My last whistle stop

I’m on a plane to Atlanta, where I’ll rent a car, pick up co-pickler Luvh, and drive to the Alabama 3rd Congressional District. The 3rd stretches along most of the Georgia border – Alabama’s “middle east,” as I like to call it. Our first stop will be Opelika, where we’ll canvass from about 4 pm until a few hours after dark, asking Alabamian swing voters to support Josh Segall for Congress. Then we’ll continue to Montgomery, where we’ll be through Election Day, helping to turn out the vote. With any luck, I’ll get to walk over to MLK’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on the night we elect our first black President.

Josh is a close colleague and a closer friend. He was born to be a Congressman. He has a literally inexhaustible appetite for thinking and talking through a tough problem. He has a gift for connecting with people, and for connecting people to one-another. He has a strong moral compass, but it’s coupled with a belief in pragmatism in politics; a powerful recipe for a public servant.

About a year and a half ago, Josh called me to say he was thinking about running for Congress. What was almost unthinkable then is a few small steps from happening now. Josh has been an incredible candidate, a prodigious fund-raiser, an empathetic and genuine listener, and a clear and forceful voice for his would-be constituents. In the last few days, he has been endorsed by the two largest newspapers in the district, the Montgomery Advertiser and the Anniston Star. The DCCC has added Josh to their top target list. Recent polls have shown the race in the single digits and quickly tightening. And with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket and Republicans on the run all over the country, the wind is at his back in just the right ways at just the right time. I think Josh is going to win.

Josh is still fighting hard to get the message out in the last few days, and as you are no doubt familiar at the end of this interminable season, that takes money.

If you can find it in your heart to put your political contribution budget line-item just a little bit further in the red one more time, we’d be grateful for a donation of $25, $50, or $100. Click here to donate.

Finally, I’m confident that turnout in Pickle Nation will be 100%, and an enthusiastic 100% at that. But just in case you are feeling that biennial calculation of civic economy that says that the act of voting is an irrational one, statistically, or if you happen to have an unexpectedly full schedule on Tuesday, or if you live in a deep blue or deep red state and think your vote doesn’t matter, check out this piece in today’s NYT, which really touched me in this historic hour. It’s about an expatriate couple in India who, having suffered an absentee ballot snafu, are flying home to New York to vote. Here’s a bit:

“We had a long talk about it,” Ms. Scott-Ker said. “We could go on holiday to a beach somewhere. Or we could come back here and vote. It was a long talk. We decided it was important to stand up and be counted.”

Here Here. Stand up and be counted.