaign. We need to be nice except when it's absolutely impossible, or when it's absolutely necessary not to be nice. This is [our state].

  Like · Commented on by Primo  · November 5 at 9:27pm ·Edited

• Yesterday at 12:41pm
• Amy Listen, I am just a lowly volunteer with little $ to give to candidates. I coudn't stomach volunteering for [Suzy Q] unless it was secondary to another candidate on the ballot that did motivate me to volunteer. [John Doe] was my third choice for AG so that didn't help. I was excited about [Brad Pitt] but he also lost in the primary. The only candidate left that was exciting on my ballot, in my county, was Primo for Congress. But he had zero support and money. I hate [the governor] as much as I hate [the incumbent] but my motivation to help was only sparked by Primo. He actually stood for some great policy issues and I believed him. I didn't trust [Suzy Q]. Primo could have been a great partner to [Angelina Jolie] in Congress! Too bad there wasn't more support for a host of candidates equally motivating, like [Billy Joel], [Christie Brinkley] etc.

  Yesterday at 12:53pm · Edited · 4
• Primo Amy, I would give you a big hug right now if I could. You have no idea how much that kind of support means to me. Thank you!

  Yesterday at 1:01pm · 4

In which it is election day

It is 7:21 a.m. on Tuesday, November 4. Election day. Finally.

Only this will all probably start again tomorrow. Primo will not win this race, but he might want to run in the special election for the county government. Woo-hoo.

I have hardly seen him since last week. That's been fine with me - Season 3 of Scandal, Season 5 of The Good Wife, and Season 2 of Major Crimes all came in at once. Talk about feast or famine. So of course I have been forced to spend all of my free time watching TV. If I had rejected the DVDs this turn, I would have had to wait another few months to get them again. Such are the lines at my library.

As I watched Fitz running for president on Scandal and Cyrus' complete evil - evil masked by a pudgy, middle-aged face - and Olivia's eyebrows and forehead and as I watched Eli and Alicia deal with the charges of vote fraud, I decided that I prefer my politics to be fictional. At least on a TV show, an obnoxious person can be dispatched somehow. Although upon further thought, I realize that the only people who get killed on Scandal are the good guys. The bad guys stay alive, probably because it is more fun to watch bad guys than good guys.

So Primo has been out knocking on doors and working hard and I have been watching TV and that is fine with me.

I am ready for this to be over. The dining room table is still pushed to the wall, where it was moved over two weeks ago when they filmed the ad. The guys would have moved it back, but Primo wanted to vacuum that space first and of course nothing happens right before an election. The doorstop for the back door has been sitting in the junk drawer in the kitchen for two months  now. The tub has needed re-caulking for three months. There are still financial issues from Isabel's estate that Primo needs to resolve - he has not given ownership of the time shares to the girls yet and has been paying the fees, which made me - I will admit it - bitchily angry. "Why on earth do I go to Peet's in the afternoon with my 50% off coupon that is good only after 12:00 to get coffee for the next day?" I demanded. "Why am I doing that to save two dollars when we are paying an extra hundred dollars a month for a time share that we do not own?" I was super cranky.

I will vote today. I will vote for Primo, even though I disagree with him,  because he is my husband and I love him. If by some miracle he were to win, I would have to get involved just so he wouldn't vote the wrong way on legislation.

In which Primo gets personal and it works.

Primo's campaign facebook posts have tended toward the dry and policy oriented. I have suggested that a more personal, authentic approach might engage people more. Sure enough, this post from today is the most-commented post he has ever had:

My top five stories from a great weekend on doors for the coordinated campaign:

1. Within the first hour yesterday, a lady said "I usually vote Stripes, but this year I'm voting for the PD candidate." Her statement provided a nice jolt of motivation on a cold morning.
2. Apartments can be very difficult to canvass, but yesterday afternoon I figured out that some apartments could be accessed through their back doors. Most of the people on my list were not home or had moved, but I found some of them. I spoke to two men unloading a truck; one of them lived in a unit I was looking for, but he wasn't the person on the list. I talked to him about the election anyway; he said that he wanted to vote against the governor but wasn't sure that he could vote. It turned out that he had been convicted of a felony but had been off papers for years. Some people had told him that he still couldn't vote, but I assured him that he can (and used my phone to show him an ACLU webpage to remove any doubt). He will be voting for my party's gubernatorial candidate and for me on Tuesday.

3. A short time after the encounter described in the previous story, something even more amazing happened. I went to a house with one name on the list, a young woman, but the person who answered the door was a young man. It turned out that he was the woman's fiancé; he knew that she'd be voting for our candidate but said that he had never voted before and didn't plan to vote this week. He felt that his vote didn't matter because neither side seemed to be working for him and he didn't like politicians. I explained that I was not a typical politician but an engineer who got into politics because of what the governor has done to our state. After a few minutes, I learned that he had been affected by the recent cuts to the state health insurance plan and was angry about it. I explained that he should be angry at the governor and assured him that his vote for our candidate could make a big difference because she will immediately accept hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to expand the insurance plan. I asked him to please think about voting this week, and he said "No one's ever talked to me about voting the way you just did." The next discussion topic was how to register at the polls, and I think he'll be there on Tuesday!

4. Another apartment story: Two upstairs units, one outside door, two doorbells, no response to either one after about a minute. I was about to leave literature on the doorknob when the door opened. The man who answered was on my list and quickly volunteered that he's my party, but he added that his wife (who wasn't on the list) is disabled and can't get to the polls because they don't have a car. I didn't have the phone number for rides to the polls, but I asked for his number and made a note on the first page of the walk list that he should be contacted ASAP. I turned in my list, picked up some more turf, and by the time I turned it in yesterday evening someone in the office had already called him. All canvassers should have this information with them: Citizen Action will provide rides to the polls, and the number to call is 555.5309.

5. My next-to-last door today was a great way to wrap up a very busy weekend. It was dark already, and nothing stood out about the house as I walked up to it. The lady who answered the door immediately recognized me and said -- in a very positive and encouraging voice -- "We voted for you last week, and we already have signs!" She and her husband had put away their yard signs for trick-or-treating but hadn't put them back up because they were raking leaves this weekend. She promised to put them up again, but I volunteered to do it for her and asked whether I could add a Primo for Congress sign to their lawn. The answer was yes, and she handed me her signs as I marked the "Supportive" box on my walk list.

After putting up those signs and turning in my lists, I spent another hour putting up more signs around my neighborhood. In two days, we're going to elect a new governor. I can't wait!

In which I am pretty much DONE with politics and am ready for the darn election to be done

So where was I? It's been a while since I have written. I know the posts show up regularly, but I am writing them way in advance and sometimes I have time to write and sometimes I don't. I have a new job - three months now - and Primo is running for Congress and he has quit his job and even though he promised if he could quit his job, the drama would stop, that has not necessarily been the case.

1. Primo hosted a karaoke fundraiser the other night. It is one week until the election. He and the team decided to host a fundraiser one week before the election. But I guess that is not unheard of in political circles. I guess I can see event happening right before the election. I can't see waiting until one week plus three days to plan the event. Primo and I are like matter and anti-matter when it comes to planning. As in, I plan and he does not.

The fundraiser was fun and he actually raised some money. This is good because as I have already noted, I am not interested in spending our savings to pay campaign debts.

He gave a speech about an hour into the fundraiser. He talked too long, which blesshisengineerheart, is something he is wont to do, but he did spend a lot of that time thanking his wonderful wife, so I can live with that.

He also mentioned the "confluence of events" that led to an engineer friend of his from California, who just moved back here to be closer to his aging parents, move in next door to a big party mover and shaker. The friend, Pablo, asked the new neighbor, who just bought the house next to Pablo's parents, if the neighbor knew Primo. The neighbor did not, but asked another big party mover and shaker if he knew Primo and that mover and shaker did. Pablo and mover #2 were both at the fundraiser. Worlds colliding.

When Primo used "confluence of events," my friend Mari laughed and said Primo was such an engineer.

2. Primo was interviewed on the morning show on the local public radio station. I listened on my way to work. He sounded good, although of course I was yelling at the radio that he was wrong, wrong, WRONG on the positions. The only question he didn't handle well was the first one, which was, "Tell me why you would be a good representative." He never really answered the question, which I know is not uncommon for a politician, but I think it had more to do with the fact that Primo has not had to look for and interview for a job for years. He was with the same company for 15 years and before that, he was always recruited and followed old bosses to new companies.

3 He has also had a few interviews that have been videotaped. He has sent me the videos to watch, but the thrill is gone of watching my husband on video. I already know what he thinks and I get to hear it at home, not just in 30 minutes on some public access station.

4. They didn't make enough yard signs. And they waited until ten days before the election to make them.

5. Primo and the team spent the Sunday two weeks before the election making a campaign ad. I first heard the concept for this ad on the 4th of July. And they are just now making it. They filmed at our house. In our living room. They moved furniture and Primo was all "Wooo!" about that, worried they would damage the furniture. It has been almost two weeks but the furniture still had not been moved back. I would like my house to be restored to its natural state.

6. Primo went to pick up an order of 5,000 pieces of door literature today. The printer had made only 1,000 pieces. Someone sent the wrong email or something. I have screwed up print orders before. Wait. I screwed up a print order once. When I was 22. I have not made that kind of mistake since. I have found all sorts of new mistakes to make, but now, when I am spending a lot of money, I double check the order and request confirmation from the vendor. I don't understand how this order could have gotten so screwed up.

7. I need to form a support group for the spouses of politicians. It can be non partisan.

8. I don't know why I thought of this, but I had a boss two jobs ago who, two days before our big annual conference, asked me to put together a communications plan for the new office I was opening in The Grand Duchy of Fenwick. I asked him what he wanted to communicate and he didn't know, but he wanted a plan.

I called the communications director, who sighed and said not to worry, he knew what to do. So the amazing communications director put together a 12 page communications plan - without an actual message but including our strategies for facebook, LinkedIn, and twitter, and then he and I presented it to my boss.

After we finished the presentation, my boss looked at us and asked, "But aren't we going to do anything with social media? What about that social media? I've heard we should use social media."

I am ready for the election to be over.