"I feel like I did when I was about to give birth" -- local candidate

[Turn CO Blue]

Last night I *finally* showed up at my local county Democrats office (Broomfield County Democrats) to put in a little volunteer time!

Sidebar -- yes, I should have done more and you can throw stones later, but I am very involved with my daughter's marching band, and band season just ended -- I did donate $$ though.

Just as I arrived, a few people were leaving to go do a "honk and wave" on a major intersection in a vastly wealthy, vastly Republican neighborhood. One of those folks was Dianne Primavera, the Dem running for House District 33 for the Colorado House.

First, I want to say she is very personable. What got me about her is that she was just like most of us -- not raised on politics or experienced in campaigning. She is just a regular person who got involved because of how she was treated during her bout with breast cancer. Healthcare for Coloradans is her big issue.

Second, let me just get a little off-topic to say that I've been to a few war protests and vigils during the last couple of years where some of my conversations were disappointing because it seemed that the like-minded people weren't really all that well-informed and up-to-date on most of the prevalent issues discussed on DU, DKos, and the major blogs. The subjects I mean are the need for verified voting and the possibility of fraud in electronic voting, the corporate media and its lack of investigation of this adminstration, and understanding the latest and long list of Republican scandals.

Dianne was up on all of this. So were the other volunteers I was holding signs with. Someone mentioned how nice it was for the oil companies to lower our gas prices during election season so they could afford to drive more to put out signs and to campaign -- everyone laughed in a knowing way. Dianne (the candidate) mentioned how Kerry had to apologize for his "botched joke" but Bush had yet to apologize for his botched war. Dianne mentioned how the Dem party had several eyes that would be there when the votes were counted. She mentioned how she was glad Conyers would be chairman. She mentioned how deflated she was for weeks after November of 2004. There were several other examples, but I won't go on -- the point was that I feel that the local Dems have been READING, researching, commiserating online...pulling together. It's our way of getting "on message". I think that is worth a great deal for the GOTV effort -- I really do.

I asked her how she was feeling. She said that she had never worked as hard in her life as she had the last year. (She is currently in a statistical dead heat with her Republican Bill "in the pocket of Big Oil" Berens -- not a bad place to be in a county that has over 4000 more registered Repubs than Dems!) She said if she lost, she would know that there wasn't anything else she could have done because she worked her heart out. Dianne said she was starting to feel nervous, and turned to her 21 year-old daughter and said "I feel like I did when about was about to give birth to you".

Oh, I know how she feels. I have butterflies in my stomach -- but it is a really good kind of anticipation. I already feel like crying tears of joy, but I remain cautiously optimistic. I feel like throwing up. I feel like dancing. I feel like running through the streets. I feel like beating someone up. I feel like hugging everyone I see. I want to sit here calmly and meditate. I want to scream!

I dread the results coming in. I can barely wait for the results!

I feel like I did when I was about to give birth!