Politics: It's A Love/Hate Relationship

I have been involved in politics all my life even as a wee lad.

I have worked on campaigns since the time I was eight when an older brother ran successfully for City Commissioner and three years later when he was elected to the State Senate.

I worked on various county campaigns and in ‘97 ran another brother’s successful campaign for City Commission as well.

That victory was sweet. Although the night before the election while I was putting up last minute yard signs, I broke my finger with a 5 pound sledgehammer.

I spent election day drugged up on painkillers and beer, but…that made the Victory Party much more fun.

As Political Director for SEIU/1199 WV/OH/KY, I helped several candidates run their campaigns for seats in the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates.

During that time, I also helped author and successfully lobby on behalf of SEIU for a piece of Nursing Home Reform legislation in the West Virginia legislature.

I had a blast down there and partied quite a bit. I’ll never forget drinking moonshine in the Speaker’s office after the legislation passed two minutes before the yearly session was adjourned.

Of course, partying in the bar at the hotel I spent three months in was fun and I would toss a few back and talk to this guy during the session:

That man is a WV Delegate named Brady Paxton, and he always amused me because to me he looked like Kenny “Fucking” Rogers!!

Good Times…Good Times. Politics to me, especially the art and science of running campaigns, has always been a game. A really cool, fun game.

I guess one of the most interesting things that happened to me during a campaign occurred during the 2000 Presidential Election.

I was working for SEIU and was at our office in Columbus working our phone bank system making GOTV calls into New Mexico on behalf of Al Gore.

At about 10 PM, I and a few others along with our Prez, Dave Regan, headed to the Hyatt for the Ohio Democratic Party election night soiree.

It was fun…for awhile, but I got bored by 1 AM. I thought I would drive to my hotel and sleep while the Florida vote count got straightened out.

On my way to my car, I decided differently.

Since I was supposed to return to Bagwine in the morning, and wasn’t buzzed, I decided to drive back to Bagwine right then.

Of course…I had nowhere to stay when I got back to Bagwine, so I called my new buddy Schmoop and woke her sleeping ass up.

I asked her if I could crash at her place in about 45 minutes. Schmoop groggily said, “Yeah…sure.”

So at about 2:15 AM, I pulled into Bagwine, knocked on her apartment door, and she let me in.

The rest is history, and I have been here ever since. The moral of that story?

Al Gore invented the internets. Al Gore inspired the movie, Love Story. Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Al Gore also couldn’t win his own fucking home state in 2000 and played a role in bringing Schmoop and I together.

I Hate Al Gore...and I'm pretty sure Schmoop does too!!

Make sure you vote today, you chuckleheads.

Cheers!!