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After a Long Day, a Rookie Candidate Is Left to His Homework
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Then the cell phone rang -- an interruption that can bog down a thank-you note writing marathon if one is not selective. Katherine answered. It was Craddock's brother, Brian.
"Can you talk to him?" she asked her husband before talking again to Brian. "Only for a second. He's writing thank-you notes. Do you have something of substance that can be said to him?"
Craddock, laughing, quickly dealt with the call and moved on.
Here was a $1,000 check from Alex Vogel and Jill Holtzman Vogel -- he's a lobbyist-attorney, and she's a former chief counsel to the Republican National Committee who is running for state Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr.'s seat in 2007.
But many checks came from less-familiar names, people or political action committees, or associations pressing political interests.
He examined the $250 check from a PAC called Friends of the Elephant, his left hand rubbing his temple, as he wondered who was behind this mysterious Virginia Beach-based organization. "I think I cold-called lobbyists or friends on a list who agreed on certain issues," he said.
"Do we even know?" Katherine asked.
"I think he was a friend of Cuccinelli's," Craddock said, referring to state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax), for whom he used to volunteer.
When Craddock was done writing a letter, Katherine folded it and stuck it into an envelope. She occasionally needled him. "If I wrote them, they'd never get done," Katherine said to her husband. "You're a guy. You can get away with writing shorter notes. Do you know cursive? I don't think I've ever seen you write cursive."
"Yeah. It's a hybrid," he said sheepishly.
Close to midnight, it became clear he wouldn't finish all the notes, so Craddock prepared to call it quits. But not before he wrote a letter to his close friend Josh Lineberger.
"Dear Josh, Thank you so much for your generosity," he wrote. "I really appreciate all of your help. Your the man Chris."
The sign-off contained a grammatical error ("Your") that, perhaps because it was so late, the candidate did not catch. At least the thank-you note was going to his close friend.
