I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how much I appreciate you my Daily Kos family. Yesterday I wrote a diary about my personal plea for assistance with the Shelia Smoot campaign in Alabama (AL-07). I was humbled when you placed my diary on the rec list for a few hours. And then tonight Ministry of Truth was able to do a live blog with Shelia just five days before our historic primary.
I've worked with a lot of campaigns over the past decade, but I've never been as personally vested in one. I've donated my time, money and sweat for the past year to help get Shelia elected to Congress. It's someone that I truly believe in and you recognized my passion. That's what Daily Kos is about. That's what it has always been about for me.
I've worked many of 16 hour days the past few months because I know my candidate is working 20. Shelia will go the extra mile. When I left the office tonight after the live blog, she was still meeting with volunteers and plotting out tomorrow's agenda. Often I will get texts or emails from her at 2 in the morning and again just a few hours later at 6 or 7. You want to work with someone who is going to work just as hard as you will. I'll tell you I've been involved in campaigns before where the staff and volunteers have worked longer and harder than the candidate. And of course the results have showed that was the case as the candidate on election night looked like a deer in headlights scratching their heads.
We've truly ran a grassroots campaign as one of our opponents has outraised us nearly 7 to 1. But nobody has outworked us and the polls still have us in the lead. We are not taking anything for granted and as Shelia always says we are running like we are last.
With the money we raised yesterday we were able to get some more signs and purchase a few more radio ads. We are so thankful. We have been on a shoestring budget and stretching every dollar. While I can promise you that Shelia did not come by tonight to just raise money, we could appreciate a few more dollars. We are so close to reaching our Grassroots for Smoot goal 68 dollars to be exact.
So again, I thank you and let you know I'm honored to be a part of this community. It's a great feeling to get support from people all over the country that are committed to the cause of electing better officials. Amazed by the generosity. Shelia summed up what we should all hope for
I work for everybody. It doesn't matter what district.
~Shelia Smoot
It's even more gratifying to be able to return the favor so please let me know what I can do to help you.
If you would like to phone bank, we could use some volunteers and I would be glad to send you some lists. Just shoot me an email.