Saturday evening, I had the joy of traveling with one of my daughters to Lock Haven for the Clinton County Lincoln Day Dinner. It was a delightful event emceed by the County Chairman, Kurt Smith, who managed to keep a great pace with timely and wry humor.

There were five other candidates for the same office, along with various members of their campaign teams. Each of the candidates was given a few minutes to speak.

When it was all said and done, I felt two things. I felt that all of the candidates were good and decent people. And I felt that I had done well for a political newcomer.

This morning, I was pleased to read the following from reporter Mike Joseph in the Centre Daily Times:

“The most focused and polished of Saturday night’s presentations came from the farthest away. Keith Richardson, a Baptist minister, drove about 120 miles from Clarion in the western part of the 5th District to Lock Haven in the east and used his five minutes to put a spotlight on the nation’s economy. He said a million seconds equals 11.5 days, and a trillion seconds equals 31,688 years. ‘That’s the difference between a million and a trillion, and we are $9.2 trillion in debt,’ he said, calling for an immediate moratorium on earmarks, a reference to congressional rules that require approved funds to be spent on specific projects.

‘We need to put the economy back in shape, and the fastest way to do that is to rein in the culture of earmark spending,’ Richardson said. ‘What they’re doing is using your tax dollars to buy their re-election. … We are spending ourselves into ruin.’”

With three candidates coming out of Centre County, I’m grateful to get a fair shake from the newspaper there.

I am also delighted that three people afterwards said that I would be their candidate of choice. They volunteered to join our team and help in any way they could. Thank you, Jack, Jerome and Randy.

I’d love to touch base with you, too, and perhaps schedule a TableTalks. It’s a small output of time and effort that yields huge benefits for a grassroots campaign like ours. How about hosting one?