Paul Hackett for Congress
chess
They said we didn't have a chance.
But you showed them.
It's been a generation since a Democratic candidate has mounted a credible
campaign against the Republican machine that is so deeply entrenched here in
the 2nd District. They said it couldn't be done.
But you showed them.
No, we didn't win. We came up short by just 3,573 votes. But that only
proves that old habits die hard.
The truth dies harder.
And the truth is people aren't happy with the direction our country is
headed.
You showed the whole country the depth of that dissatisfaction. Your
tremendous effort and dedication to the cause sent a powerful message all
the way to the White House.
I wish I could personally thank every single one of you who united for the
cause. But the list is just too long.
I want thank everyone from Southern Ohio. Thank you my brothers and sisters
in organized labor. You were the first to believe. I won't forget that.
Thank you county chairs for your early support. Thank you to everyone who
volunteered at the Batavia offices. And thank you Russ (it's a good thing we
didn't grow up together or we'd both be in jail). And thank you to all the
ward chairs, club presidents and county chairs from Brown, Pike, Adams,
Clermont, Hamilton, Scioto and Warren County, from Waverly, Portsmouth, West
Union, Hyde Park and Mt. Adams. None of this would have been possible
without your tremendous effort.
I want to thank everyone from all around the country. Thank you bloggers.
Chris, Bob, Tim and everyone else trumpeting the truth in the blogoshpere,
you were awesome. All I can say is that we'll learn from this experience and
get it right next time.
I want to thank every one of the more than 12,000 of you from around the
country who opened your wallet to support our cause. You had the vision to
see that this race was about so much more than local Ohio politics.
Thank you Barbara, Jimmy, Fred, Tom & Cathy, Jody, the Bernstein, Wolf,
Fleischman, Meade, and every other family that invested more than just money
and time.
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, and for that I thank you from the
bottom of my heart. Kate, Melissa, Clay and all of you whose names I never
got to know, you were true professionals. Max, Colonel and Mrs. Glenn, it
was an honor to stand in your shadow.
Though we lost, we showed that it's possible to win. But next time it won't
be as easy. Our opponents are already bracing for the next battle. So we too
must brace for the next fight.
Here in the 2nd district we must consolidate and organize all of our GOTV
records and prepare them for the '06 race. I ask everyone to write a simple
after-action report and forward it to me. I want a report from everyone. We
must learn exactly what we did right and exactly what we did wrong so we can
do better next time. We must become more efficient. We must communicate
better. We need to improve our execution and reduce confusion. We need to
create our own "high school snow cancellation phone tree." We need to put
our core infrastructure in place - from county chairs down - by November.
And we need to begin practicing our GOTV execution immediately. In the
Marine Corps we know it's better to sweat in training than to bleed in war.
So let's start sweating the district-wide GOTV initiative. There can be no
victory without an effective GOTV. We don't have any time to waste. We must
start building the infrastructure necessary to win the next election. With
Internet fundraising and an effective GOTV we'll have a firm foundation that
will enable a good candidates to win.
They said it couldn't be done.
But you did it - almost.
Thanks to you, a Democrat almost prevailed in the toughest district in the
US.
Now is not the time to let up. If we build on all the work we've done so
far, we will win this state back for working Americans, for American's like
you and me, for the quiet moderate majority that has stayed too quiet for
too long.
Thank you,
Paul Hackett