For the past year, I've worked on the campaign of John Laesch. I was never under the assumption that defeating the income-bent Speaker of the House would be easy. Nevertheless, I was upset when I found out that John lost the election.

John's campaign slogan was "Revive the American Dream!" Now, I would say that the principle American ethic is to leave the world a better place for our children. Nearly all of us want our children to be better off than we are.

Building on this, the American Dream is a dream of hope. Things can and do get better, no matter how bad we have it. The patriots threw off the British rule. The abolitionists succeeded in bringing the South back into the Union and ending slavery. Oligopolies and monopolies were busted. Fascism was defeated. Social services were instituted. Things get better. There is hope for our future.

I say that I won in this election because John Laesch brought hope. I won because when I stepped into the voting booth to fill-in my ballot, I cast my vote for whom I thought was best fit to serve the office. I won because I had the privilege of voting for Jonathan "John" Laesch. Never before had I ever been as excited and proud to vote.

I won because I was able to volunteer for John, to feel like I was an integral part of a team bent on reviving and fulfilling the American Dream.

I won because through the campaign I made many new friends: Carolyn, both the Joes, Ben, Laura, Dick, Lisa, Steve, Jim, Jimi, Sue, Robyn, Onyx, and John Laesch and his lovely fiancée Jen. Thank you all. I would gladly do it all over again.

Thanks for the hope.