Perks of Campaign World

So this week is all about experiences I've had. I feel like sharing so here we go. 

   Something great about Campaign World is that when you win, you celebrate. When I say celebrate I mean that we, as organizers, throw the roof off the place. I have been lucky enough to be a part of three winning campaigns in my career and each time was the best experience I could ask for. I love my campaign family. They are amazing and gifted people and there are no other people I would rather take the night with. With three campaigns I have been to three staff victory parties, two inaugurations, two balls, and one staff after party. Each of them was the most fun I have ever had. I'm going to tell you what I can about each and why these things are my favorite.

Region 11 The Morning After the OFA Victory Party (Banez's pic)

   I have got to say that Obama treated us well when it came to post campaign perks. He really did. We had a victory party in Richmond where they provided a place for us to crash literally next to the venue. It was an awesome experience where we all drove out to Richmond from Norfolk carrying everything from our offices, printers, laptops, modems, and desktops, dropped them off in the Richmond office, ran to the hotel, changed, and got together as regions before we headed to the venue across the street. The great thing about my region is that we were Region 11, which consisted of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Chesapeake, aka the cities that brought it in for Virginia and turned it Blue for Obama. It was a little crazy because we would get asked what region we were and get treated like Kings and Queens when people heard. We danced, we laughed, we listened to a speech about our impending 'funemployment', and we went back to our accidentally acquired Presidential Suite and enjoyed ourselves into the wee hours of the morning. It was an experience I'll never forget. The next morning we hit the wall every campaign hits where you realize you are not going to see these people every day anymore. So we went to brunch at a random Bistro to prolong our time in Richmond.

Crowd Shot (Credit to Me)

   Almost three months later, we came back together for the Obama Inauguration and Staff Ball in January. I road tripped it up with my former Field Organizer. Super entertaining. We stayed with one of the former Fellows who lived in Maryland. The Inauguration was insane. The National Mall was packed with people. I have never seen so many people in one place. I watched President Obama and Vice President Biden take their oaths of office. I listened to Beyonce since the National Anthem and I did this amongst my fellow organizers. We froze our butts off for this. We screamed the loudest. We were the proudest. 

Reggie and I at the Staff Ball (Credit to Reggie)

   Later on, we headed to our very own Ball. I'm not going to lie, OFA staff cleans up well. We all went all out. We, also, got super lucky because "Suit & Tie" by Justin Timberlake came out the week before.  We jumped each other as we found each other in the crowd. We danced. We watched Lady Gaga perform and had a great DJ. VP and Dr. Biden came out and spoke a little. President and Michelle Obama came out and he spoke while she sort of did an interpretive dance. They tried to rush him and he said "No, I can take time for these people." It was amazing. It was the real last time that I saw several of those amazing people as we scattered to the four winds. 

   Let me tell you, if there is a candidate that know how to celebrate a win, it is Terry McAuliffe. He brought us all to Richmond, found a great venue, paid for all the food and drinks, and celebrated with us. It was awesome. This is one of my absolute favorite teams I have worked with. There are few, if any, people who worked for Terry that I did not like. We mingled between regions. We hung with our own. It was an amazing event. I witnessed the Governor of Virginia attempt to dance. I even danced with him with a few of my colleagues. The campaign leadership gave rousing speeches. Terry and his wife, Dorothy, both gave speeches. We stormed the stage a few times. It was an epic night. The next day, there was another brunch. This time at 3rd Street Diner. Another farewell that hurt.    

That's Terry giving a speech in the RAIN (Credit to I'esha)

   Another 3 month gap, though I saw a lot more of these guys in between than the last time, and we reunite for my second Inauguration in two years. So, of course, it rains. For two hours, we all sat in the rain. Watching all our hard work come to fruition. A Democratic Sweep was sworn into office that day. It was amazing. The better thing is when Terry came up to speak the rain let up. It was like a little sign from the Big Guy that we were on the right track. I was more excited for Herring to take his oath to be honest because it had been a fight to get him in the seat of Attorney General with the recount and the potential shady dealings. It was a sweet victory. That night we had the Inaugural Ball. It was not quite as fun as I would've liked. We all dressed up super fancy. Looked amazing. It was definitely more of a schmoozing event than an actual dance ball. We mingled. Took the necessary pictures. I may have avoided people from my past as effectively as possible. Overall, it was nice, but we were in need of some real celebration. Good thing Terry planned a staff after party and provided shuttles.

Team Michion at the Ball

  When the time came it was a mass exodus to the Staff After Party across town. That is when it got really fun. Robby Mook met us there and came on EVERY bus to welcome people as they came. We arrived still in our finest and started the real celebration. The music was loud, food abundant, and drinks flowing. I danced with my home region, Region 6, and of course our neighbors Region 4. I tried with all my might to get my fellow SD 33 organizers to dance. I failed miserably. I definitely danced right in front of them a few times. Terry came and gave his speech. He made his requests and danced a bit. We all had an obscene amount of fun and I'll definitely count that night among the most fun I have had. I was with all my favorite people and I will always love that. 

   For Jennifer Wexton's campaign we were not sure when we would get to go and either celebrate or be together in our sorrow. Insanely, Results were in by 9pm. I got a burst of energy, probably just adrenaline, and changed into some fancy clothes and headed to the venue for our victory party. This was my favorite Victory Party. We walked around. Enjoyed each others' company. Talked about what had happened and what was next. It was just a great feeling. This is my favorite day in Campaign World. We deserved it so much. This was the best team I ever worked with and likely will ever work with. It was so bittersweet the next day when so many of them were leaving for home so soon. I will miss them the most. 

   So that's what it's like to celebrate a win. We have fun. We enjoy each other. We become and are family. 

From the Eyes of a Bystander

   I am going to talk about something that happened to me a while back. Above you see pictured one of my favorite cities in the world, Boston. Last year I spent April, May, and part of June in this amazing city. I didn't think I would like it much when I first decided to go up there for my job. I thought I would become a human popsicle to be honest. We southerners do not do well in the cold. I got over that soon though because the people I was with were amazing and the job I was doing was something I really believed in.

   Boston is an amazing city. It's very different from DC and New York and, even, my native Virginia Beach. It's beautiful in a dingy sort of way. It's very old feeling. The people there are kind, but also tough as nails. It's a liberal's paradise too. I spent time there in one of my former job's headquarters working on our summer recruitment project. Turns out I am really good at convincing people that canvassing and fundraising is important. I loved what I was doing every day.

   While I was there the organization I worked with picked up a contract to petition for the American Lung Association in a few of our cities to get signatures in support of a bill that would work to decrease sulfur emissions in cars, which are a leading cause in asthma in young children. One of those cities was Boston. We had the perfect opportunity. The Boston Marathon was that week and we would make a killing because who cares more about clean air than runners who depend on it and their families? No one really.

   So on Marathon Monday we were out at different parts of the route talking to people. People were really responsive and it was pretty fun. A nice change from being stuck in the office all day. The day went on. I spoke to so many people that day. People waiting for their loved ones to cross the finish line, old marathon veterans, the runners themselves, people who came from all over to watch or participate. It was amazing. I even saw some re-enactors in full colonial dress with muskets and buckled shoes. 

   That's why when I heard a loud BOOM!! come from a few blocks away I thought it was a cannon. It startled me a bit, but I assumed it was just some re-enactment stuff. I decided to go check on my other canvassers anyway. I find one of them as I walk up the street and she asked me what happened. I said "Oh I think it was just a cannon." Then she told me to turn around. There was smoke billowing up from 3 blocks away. That's when I decided we needed to find the rest of our group. I still remember thinking "How is this happening in Boston? I'm not in DC, what is this." We found them and upon further discussion decided to head back to the office. All we knew was that there was an explosion at the finish line and it was probably a better idea to leave the area. We started walking in the direction of the office and at one point got caught in something of a stampede. People got startled and started running. We got through a barricade and got out of the main body of people as soon as we could and headed for Boston Commons. We tried calling our office but the cell lines were shut down because far too many people were trying to call on them. 

   We watched families find each other. People walk almost in a daze. Others crying and visibly shaken. I held the hand of one of our canvassers the entire walk back. I didn't want to lose anyone if people started running again. I probably needed the comfort too. Maybe she did. I remember feeling my phone vibrate and there being a notification from the Virginian-Pilot (before NY Times or BBC or Al Jazeera) that there had been an explosion at the Boston Marathon. We made it back to the office safely. We made it upstairs and no one knew what had happened yet. I had gotten a call from one of my coworkers who worked on the upper floor of our office and frantically told someone to call her and tell her we were okay. I almost walked upstairs to do it myself. I made the calls that needed to be made. Told my parents I was okay. Told my sisters. Told my friends in the DC office who had been freaking out. Then I went back to work. 

   They brought in a psychiatrist the next day to talk to us and make sure we were okay. We talked about how we felt and what our reactions were. I stayed after because I was a little confused. I asked the psychiatrist why I didn't feel more scared. Why I felt okay just a day later. He told me it was because I had handled it. I talked to people about it. He told me I was more prepared than others for this by being a military brat who lived through 9/11 and having gone to high school so close the Virginia Tech. I had dealt with high stress situations before and I knew what to do for my psyche to handle it. I'm not sad to hear this, but it's a little weird to be told that you've lived such an eventful life that you can handle being so close to a bombing. 

   Here's the reality of what happened. Two brothers, who happened to be radicalize muslims, planted bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line. Those bombs went off injuring a large amount of people even killing a few. The people of Boston took no time to run in and help those people. They picked people up and carried them to the hospital. The runners who were still coming in didn't stop there. They ran straight to the hospital to give blood. People opened up their businesses and homes to complete strangers. Life went on. The bad guys were caught. Boston is the toughest city I've ever been to. Tough as nails. It was hit and stood back up to lay its own punches.

   To this day I still get emotional when I read about it or people remember it on TV or online. I can't handle the sound of cannons. Recently, at the Virginia Gubernatorial Inauguration, I did not realize they were going to set off cannons and the first one nearly sent me into a panic attack. My intern let me squeeze her hand through the whole thing. The whole time I was hoping they weren't going to set them off for the number of governors we've had (it was the 72nd Gubernatorial Inauguration). I like many others will live with that experience my whole life. It's the closest I ever been to that kind of traumatic event. 

   I'm not writing this for sympathy or your praise. I just know that people really don't understand what happened that day if they weren't there. I'm writing this from my eye witness experience so that you can see what it felt like for people and what it looked like from the eyes of a bystander. Do what you will with this, but it has been on my mind since they announced that the case was under way for one of those brothers. People are asking if they are going to ask for the death penalty and so forth. I will be candid with you. I hope they don't. I don't believe in capital punishment and never will. This kid needs help. Give it to him. 

   So that is all I have to say on this. I never wrote about it before because I seamlessly slipped back into campaign life because my other coping mechanism is to throw myself into my work. So now you know.