our campaign launch party -- HUGE SUCCESS!

Good Morning!

Here's the walking update:

Hours Walked 2/21/08: 1.5
HoursWalked, total: 14.0
Houses Visited 2/21/08: 34
Houses Visited, total: 337

Volunteer needs:

• We always need people to help with data entry and phone calling.
• We are doing a HUGE mailing this Saturday, 9-4, at 611 North Garth Street. Come on by!

Last night was a big night -- the first major fundraiser of the event and the official launch for the whole campaign. The weather was horrible -- like, dangerously horrible -- and I just knew the night would be a flop. At one point, the restaurant even called me, wanting to close for the night, but we talked and they were gracious enough to stay open. Even if I had cancelled, there was just no way to let everyone know, so how could we do that?

As it turned out, the weather was bad, but not quite as bad as it seemed earlier in the day. I haven't counted the names on the sign-in sheet yet, but THE NIGHT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!

Yes, I'm very excited. Instead of just having a few people, we filled the back room at the Pasta Factory (not a small room); and, as with our first Pizza & Politics, we had a huge diversity of people (and I LOVED having so many college students!).

The Maneater, Tribune and Missourian were all there and did interviews. Hopefully we'll see articles today. Jason Rosenbaum at the Trib has already posted a couple of videos on his blog (http://blogs.columbiatribune.com/politics/) under the title "Spence Hits the Ground Running" that looked pretty good.

By the way, I should mention that I was going door-to-door up until time for the event. Yes, the snow was yucky, but it was super fun. As I think I've said before, people seem particularly appreciative when you show up to their door in the snow.

For me, the best part of the walk was being invited in to a voter's house. He said, "You are in luck, we just finished making a batch of hot chocolate!" Is that something out of a movie or what? We sat and talked for about 15 minutes and then I headed back out on the trail. That, my friends, is what running for office should be about. Hot chocolate.

I've just checked the weather and the high today is supposed to be 26F. For walking, it'll be like summer compared to some days this week! I'll get at least two hours in and let you know later today or tomorrow how it goes.

Have an awesome Friday!

- sean

Sean Spence
Candidate, Missouri's 25th Legislative District
573-823-1308 (Sean's cell)
seanspence@earthlink.net
www.SpenceCampaign.com