Just got this email from Hackett, I hope this means he is back...

[roseBudd]

from Marine maneuvers.

Friends, Countrymen, Americans, I come not to mourn our loss but to celebrate our success, and to learn from our mistakes so that our losses will not be in vein.

Your tremendous effort, support and dedication to winning our race are a testimonial of our abilities and I am truly humbled and grateful.

I can hardly begin to list and thank the number of people from not only around Southern Ohio, but also from around the US that pitched in to help the effort.

To my working brothers and sisters in organized labor who were the first to believe, I will not forget. Phydeoux, I would thank you personally but I already have your vote.

Thank you county chairs for your early support and effort in addition to the folks who started showing up early and often in the Batavia offices. You know who you are and I thank you. Russ it’s a good thing we didn’t grow up together or we’d both be in jail.

To the many ward chairs, club presidents and county chairs from Brown, Pike, Adams, Clermont, Hamilton, Scioto and Warren County to Waverly, Portsmouth, West Union, Hyde Park and Mt. Adams we couldn’t have had such a good showing without your max effort.

And to all the blogsters, what can I say? We’ll do it again and get er done next time. Chris, Bob, Tim, Chris and the rest in the blogoshpere you guys and gals were awesome. You gave us the freedom to get the phone out of my ear so we could take the fight to them in their own backyard. I/we will learn from this and employ these insurgency tactics earlier next time. Let’s be careful though who we share this information with.

Of course since we raised money from over 12,000 US citizens I must extend a hearty thank you for seeing this fight and coming to our aid in southern Ohio. We will refocus and eventually win not only this district, but also the state. Thank you for coming here both in person and in cyberspace to donate and contribute.

Barbara, Jimmy, Fred, Tom & Cathy, Jody, the Bernstein, Wolf, Fleischman, Meade, and so many other families that invested more than just their money and time, I and my family thank you.

To the national players the team knows the extent of your assistance and we greatly appreciate and value all that you did for us. We know you’ve taken some undeserved heat but we have spread the good word on your behalf. Thanks, we know the real story. Dan, thanks for the ground game. Rahm, I think you’re a hell of nice guy despite what everyone else says. Tim, let’s work on skeet shooting some more. Ted you were the first to believe; thank you from the bottom of my heart. Kate, Melissa, Clay and all those other faces I can picture but can’t remember the names that go with them, you were true professionals.

Max, Colonel and Mrs. Glenn, to stand in your shadow was an honor. My two oldest kids will never forget.

We now must move forward keeping in mind that while we lost we must rest up and fight the next race. We must realize that our opponents have learned from us and that next time it won’t be as “easy”. That means we have to start looking ahead now and organizing now.

For the 2nd district we must consolidate and organize all of our GOTV records and prepare them for the ’06 race. I ask everyone to right a simple after action report and forward it to me. I want it from everyone. We must learn what we did right and wrong so we can improve next time. We must become more efficient in our communications to further improve our ability to execute the plan and reduce confusion and wasted time. I think we should almost aim toward the “high school snow cancellation phone tree” as an example. We should have our corps infrastructure in place from county chairs down by this November, and we should start practicing our GOTV execution. I’m serious. In the Marine Corps we say we fight as we train and it’s better to sweat in training than to bleed in war. Let’s practice district wide the GOTV piece, it is one constant we can strive to perfect and we all understand its importance. With the GOTV as our foundation for votes and cyberspace as our foundation for fundraising, good candidates can win.

We had a great success in the toughest district in the US and though we lost this skirmish if we keep up the fight and the focus we will win this state back for working Americans, for us, the quiet moderate majority.

Thank you,

Paul Hackett

[FogerRox]

1. Kick for the HACK attack

[bleever]

2. Third rec. Thanks rosebud57.

:yourock:

:hi:

[wildeyed]

3. A true leader.

With the GOTV as our foundation for votes and cyberspace as our foundation for fundraising, good candidates can win.

:yourock:

[roseBudd]

4. looks like Hackett has a plan for 06 n/t

[bejammin075]

5. I have an (R) Representative

that I would love to see lose his next election. I've never been involved in a political campaign, but I think I might start right now. I don't know if my Dem candidate is as good as Hackett, but as some say, "You fight with the candidate you have, not the candidate you would want or need to have" or something like that.

[roseBudd]

6. And all you have to do is walk up to people and start talking to them...

Target barber shops, bus stops, talk to the people who work at the stores you shop at. If they're not rich, they're amenable to voting D.

I stood in the parking lot of a Dollar store in one of Hackett's wards in Cincinnati and spoke to everyone either on their way in or their way out of the stores. Most of them wanted to vote for Hackett.

Increasing turnout among the poor should be one of the prioritues for success.

Walk lists are incomplete and miss the majority of eligible voters.

[blue neen]

9. rosebud57,

I was looking for your Hackettmobile everywhere I went when I was in Cincy last week. What part of the district were you working in? I spent most of my time at the Batavia office, then canvassing in Hamilton County. It was a great experience.

[roseBudd]

10. I focused on the least white wards in Cincinnati, most of the District

is overwhelmingly white as it has been gerrymandered. So I was in Madisonville, Kennedy Heights and Silverton. I also staked out the a downtown bus stop for the number 69 bus to Madisonville and canvassed there on my lunchbreak and when I got off work on Aug. 2.

Most of the people I canvassed did not know there was a Special Election, so GOTV should have really focused on informing likely dem voters.

Bus stops are a fabulous place to canvass BTW.

[Mich Otter]

7. bejammin075, you said it well,

Great line. "You fight with the candidate you have, not the candidate you would want or need to have"
Not all of our choices are going to as good as we would like them to be. If we are to win, we are going to have some dogs in the mix. But we have to remember that it takes regaining the majority in Congress to stop the Republican train of bullshit and stupidity.

[bejammin075]

8. What Republican Campaign Money Can't Buy

We're gaining something the Repubs are losing. Grassroots people power. As they lose credibility, their supporters will lose the will to fight. As the truth gets out - and it will, because we are very determined - we gain support. And once you know the truth, you can't ever go back to being a Bush supporter. It's a one way street. No matter how much money they raise, they won't be able to buy the credibility they'll need to get grassroots support. They cannot stop our people power. The victory song for 2006 will be AC/DC's "Walk All Over You."