Another great find in Douglas this past weekend. This would have been from my mom's third and final term on the Douglas City Council. She spent 12 years on the council. This was 1992 so her term was up in 1996. She was 79 in her last year.
The first time that she ran, I was still teaching. But I took three personal days and took my kids down to Douglas. I wanted them to participate in her election and the whole process. I felt it was important because it was their grandma and because of the importance of voting and civic responsibility.
It was so much fun the day of the election. Teresa, my mom, myself and a lot of volunteers picked up people and drove them to the polls to vote. My mom was checking off names on the list of registered voters and making phone calls to those on the list to make sure that they voted. It was a great lesson on democracy for them (and me, too)!
She was running against an incumbent the first time. It is sometimes difficult to beat an incumbent. However, my mom had a lot of respect in Douglas.
When the polls closed, we went up to where they were counting the votes. Of course, things were so different in the 80's. Votes had to be counted by hand.
She won by a very large majority and I remember the party at our house that night. The house was completely full and the celebration was so much fun.
I remember when she first decided to run, I was down there and we went around and got advertisements taken care of. My favorite one was when we went over to Agua Prieta and had one of the stations there do announcements in Spanish to vote for her.
She ran two more times after that and each time she had someone run against her and each time she won!!!
She loved being on the City Council and she was Vice-Mayor for much of that time. Liz Ames was the Mayor.
When we spent our summers in Douglas, she was on the phone a lot, going to meetings, etc. It was almost a full time job for her. I believe she was paid $100 a month.
I never had any aspirations for running for office. However, when I made the decision to run for GPS Governing Board, I knew she would have been very proud and would have come and helped me. And I know she would have loved how many votes I got in this conservative community!!
I have thought that I may only run for one term, but with how things are going in our District now, I may consider another run.
As for me, it has been an almost full time job for the last several months. And board members don't get paid anything. However, I have had the time to devote to it. I guess I learned from the best!!!
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