Friday after a walk to the bank

Finally it's a sunny day. --- Boy, that feels good.

Yesterday afternoon was spent with Katie, an intern and my first staff member. She did clerical stuff, including typing addresses into a database and stuffing envelopes. Yes, most campaign activity is drudgery.

This morning I built an excel spreadsheet listing the wards, precincts, and number of Democratic voters in my district. Katie's next job is to research vote totals by precinct and candidate to help develop a strategy for getting more votes than my opponent.

The mailman rang the bell this morning because he was delivering a plant that my friend Craig sent from Iowa. He noted, as he handed me the mail, that "Someone must be running for office," since he saw two letters addressed to Friends For Joe Laiacona. That led to a short discussion about electioneering and my giving him my card with the sincere request to come back and talk to me during off-work hours. It seems he has significant campaign experience as a precinct organizer. Ha! There's a man who can help make sense of the numbers that Katie compiles for me.

On the flip side, the postman reminded me that my opponent's father is a millionaire who has 1,500 precinct workers in his aldermanic ward, many who are on the payroll of one or another of his companies. Did I note that his ward comprises nearly half of my district? No one, and I mean NO ONE, said this race would be easy.

Later I processed the letters which included checks, hence the walk to the bank. One of the donors sent $25 with the request to not send anything to him ever again. I guess he doesn't get a thank y0u, huh?

This afternoon Lynn and I are driving around the district to get a better sense of its geography and demographics.

Tonight Joan and Mike are hosting my first fund-raising house party. I'm really excited about that and can do little more than think about giving my first political speech.

I also opened a twitter account. You can follow me at @jlaiacona. At least I think that's what you type in.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.