INTRIGUE ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

It's one thing to be known as the "Blogger Candidate." It's another to have time to campaign and blog. Which is probably why very few do it! In reading my last post I realized that I had left out THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN MY PRESENT POLITICAL LIFE (with the exception of the undying support of my spouse and offspring....) I HAVE A CAMPAIGN MANAGER!!!! It is even cooler than having a big map of one's senate district. Joe Engwer is, simply put, the answer to a prayer. When you have a campaign manager, you call him/her up and ask them to do something....AND THEY DO IT!!!! Now it works both ways...he calls you up a lot and says "remember to do this" or "you have to take care of that" but that's helpful and it sure beats me bugging my husband when he's getting ready for a trial....I am also profoundly lucky that Joe has a WONDERFUL sense of humor and so he can keep me laughing when I need a chuckle. Which brings us to the intrigue. Of course the first aspect of "rumor, intrigue, innuendo and the usual campaign guff" (I'm not allowed to be salty in my speech/humor now that I'm a candidate....) was that a rumor was going around that I was paying Joe five times as much as I was. I WISH I could pay him that much. He's worth it. But no.....this is the children's crusade where we raise $ on a "just in time" basis....like the rent was due on the headquarters and VOILA! three of my college friends sent me enough scratch to pay for the rent and the security deposit. The more disturbing aspect of intrigue was the report I received last week while I was taking R & R in DC (for my future daughter-in-law's bridal shower....an event which couldn't have been better timed because I needed a break and I was somewhere where no one asked about prescription drug coverage and I didn't have to be a candidate...although I did meet someone at the shower who had a friend in Alford....but I digress.....) was that a "push poll" was being conducted in the District. A push poll is ostensibly a poll to ask voters what candidate they're supporting, but it also contains negative information about many of the other candidates so that the respondent is, perhaps, pushed to make a choice based on "information" received during the question. This poll had negative information on three of us and positive information on a fourth person. One never knows whether there was some third party involved, or the candidate didn't know it was happening or what. But it violates the ethics of the American Assocation of Political Consultants and hopefully it won't happen again. There was some other intrigue that we'll save for the book, but the intrigue is, to be perfectlyhonest, distracting, energy-draining and counterproductive. Hopefully there's just this little flurry and then we can go back to concentrating on a positive message for the voters. And speaking of "campaign trail" my "campaign trail mix" apparently can't be taken into the Convention Center because God forbid someone might eat so much of it that they don't want to purchase overpriced food from the DCU center (you can tell I'm not running for Mayor of Worcester.....) Foiled again!