After one of the Blue Majority blog posts, I donated some money (not a huge amount) to the Mark Pera campaign through ActBlue. I've done this for a few candidates, and don't expect to ever hear more than a thank you letter.
Today, however, I got a call on my cell phone from a number I didn't recognize, with a 708 area code. I've been getting a lot of calls like that recently because I'm very involved with the local Barack Obama volunteer effort, and many people have cell phones with out of state area codes. This time, however, it wasn't a volunteer, but rather Mark Pera giving me a call to thank me for my donation and talk briefly about how much he appreciates bloggers who have taken up his cause!
We talked briefly, and I mentioned that I didn't have much additional bandwidth because I'm very involved in the Barack Obama campaign. He expressed hope that Barack would do well, and that we would have a huge turnout in all of the February 5th states. As he put it, "Anyone who is supporting Barack around here is probably going to vote for me."
I wished him luck, and that was about it. But I wanted to write a post encouraging people who haven't looked at Mark Pera to take a look and think about supporting him. Someone who takes the time to thank individuals from far away, who can't even vote in his race, that is the type of person I'd like to see more of in congress.
If you're in the area (I'm out in California, so I'm pretty far away) think about volunteering for his campaign, and if not throw some money in the hat for him at ActBlue!
And on the off chance that Mark or someone from his campaign reads this: Thanks again for the phone call! I appreciate it!