It’s been awhile, yes, it’s me again, Sherri Welsh. I’m the wife of Barry and also aka Congressional Candidates Wife.
First and foremost, I need to say "Thank you" to everyone that have supported Barry in his efforts to unseat Mike Pence in Indiana’s 6th Congressional District. My thanks is heartfelt and sincere and with out question from the bottom of my toes to the top of my head.
I’m not sure how anyone is going to feel about this diary nor even what to do. So here’s what I’m thinking – I’ll write my diary, put it on here. I do not have any expectations, if anyone wants to read it, comment, I will as always appreciate the fact that someone reads it and I’ll be grateful for any comments that anyone wishes to leave. My intent is to tell it how it really is and maybe it will be cathartic or maybe helpful? I’m just going to apologize up front for any improper grammar, sentence structure, spelling errors or anything else my English teacher would grade me on.
Here goes:
For the past 3 election cycles Barry has ran for State Senate and then for Indiana’s 6th District twice. Barry has nothing to be ashamed of, he literally gave all that he had to his efforts and for that I am very proud of him. I will always be very proud of him.
Where I have a problem is this – we campaigned not only for his campaign but he campaigned on MANY other candidates campaigns at their request, their promises to help in joint efforts because we really needed change. Barry campaigned and was visibly active in every single county (all 19 of them) campaigning for his campaign and everyone up and down the ticket from Mayors to Presidential races.
While we had a phenomenal army of people on the ground volunteering their time, effort, sweat and I mean sweat to make all the events happen, for organizing, creating and utilizing ground breaking technology in a political campaign, the massive effort to make sure we had press and all the rest of the "stuff" to pull off a successful campaign. We had Pence worried up till the afternoon of Election Day – he was really worried he was losing and then the results came in, most every campaign we helped made it in.
We unfortunately didn’t get the help as promised, volunteers at the polling stations that we made arrangements to jointly work with, were not there. Fundraising efforts that were promised were withheld. The 6th District Chair of the Democratic party refused to provide monies designated for the 6th District to Barry’s campaign in spite of an almost all out war from the rest of the committee. I can go on ad nausea but I’ll spare you. In a nutshell, there were some factions that didn’t work out. We took a hit financially, which we know that is the risk when running for office. But what really pisses me off is that the ONLY call Barry got the next day after the election from anyone politically was his opponent. The opponent fervently promised he’d help Barry with anything he wanted; he said he would do what ever he could to help Barry get a job. OUCH! Do I sound a little bitter? I hope not. Barry was promised A LOT and of course the old adage "what do you expect, it’s Politics!" I’m not naïve, I’m idealistic, I’m positive and I truly believe in "what comes around goes around" and I’m sure that when a door closes another one opens. I admit it’s been a very tough year and I have to remind myself of this constantly. I don’t feel sorry for us – this is the reality of POLITICS – so the moral of the story? Plan for the worst and Hope for the best – work smart and you can never do wrong by doing what is right. Treat people the way you want to be treated and don’t be personally disappointed if people let you down. The ultimate accountability falls on the candidate and Barry has always been the first and last to claim it.
Here’s the thing – Barry found out that Evan Bayh was resigning his seat and was told that Pence would be the choice to go for the seat which would then leave Pence’s seat open. The only democrat opposing Pence was the same gentleman that ran against Pence (consecutively) as 1) a Republican 2) a Libertarian (last time) and now as 3) a Democrat. The Democratic Party had almost 18 months to find another candidate and did nothing. Barry felt that he really didn’t feel this person was the one to represent the party in a bid for the seat if open and represent our district. So what did Barry do? At the end of the filing period, he put in his name for the Primary election. Ask me if I was mad? YES!!!! This from the man who sat in a job interview that day and the interviewer’s first words were "I hate you and all liberals too!" (I’ll save that for another diary).
Barry said he was not going to actively campaign, since we don’t have the money to fund another campaign he’s not been actively campaigning. The mileage alone is mind boggling. He’s not put out signs, etc. Since then Barry has been endorsed by the Fort Wayne paper, the primary "pseudo – Democrat" who was on the ticket has conceded to Barry and called a press conference announcing his withdrawal for health reasons and we wish him the best. He asked his supporters to support Barry. We are getting phone calls and emails from people for Barry to run an active campaign.
And here we are now........I don’t know if he should or shouldn’t. I honestly don’t know, part of me wants him to drop out and the other part wants him to kick butt and take names. So, talk to me – I need to either be talked off of the ledge (where I may verbally throttle my husband for the next 7 months) or should I be talked into jumping and landing in the middle of another Congressional race. I told Barry either withdraw or run like your life depends on it and win the dang race!
As always, this is just my perspective of a Congressional campaign in action from the inside out. This is my diary and is not vetted though the campaign.
I really appreciate your time and effort in reading this and all comments are always welcome.
Thank you!
Love,
Sherri Welsh
Congressional Candidates Wife