I have never recruited a member of my party to run against an incumbent Democrat in an election, including Dottie. Dottie informed me about two years ago she was thinking of running for county clerk. She was frustrated about the confusion citizens faced when trying to vote. She also felt there should be more information coming out of the clerk's office.

I will tell you readers what I told her. "I will have nothing to do with your decision. I will support your decision and you 100 percent. I will be as active as you want me to be in your campaign, if you decide to pursue the office." You see, Dottie and I started dating in 1972. That was the first year I officially took part in a campaign; answering a newspaper ad to stuff envelopes for a direct mail piece for soon-to-be State Rep. Joe Norvell.

The past 36 years, she has supported my efforts in local campaigns, appointments to various boards and committees, my own election to city commission and my all-time favorite position -- chairman of the Ellis County Democratic Party.

She asked me to manage her campaign, and I was proud to do it. And I was very proud of her and the campaign she ran.

There are always a lot of underlying stories to a campaign. Twenty people showing up two different nights to stuff envelopes. Folks that volunteered to go door to door.

People that volunteer their yards for yard signs; and proudly so.

Some friends of ours told us they took their yard sign out to a party at Wilson Lake and it became the theme of the party as guests shouted at passersby to vote for Dottie. I never did check out how she did at the Lake Wilson precinct. I think their polling place was located at Cedar Bluff.

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Have you got Olympic fever? I haven't had it in decades. But it kind of snuck up on me this year. I didn't have it on Sunday for water polo, but Monday or Tuesday, there it was. Maybe, it was the record-smashing swimming of Michael Phelps. That aside, besides the swimming, there I was watching gymnastics last night.

I'm sure many folks will remember the day when watching the Olympics was almost a requirement; and the entire family watched together. But we only had one really clear television channel, the lucky number 7 (CBS). If you had a decent antenna and the weather was just right, you could get channel 2 (NBC) somewhat clear. And if you had an antenna that would dwarf a wind tower -- and the moon, the sun and stars were all in proper alignment, you could get a snowy ABC channel, which I believe was 11.

For you younger folks, I'll apologize for my trip down memory lane. For those of you my age and older, I can almost see your heads nodding in nostalgic agreement.

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After a local election, there is always the argument of the winner of the yard sign battle.

I think I can answer this objectively. Clearly the "Divorced Catholic" yard signs set the pace. I think they even won a precinct chair spot on the east side of town.

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A story I pulled off the Internet from the Topeka Capital-Journal reported four prominent Kansans would skip their respective national conventions. The four included Sen. Pat Roberts and his opponent, Jim Slattery, along with Congressman Nancy Boyda and her opponent, current State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins.

The story went on to report that U.S. Sen. Larry Craig will skip the Republican National Convention that just happens to be in St. Paul , Minn.; obviously some bad memories flying into that airport.

May I suggest he attend the Democratic National Convention. The beer is cheaper at the Denver airport, and the restrooms are cleaner.

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Note: For those that do not reside in the Hays area, a few notes on today’s blog:

2) Wilson Lake is 60 miles east of Hays and Cedar Bluff is 40 miles west of Hays. One of Dottie’s themes was to place voters’ residences closer to polling places. Some voters in Hays drive buy their polling place within a mile to vote in polling places over 5 miles from their homes.