We Won!

Several hundred posts ago (well maybe 20...) I mentioned that I was working on a political campaign. My candidate was running to become a Trustee for our township. This position would be equivalent to a council representative in a city, however, as we don't have a Mayor, three trustees "work together" to determine policy and budgets for our community.

Good news -- He WON! Bad news -- He WON!

I use the term "working together" very loosely as that seldom has happened in our town. For the past two years, we have had three women in power who have done more damage to the women's movement than Paris Hilton! Bickering, paranoia, and personal agendas have replaced decorum, restraint and professionalism in public office. Do you think I have an opinion about this??!!

So Larry won the election against two other gentlemen by just over 500 votes. Now he has to work with the two remaining women for two years to restore some confidence (our campaign slogan) in our community. I send him all my luck!

The real topic of this post is what happened the night of the election...

As any nervous candidate can attest, if you lose an election, the last place you want to be is in a public place. For this reason, we decided to hold Larry's election celebration in our home. It made even more sense when he would stress the non-partisan support he received throughout the campaign - his favorite campaign line "I have Republicans, Democrats, and Canadians!" Our house was neutral territory.

Shortly after the polls closed the house began to fill - mostly with his large Italian family (and the great food that goes along with that!) Within an hour there were probably 40 people.

Then he got the call he had won...Within minutes there were over 100 people in our home!

As one of our local television news trucks arrived (and parked illegally on the corner), I looked up our street to see a convoy of trucks...the firemen had arrived! (they endorsed Larry) They joined the fire chief, the township administrator, all the departments heads, the head of the local republican party, the newspaper editor, a variety of judges and attorneys, and eventually, one school board member!

When the smoke had cleared and five of us remained -- we realized that they drank all our beer but left most of the food!

The moral of this story?! If you want to hold public office, you're only useful if the beer fridge is stocked!