Thanksgiving 2006: I have 1,616,945 individuals to be personally thankful for this Thanksgiving Day. Each provided an opportunity to build a plurality for me to be the people’s next elected lieutenant governor of Texas. I am short of words to express how thankful I am to each of you that helped gather a people to get out and vote. Yet, I am not short on the enduring passion that each of you supplied to sustain me over 16 months of our campaign.

This election year, Americans in other states voted their hearts and minds, enough to change the “my way or the highway” leadership in our country. I suggest that Texans contributed to the collective consciousness that led to the change in other parts of this country. Change in our own backyard is going to take a little longer.

An email from a friend served as a reminder on the best use of my commodity of time. She wrote, “I and everyone I know voted for you! Alas, I need to get out and know more people.” The key to winning in Texas remains a need to increase the electorate. I know that time is the most important commodity that a candidate has to spend on the people when one wishes to remain a candidate of the people. Therefore, if 16 months of campaigning is good for 1,616,945 votes, then 48 months should add a vote or two to that vote count.  

Short of the most votes needed to report to Austin as the newly elected Lt. Governor does not make irrelevant the need to have the voices of all Texans heard in our state capitol. It does not make irrelevant the need to ensure that our state government addresses the long-overdue need to ensure the prosperity of future generations of Texans with a soundly funded public education system, with financial resources for those that seek college, and a living wage that is morally right. It does not make irrelevant the many other issues that are important to Texans. Therefore, this campaign for Lt. Governor is not over until all Texans win.

I invite you to pledge your support for my 2010 campaign for Lt. Governor. I will continue to do the ground work needed to invite all our citizens to make our home One Texas for All. Details about the resumption of our campaign for Lt. Governor are forthcoming. In the meantime, I hope for you, and those most precious to you, many reasons to be thankful this year and always.

Looking forward, maria