The Campaign Trail — Volume Two

Doorbelling continues to go well. Our message seems to be resonating well with the people I've been able to meet at their door. The biggest issue is catching people at home to talk to. Our Web site is attracting a lot of traffic as well, and will be updated again shortly, showing our new TV commercials which will begin airing on Wave Cable next week.
I was out of town a couple of times in the past two weeks on automotive adventures. The first was the Northwest Automotive Press Association's (NWAPA) annual "Run To The Sun" event, where we drove 18 different vehicles — including the 2008 Dodge Viper, ZO6 Corvette, and Audi R8 among others. The first day we did a drive loop from the Airport Radisson out to the coast, via places like Yelm, Pe Ell and Bucoda, while the second day we did the Olympic Peninsula Loop out to Lake Cresent, down the coast through Forks and Klaloch, to Aberdeen and then back to the Radisson.

The second event was the press intro of the new Infiniti G37 Coupe. VERY sweet ride — and much improved and refined over what was already a great little car. Luckily for me, it was actually held in Seattle, so I only really missed one doorbelling day since the normal two travel days for these types of events consisted of a ferry ride for me — not a plane trip.

I had committed to both events some time ago — well in advance of the campaign getting underway — and hated missing my doorbelling time. I was feeling guilty being gone, knowing I should be out putting up signs and knocking on doors. At least the Infiniti event gave me some of the time back. I also have four others on tap between now and election day in November, including the new Mercedes S550 intro in McCall Idaho, a Nissan event in San Diego, the new Volvo XC70 intro in Montana in September, and NWAPA's annual Mudfest event which pits all the new SUVs against each other, head-to head, on and off road, in October.

But back to the campaign...
I was saddened to learn this morning that one of the mayoral candidates was involved in a financial issue 11 years ago at OC. While this could be construed as "good news" for me, it just makes me sad to see attention to the real issues in the campaign — public safety, economic development, downtown, etc. — being diverted away to this kind of thing. Everyone makes mistakes in life. You put them behind you and you move on. We've all done it. I believe what we've done, — good and bad — and what we've learned from it, makes us what we are.

I say, let's focus on today's issues and let the past be just that — the past.

All three of us will be debating twice this coming Tuesday — the first time at Port Orchard Rotary at 7:15 a.m. (LaGarmache) and again at South Kitsap Rotary, (Puerta Vallarta) at 11:45. Should be interesting. Hope to see you there.