"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . ."

The ground campaign continues.  We are fielding what I think are pretty good numbers of walkers (won't say exactly how many walkers--no sense giving Wal-Mart and their sock puppets anything more than I need to).  In fact, I would be willing to bet real money that it's been at least thirty years since Jay and Gary had as many people walking for them as we have walking for us.

The difference is that we're going up against the world's largest retailer.  That's what has so many of us worried.  If it were just us going up against Jay and Gary, this would be a slam dunk.  But they've sold their souls to Wal-Mart.  And, much as I might despise Wal-Mart, it's true that they'll take care of the ones they own.

I'm also worried about the $80,000 or so that the three Wal-Mart front groups have spent on behalf of Jay and Gary.  I'm worried because I'm sure that we haven't seen $80,000 worth of campaigning, yet.  I've got to assume that there's about $70,000 worth of mud sitting in a closet in Mike Lewis's West Covina offices, just waiting for the last few days before the election.  Sooner or later, those amoral sock puppets are going to let loose their deluge of slime.  That's what they promised us.  And, while so much of what they have said the past four years have been lies, I do believe they were telling the truth about their plans to start slinging  a boatload of excrement.

And so it is that we are enjoying both the best of times and the worst of times.  We have more volunteers than Jay and Gary can possibly imagine, and that's great.  But we're going up against the definition of "deep pockets."  We're going to need each and every one of us to keep giving that proverbial 110%.  Our one best chance to counter their lies, distortions, libels, and slanders is going to be to meet the voters, one by one, to set the record straight.

And that is why, despite our healthy walker numbers, we keep e-mailing you, calling you and otherwise begging and pleading for more of you to join us on the streets of Rosemead.

Thanks to your support, we've come so far.  It would be tragic of we were to slack off in these last few weeks, only to see those boys from Bentonville take over our city.