TRAVEL

A few weeks ago Kathleen Thomas was driving home when her car started to make some funny noises. After getting it checked out she discovered that her break pads were completely gone and all four tires needed to be replaced. Scary to think she was driving all over Illinois without break pads!

The car troubles were a direct result of campaigning. Campaigning requires a lot of travel, that is a given. A huge percentage of the voters in Illinois live in Chicago, which of course means Dr. Thomas needs to go there a lot. Chicago is about a three and a half hour drive from her home in Springfield, and these days she is driving up there several times a week as well as other places around the state. I'm sure she sometimes wishes Illinois was the geographic size of Rhode Island, Oh well.

Part of her traveling is making sure she is traveling with someone. It is usually her campaign manager, fundraiser or her husband. When for whatever reason someone can not go with her the campaign arranges for a supporter to meet her there. You always need a travel buddy!

In all this traveling the most used devise is the GPS. Dr. Thomas finally broke down and bought one, although blames it for making her 30 minutes late to a meeting by telling her to take the back roads.

While traveling can be a headache it is the best campaign tool to actually meet people, which is kinda fun. At the end of all this however, Dr. Thomas is going to need to get a new car.

(note: the car pictured is not Dr. Thomas' car, but a helpful volunteer's)