A Day in the Life in DC

This is my first DC experience, and I am here campaigning. This place moves fast. Everyone is working all of the time and the talent that we see on a daily basis is inspiring.

As a student of economics the first thing I was ever taught was, there are limited resources and an infinite way to use them. Politics is much the same way. Democratic performance and money raised are two of major guide posts to getting any conversation started. Have I mentioned that you should donate to John Courage’s campaign and sign up to volunteer?

Today we met with another half dozen groups including an specialist on immigration issues Rick Schwartz, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the League of Conservation Voters, a specialist in media and communications strategies Jon-Christopher Bua, and the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA).

In exciting news, IBEW endorsed on the spot and pledged to make a substantial campaign contribution.

But, what does a day in DC look like? This is the question I am getting the most right now, and if you are a candidate take notes.

Nick Lawrie, the Campaign Director, spent much of the days and weeks leading up to the trip scheduling appointments and getting to know the best people to talk to. These appointments are an hour long and sometimes longer, but they all begin the same way… hurrying to a cab as fast as possible.

Once you get there you meet with either the political or electoral departments, and on rare occasions you meet with the governmental affairs staff.

You talk about the race and luckily we have a race that we can win and an opponent that is Tom DeLay’s shadow man.

You answer questions about policy, about structure, and about what you will do when you win. You take cards and you go to the next meeting.

When you stop and think about the fact that each meeting is about one hour, then six meetings is a full days work when you factor in cab time and call time.

We have a half day left before we fly back to the district. Tomorrow we are meeting with the American Federation of Teachers, National Committee for an Effective Congress, Planned Parenthood, and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees.

The people we have met and we will meet tomorrow want a better future for all of us, and they are working tirelessly to do that. John is here in DC to work with those people to bring fair trade to Texas and bring solid education standards to the children in District 21 and across the country. We are meeting with people every hour to talk about real change and truly represent the people, not the private lobbyist that are buying their way to the seat.

The culture of corruption is going to come crumbling down around Lamar Smith and Tom DeLay and we will put Courage in Congress!