Francis is far too busy helping candidate Angelo Maragos get elected today to post this stuff, so we’ll be updating these as we go along.  First one above the fold: if we’re blessed with a fair, clean election presence from the WFP/ACORN/Democrats, this will be the only one.  if not, updates will be under them.

Yes, expect to check back often.

6:26 AM: One of my [again, this is Francis writing - ML] campaign workers just went to vote. Sure enough: “Republican? Sorry sir, the voting machine is broken. You’ll have to fill out an affidavit ballot.” EXCEPT that affidavits are for people who assert their eligibility rather than having it proved by the presence of a signature in the registration book. He has to fill out an EMERGENCY ballot, not an affidavit. We dashed a person over there, chewed them out viciously, and they fixed the machine. We also howled at the opposition’s campaign manager who was brazenly doing some illegal electioneering. And we reamed out the cop whose job it is to prevent electioneering for being late to arrive.

It’s going to be a very long day.

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I think of the RedState community as my extended family, and I’m grateful to all of you for reading my past missives on markets and finance. I’ve been all but absent from the front page for months now, and I owe you an explanation.

First, my businesses have been performing very well this year, and being a CEO is time-consuming. Second, and more interesting to most of you, is that I’ve bitten the poisoned apple of electoral politics.

My wife, Paula Hostetter, was engaged as the campaign manager to Angelo Maragos, a young businessman who embarked on the seemingly quixotic task of running as a Republican for New York City Council. I got sucked in because a political campaign needs management-type people who can build a strong team quickly, and there I was.

I’m tremendously proud of Paula, who has run a tough, disciplined campaign against the longest possible odds (more on that in a moment). We definitely broke through the clutter to reach our voters. We ran a multi-dimensional campaign that was long on organization and strategy. I can tell you that the last few years of hanging around the assorted political junkies and professionals that comprise RedState’s contributor roster, gave us insights that paid off big-time.

I’d like to say that tomorrow the voters of western Queens will decide whether we made the sale. That’s where the picture gets complicated.

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