The Mid-Term Elections, Part II: Election Day

I must say, I am glad we’ve finally arrived at election day. Weeks of hearing about all the different polls, and listening to spin after spin after spin as to who will come out victorious has gotten a little old. Time now to just turn it over to the voters and watch Tim Russert and his dry erase board telling us which races to keep an eye on as the night progresses.

The race I’ll be watching is one that is very much under the radar. This is the race for Indiana State Representative, District 6. I was campaign treasurer for Kevin Mitschelen, who decided to take on B. Patrick Bauer, who has been in office since Nixon’s first term. Our first campaign meeting took place in Kevin’s living room and we took it from there.

It was refreshing working on this campaign, especially in light of what has been a truly nasty campaign season. This was grassroots campaigning at its finest. At any time, there were about 8-10 of us involved. We met every other week to plot out strategies and decide how to spend our money. This was not a big time campaign. For the pre-primary report I had to submit, we reported a total of $100.00 in contributions. No, I didn’t leave out any zeroes. It was just one hundred dollars. For the last report, our grand total that we took in was about $7,200, which is about the cost of having two pictures taken with President Bush when he was in town campaigning for Chris Chocola.

The way we spent our money was something I’m proud of. When we got a $25.00 contribution, we were ecstatic. We truly pinched every penny we had. There was absolutely no waste and I will be sending a letter to all our contributors outlining where their money went. Sometimes a check was written to pay for stamps, sometimes to pay for some business cards and flyers. Our biggest expense was for yard signs. Then there was the $27.50 to pay for pizza for volunteers going door to door. This past weekend, in our last door to door effort, we ran out of campaign literature, having used every piece we had printed.

If Kevin has a good showing against Pat Bauer, it is because he truly earned it. Every day before work, he got up and distributed literature door to door. Every weekend, he was out, sometimes pulling his kids in a wagon, going door to door. He was truly out there meeting those in his District. Do I think he can win? No, Bauer is too entrenched to take him out. But we’re hoping we can shake him up a little (for him to lose would be sort of like Ted Kennedy suddenly getting ousted). If we have a good showing this time around, then this may bode well for Kevin in the future.

Kevin is the real deal. He is a committed Christian first, and then politician. We made it a point not to go negative on this campaign, and we didn’t. I’ve known Kevin for many years. He met his wife the same place I met mine, at a single’s group at Trinity Evangelical Free Church in South Bend. Kevin ran for a county office 8 years ago and then decided to take a break before venturing out there again.

Another real deal is Jackie Walorski, who is running for reelection for Indiana State Representative. I heard her speak at a Missionary Church a few years ago and she is absolutely phenomenal. This was before she ran for office, so it wasn’t a speech to appeal to the evangelicals. She talked about her and her husband’s experiences in Romania, which they have had a real heart for. Her husband is a long-time friend and colleague of Dorene’s, as both are local music teachers. Keep an eye on Jackie, I believe she’ll go national one of these years. Her campaign was one of our biggest contributors (a whopping $500.00).

It’s been fun. This is politics as it should be. Spending the people’s money wisely, not attacking the other candidate, and truly getting out there to meet the people. We had a fundraiser, and it cost all of $15.00 to come (not one of those $500 a plate fundraisers). The Republicans have really messed things up in Washington. But there are still some good ones out there. I haven’t given up on the party that I’ve been associated with for so many years, but I do think they need a wake-up call.

So tonight, I’ll be with Kevin and the rest of the volunteers at GOP campaign headquarters in downtown South Bend watching the returns. Chris Chocola will be there, along with his hundreds of staff and volunteers. But sometime during the night, as the national returns are coming in, there will be local results scrolling across the bottom of the screen. When we see that name “Mitschelen” come up, win or lose, it will be a proud moment for all of us that we gave it the best shot we could, and that we can walk away feeling good about the kind of campaign we ran.