A few moments ago, I received the following note from Amy Clere, Ed’s wife.
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Yes, folks, Mrs. Clere DID write the letter and Ed WAS baking a soccer-shaped cake while it was written. The letter was written in an attempt to do something on a positive note to help the campaign. Because I used to be a journalist who has worked in the U.S. and abroad, I decided to put my writing talents to use. However it was very hard to write something that would appeal to older women as well as, hopefully, younger ones. Everything I said in it was true. Period.
We embarked on the campaign as everyone does, looking for backing, and running into nay-sayers and thwarters of all sorts. So, with very little money, we went about getting the word out the best we could, running a positive campaign and hoping that enough people who really know Ed would volunteer to help the campaign in any way they could. We had a lot of help in a grass roots campaign that was always positive and I am very impressed with every one of our volunteers, from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Yes, it’s true that Ed invited his opponent to three debates. Invitations were sent to him and to the Floyd County Democratic Party chair and the Republican Party chair. All could vouch for this. And, yes, Mr. Cochran refused.
We ran out of money fairly quickly. Running a campaign is expensive. So we kept asking around for contributions and we continued our quest to get help from Indianapolis. When, at the 11th hour, Indianapolis jumped in to help us, we were not informed of what they were going to do. They said they’d be polling our race. I’m sure that, as has been mentioned in this blog, they were legally bound to secrecy because of regulations regarding campaign contributions. They looked up Mr. Cochran’s voting record (for real) and came up with ads that were not what we would have chosen, but which were based on sound research.
Was I mortified to see the knife-in-hand ad? You bet! I’m a mother and a school teacher. In fact, I briefly wondered if Indianapolis was trying to help or hurt the campaign. It was a trying time because, in addition to being pummeled by mailing after mailing, many contributors to the blog were accusing Ed and the campaign of dishonesty, outright meanness and of duping the public. We were swamped with trying to get things done for the campaign and had neither the time nor the frame of mind to stop and figure out how to explain (IS there an explanation really?), so you have had silence from DePauw Avenue.
We’re glad Indianpolis helped out because they did do some positive things behind the scenes to make things go smoothly. We hoped they’d send out some information that would tell more about Ed, but they said that they cannot make positive ads about Ed until he’s the incumbent. Hmmmm…I don’t understand that. But I do know that, in the end, enough people were willing to recognize that behind a campaign gone out of control remained a man of integrity who will work very hard to see that New Albanians get the most bang for their buck–a representative that WILL be in touch with the people and will remain involved with local efforts. He certainly deserves a chance.
Now it remains for ALL of us to roll up our sleeves and get involved with helping keep things going that work and get a move on to improve things that need improving. The people have spoken, both with our chosen State Representative and our chosen President. I think it’s exciting, and, really, it’s incumbent upon ALL of us to be supportive of our elected officials as much as we can.
Thanks to everyone for remaining interested in all these issues and special thanks to all who took the time to write supportive comments during a trying time.
