Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Joe The Plumber Moment

Have you ever met a political candidate at the grocery store while wearing pajama pants? I bet that you are thinking that I’m writing about a personal experience. You would be correct. After coming home from work last night, I changed into pajama pants and a T-shirt and ate dinner. Then, I walked over to the grocery store to pick up some very important items such as milk, bananas, and Apple Jacks. Just outside the store, I noticed a guy wearing a suit handing out flyers and introducing himself to everyone walking in and out. The guy turned out to be Mark Ellmore, a candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 8th district. He handed me a flyer as I entered the store. As I was grabbing Kleenex and frozen vegetables (and forgetting to pick up granola), I started reading said flyer. The first thing I wondered was the political party of Mr. Ellmore. It was difficult to find as Mr. Ellmore is a Republican. I’m sure this is something that he does not want to promote in Northern Virginia, the "fake" portion of Virginia.



As I checked out, I decided that if Mr. Ellmore was still outside, I should ask him something as it’s not everyday when I can talk directly to a political candidate. Luckily for me, he was there. So wearing my pajama pants and carrying my two bags of groceries, I asked him about the #1 issue facing Northern Virginians: transportation. He said that he supports extending Metro to Reston and that the incumbent Jim Moran has done nothing about this in his eighteen years in Congress. He did switch away from criticizing Moran back to transportation and said that he would support getting federal funds for Metro. I may be a little off on the exact quote but he said that Metro funding was not an entitlement or an earmark but a necessity. I agree with everything he said about transportation; I just wish that he didn’t start by criticizing his opponent.

Ellmore then he went back to handing out flyers and introducing himself to more voters as I’m sure that he didn’t want to talk too long to a guy wearing pajama pants.


Photo from Mark Ellmore for Congress.

5 comments:

Joey Porter’s Pit Bulls said...

Sounds like a Jeffrey Lebowski moment.

Is Northern Virgina considered "pro-America"?

gmr2048 said...

This guy must be making the rounds on the grocery store circuit. I saw him in front of a Safeway a few weeks back.

If you run across him again, ask him about his years touring in the metal band. Seriously. I don't know how we ended up on the subject, but he's a metalhead from way back. And he loves to talk about it. I suspect pajama pants wouldn't deter him.

Anonymous said...

if i understand correctly, nova is anti-american and not part of "real virginia"

barb said...

love the comedy central clip! and that you shop in pajama pants! gotta hang on to the college days!

Sean said...

Joey & Jason - Yes, I believe that Northern Virginia is considered anti-American.

GMR2048 - Thanks for the link. It's interesting to note that Ellmore does not state anywhere on his website where or if he attended college. He does say that his daughter is attending Marymount University. He was at Giant last night; maybe tonight it will be Harris Teeter!

Barb - Um yeah, college days. I don't think I wore pajama pants in college, although I did wear Animaniac slippers.