Thank You!

Let's see, a 77-year old woman deciding to run against a 22-year incumbent - that's either great bravery or total madness! Yet, when I made the decision, it seemed perfectly rational to me. It's not easy to explain, but I felt like that was what I was supposed to do with my life, at that point. Of course, two weeks later the incumbent stepped down and other people saw an open seat - the dynamic changed. And I asked myself, you really want to do this? The answer was a resounding "yes."

Well the results are in and I am not the winner. In my lifetime, I've won and I've lost. While winning is better, losing is not the end of the world either. I am glad I ran because it gave me a platform to talk about the problems facing our America today:

• the danger of losing our democracy;
• the importance of Democrats being regarded as the honorable opposition – rather than traitors to the America we all love;
• the importance of understanding and dealing with present immigration issues in the light of our history as a “nation of immigrants”;
• the importance of ending the occupation of Iraq;
• the importance of supporting the public education system;
• the importance of developing a system that delivers health care to all Americans.

I will support Gabrielle Giffords who won the right to face off against a radical, right wing Republican. I have delivered some pens to her office so they will be able to work hard to put a Democrat in Congress from this Congressional District on November 7!

Thank you to everyone who contributed money to my campaign. As I promised, this was a very frugal campaign and you can rest assured that your money was spent very carefully.

I am not leaving the political scene. For now, victory for Democrats on November 7 is at the top of my list. I'll let you know what I plan to do after that.

Thank you to all of you who helped make my campaign possible.