In which Primo and I talk about whether you ask friends who do not live in your district for money and we decide no, even if the friend has said that of course he would donate to the campaign he has given to candidates he likes a lot less than Primo

Because we are so lucky to have so many wonderfully generous friends, a lot of the costs of Primo's first campaign four years ago were covered. It made Primo sick to his stomach to ask friends for money - people, this is the absolute worst part of running for office, worse even than hiding your affairs and your sexts and whatever.

I joke. Primo is not having an affair. He can have an affair instead of running for office - indeed, I have suggested to him that he might consider that approach - but he cannot have an affair AND run for office.

You have to choose.

Anyhow. Asking people for money is really hard and that's why rich people run this country, not so much because they pay for their own campaigns, although that's part of it, but because they have a lot of friends who are as rich as they are and will give them money.

For his campaign for Congress two years ago, he asked nobody for money. He was a candidate as a favor to the party. There was no chance for him to win. He was not going to waste any goodwill begging for that one.

Now we are here, at a campaign for the state house that he actually could maybe win in this bizarre election year with its two "Which one do I detest less?" candidates and everything is up for grabs.

We saw these friends - let's call them Prakash and Kavitha - a month ago. They are college friends - Primo and Prakash were in the same dorm and have known each other since college; I met Prakash at our reunion last fall and found him delightful and found his wife (with whom he had an arranged marriage, which is not such a bad idea when you think about how important having similar values and backgrounds is for a successful marriage - it has clearly worked for them) to be absolutely charming.

Primo had called Prakash for his first campaign and Prakash wrote a check immediately. We were stunned by his generosity - he lives nowhere near us and would not be affected by Primo's winning.

Then for the Congressional campaign, Primo didn't ask anyone.

When we saw Prakash and Kavitha last month, Primo had not decided to run. He was actually leaning toward not running, which, as you know, made me very happy.

We talked about the first campaign and thanked P&K again for their contribution, which was when Prakash said that he has given money to candidates he liked far less than Primo and Primo should of course ask him.

FF to now. Primo has decided to run again. I am not thrilled, but I keep repeating to myself the refrain that soothes me:

I would rather have an unemployed Primo than an employed Primo + Sly + Doris.

Primo: Should I ask Prakash for a campaign contribution?

Me: NO!

Primo: But he said...

Me: I know. But - they're our friends.

Primo: I know.

Me: It just doesn't seem right.

Primo: I know. You're right. It's just that he said - but it seems so wrong to ask our friends for money.

Me: He sees what you post on facebook. You have a contribution link. If he wants to, he can.

Primo: Yeah. But it would be crass to ask him. OK.

I don't think we are in the right business.