Time to get to work

This is a picture of my 4 daughters getting ready to march in the 2006 Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival Parade. (Notice the Nussle-VanderPlaats t-shirts.)

Election day is less than 90 days away. It is time to get to work. I would like to encourage each of my Republican readers to get out and work for a candidate. Of course for some of you, this is preaching to the choir. But for others, I hope this is the year that you decide to get involved.

How do you work for a candidate? You can go to their websites or go to the state party site and find your county contacts.

What type of work can you do? You can make phone calls, plant yard signs, walk in a parade, attend a county fair, host a fundraiser and a million other things.

Since I have a large family (eight kids) we have always enjoyed parades and lit drops. My kids like wearing Republican or candidate t-shirts and distributing candy along the parade routes. The other thing we do is lit drops. In a lit drop you distribute candidate literature to houses. My kids are old pros at it. We park the car and  Jaylee goes down the street to the right, Jason goes to the left and the youngest, Josie walks straight ahead with me. As a four person team we are able to knock out our area quickly.

Of course my kids know that at the end of every parade route or lit drop there is a Dairy Queen! If you are a longtime Republican worker then I encourage you to keep the faith — let's get out there and support our candidates. But if you have been watching politics from the sidelines, now is a great time to jump in. You can even have fun (and a Dairy Queen Blizzard) in the process.