Two tanks of gas, seven campaign stops (not counting the victory parties) and nine collective coffees later, the election is over and my roadtrip with P has come to an end.

In the end, we had some wins and some losses.  P’s organization had an 85% success rate overall, but a lot of the races that we didn’t win were either really close or really close to impossible, given the anti-incumbent political climate.  Regardless of the final outcome, it was great to be back on the campaign trail and getting my hands dirty with direct political action.  Call me crazy, but I love canvassing even more than phone banking, and phone banking even more than holding signs (not least of all because the first and last activities are outside but only one gives you the ability to run around and keep your toes from freezing!).  I love talking to voters, waving at cars, and leaving cheery reminder messages on answering machines around the state.

At the end of the day, I am optimistic about the future of women in politics, though I am disappointed by the results across the country and especially in my home state of NH, where only our gov kept his post.  I am glad that this election had such high voter turnout, but I don’t think the right information got to voters, in the end.  I think that in the Stewart vs. Colbert sense, fear triumphed over sanity.  But that’s democracy; I just hope we can still get things accomplished in the next few years because that’s what we elected these people to do: to govern, not to sit around and bicker.

The jury is still out on whether or not P and I could survive each other for more than 48 hours at a time a la Project Campaign Camper.  More on that in the next update!