The Candidate's Wife: The Early Bird Catches the Audience or something like that

Primo: I just got off the phone with James Parker!

Me: Oh - that radio host. I like his show. I listen to him sometimes when I am driving to work.

Primo: He's invited me to be a guest on his show next week!

Me: Wow! That's great!

Primo: He wanted me on at 7:00 but I said that was kind of early for me, so I'm going on at 8:00.

Me: Umm. Are you sure about that?

Primo: Why? Seven is way too early! I don't want to have to get up for that.

Me: But - people listen to the radio when they are in their cars. By 8:00, they'll all already be at work.

Primo: But 7:00 is so - so early.

Me: Yeah. I. Know. I'm usually at work by then.

Primo: You think I should do it at 7:00 instead of 8:00.

Me: Yes.

Primo: So. Early.

Me: One. Morning.

Primo: So. Early.

Me: This is not New York. People here get up early.

Primo: OK, I guess.

The Candidate's Wife: Even though only five people come to the house party our friends throw, we raise more money than we did at the fundraiser at our house with the homemade, fabulous food

S and K have a Shoes Off house, so I reminded Primo to wear nice socks. 

We went to the house party/fundraiser our friends S and K held for Primo. They don't live in our district, but K is passionate (and correct) about the idea that who is elected matters for everyone.

Only five people attended. S and K were horrified and apologetic, wondering what they had done wrong.

"We're pretty sure our friends agree with us politically," they said. "Maybe they were put off by the idea of a fundraiser?"

We didn't know. I ate some guacamole. Which was delicious.

"K did all this research about how to host a fundraiser," S told me. "That's why he said explicitly that it is a fundraiser - so people wouldn't show up not knowing they are supposed to give money!"

We didn't know. I ate some more guacamole. Still delicious. And I really like blue corn chips.

(Is it really blue corn, do you think? Or do they just cheat and dye yellow corn? Blue corn is kind of expensive, I thought.)

At 5:30, nobody had shown up.

"At least we'll eat well," S joked.

I ate more guacamole. If nobody else is coming, I am happy to be a guacamole pig.

"At the worst, Primo and I get to hang out with you guys," I said.

I ate more guacamole. Primo doesn't like avocados.

But at 5:45, the people, they came.

Only five of them - two married couples and a single guy - but they came.

Oh well.

Five people (even though it's only three campaign contribution units) is better than nothing.

After a respectable amount of time for people to eat, K, who is also an engineer, introduced Primo with perhaps the best introduction of Primo I have ever heard.

"When you need to fight a war, you send soldiers," he said. "When you need to win an argument, you get a lawyer. When you want to make a lot of money, you get a businessman. But when you want to solve a problem, who do you get?"

"You get an engineer. That's all engineers do all day long - we solve problems. We try to figure out how to fix things. And that's the kind of person we need in public office - someone who knows how to solve hard problems."

He was brilliant! He went on to talk about how even though Primo isn't in his district, he still has an impact and how everyone should give money.

And. They. Did.

We raised more money with only five attendees (seven, if you include S and K) than we did at the fundraiser we had at our house in Primo's first campaign. There were about 30 people at that fundraiser. And a lot more food, all of it homemade. (S and K bought really good prepared food. I told them not to waste any money on the food, as people do not seem to donate more when the food is good.)

Not a wasted evening at all.

PS I realized I should define amounts - Primo raised $300 with two more checks coming in the mail. That is A LOT of money for a small, un-connected middle-class candidate in a local race. A lot.