I made my first political contributions this year.  I can’t remember who was the first, I think it may have been Marco Rubio.  I sent him $25.00.  It’s what I can afford now and then.  Most of you know who he is, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida.  I think I stumbled across one of his video speeches following a Twitter link.  He made me cry.  And laugh.  And pound my feet on the floor with glee!

I work from home in front of several computers so each day I have the luxury of cruising the net and following suggested links to investigate some of the grassroots/conservative candidates running for Congress and Gubernatorial offices.  I read their resumes, find some videos, investigate who supports them, and if possible what their voting record is.  These days, if you want to know these things it’s pretty easy to find them.  And although I can’t vote for them all, I want to support them financially if I can.  For these candidates I don’t feel my money gets swallowed up in a machine.  And I can’t think of the overwhelming juggernaut of union and Soros and ACORN monies funding the campaigns of their opponents and the incumbents ‘cause I can’t do anything about that.  But I CAN support campaigns of men and women whose votes will count in Congress on issues that will affect me whether I am in their districts or not.

So I’ve written a check and clicked a PayPal link every few weeks when I’ve worked enough to have some extra for Chuck DeVore (CA) and Jim DeMint (SC) and Doug Hoffman (NY) and James Lee (a SC candidate I volunteer for) and Allen West (FL) and Bill Randall (NC) and Joe Wilson (SC … which I wanted to take back when he spoke out against censuring Lindsey Graham).

Some candidates have no voting record such as Paul Curtman.  But this video was enough to convince me that he’s a candidate to go the mat for. I actually had to stand up all alone in my office here out of respect for what he said.
You know you are supporting the right candidates and they appreciate your support when they mail you a handwritten thank you note like Bill Randall and Paul Curtman did. And when I donated to Doug Hoffman there was a computer glitch and instead of donating $25.00 the computer kindly donated $2,500 for me! Within hours his staff called me and worked for the next 10 days to get that reversed, even calling my local bank to explain the glitch so my bank didn’t charge me any fees or bounce any of my checks. All that in the midst of a grueling campaign.

Yes. These are the candidates we need to find. Donate to. Hold signs for. Talk to friends about. As Chuck DeVore says here, “You’re 1 letter to a congressman, you’re 1 small donation, you’re 1 letter to the editor away from being an activist.”