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| The pathetically small crowd at the Rice football game. At least when the Southwest Conference existed, we could fill the stadium, even if it was with UT or A&M people. It was a lot more fun. |
We love going to Houston.
Wait. We love going to our class reunions. Houston? It's gotten a little bit crazy. But still - it was warm and sunny and beautiful. I texted a photo of the quad, with green grass and sun, to my boss and he texted me a photo of the parking lot at work covered in snow.
I miss Texas. I miss it so much. It's not cold there!
But we couldn't get away from politics.
My friend Ruthie ran a campaign for a school district candidate and won against an incumbent. She had great campaigning advice.
Our friend Robin introduced us to a friend of hers who is running for Congress in north Texas. I asked Jana Lynne how she was raising money.
"I spend seven hours a day on calls," she said. "But only five on Fridays."
Let me translate that for you in case you don't speak the political lingo.
She spends seven hours a day calling people to ask them for money.
This is the part of running for office - of politics - that everyone hates.
This is why rich people run our country. They have their own money to spend and they know rich people who want influence.
If you are an ordinary person running for office, you don't know the rich people and if you are Primo, you want to be the person who represents all the people, not just the rich ones, so you don't want to be beholden to anyone.
All the People? They don't have money to give to politicians. Every dollar is precious and hard earned. That's why
1. It's so hard to ask people to give their money away
2. We are so, so grateful to everyone who makes any contribution to Primo's campaign. We know that every dollar someone gives to him is a dollar they can't spend on eating out or on something fun. (I hope nobody would give to a campaign rather than pay the electric bill!)
You didn't miss anything not being here for Harvey. Trust me.
ReplyDelete(Well, except seeing people come together to help, which was really nice. We were not affected and didn't see it firsthand, but we still appreciate it on behalf of our fellow Houstonians.)
It was awful! I felt so helpless watching my friends go through it, posting their photos of the water rising inside their homes.
DeleteOn that topic, I just read this article this morning. https://www.city-journal.org/html/doing-houston-wrong-15604.html
ReplyDeleteI am just agog that campaign spending can literally buy votes, it shouldn't matter how much money a campaign has; even though I know it makes a practical difference, it's like you told me and showed me that snow is hot. I may accept the evidence, but it makes no sense to me. I don't care what ads I've seen (I usually don't watch them anyway, I've been using DVRs since the turn of the millenium). I go by the local reporting, which is very good here in the DC area, for obvious reasons.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we don't have enough money to buy votes! I am hoping for enough to print campaign literature to be hand-delivered while Primo (and, I hope, volunteers) do doors. Even a small print run can be a thousand dollars.
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