Thank You!
Hello, everyone. I want to thank every one of you, from the bottom of my heart, who helped me in so many ways to answer the call, fight the good fight, and finish the campaign.
I also want to thank the well over fourteen thousand voters who honored me with their vote to have me serve as State Senator for District 12. I am humbled by it and very grateful.
I told the reporter for Patuxent Publishing Tuesday night that I feel good about the campaign. It was a life-giving experience for me, it put a “bounce in my step” (as Larry says). I hope, in some way, it did the same for each one of you. I have so many stories to share of God’s faithfulness to me throughout the campaign—what I like to call the “fingerprints of God.”
I would like to share a few with you. An elderly man with a walker told my mother at Arbutus Middle School on Election Day that if he were dying and had to “crawl on all fours,” he would have come “to vote for Rick.” A widow on whose door we knocked while canvassing joined and energized the team during the home stretch and emailed Kim and me after the results came in that we are “lights to the world. Keep on shining!” Another widow, a former neighbor, after hearing Jack Ames’ wonderful endorsement on WRBS radio, delivered my palm piece to folks around Columbia Mall the weekend before the election telling her “friends and neighbors” that I was a mentor for her son after her husband died leaving her with four young children, taking him to ballgames, Saturday morning breakfast with my own son, anywhere we could spend time together, asking them to vote for me because “he’s a man of integrity whose allegiance doesn’t drift like shifting sand; you can count on him to be on the side of family values, wise fiscal spending and decency.”
I have been deeply touched by these and many others. How could I not be renewed by this campaign experience? We gave the citizens a choice, and they have chosen. In my opinion the majority has chosen wrongly; however, it is now time to move forward and pray for those who will be put in power over us.
I promise you I will never be the same for having had the opportunity to run. I will be ever vigilant, awake and watchful to make sure that we are governed competently and justly.
I called Senator Kasemeyer on Thursday November 9, 2006 and congratulated him on his victory. I thanked him for the gentlemanly way he ran his campaign. I wished him well in the next four years and offered my help if needed in serving the residents of Catonsville and Arbutus—where I live and work. I also gave him the heads-up that Kim was going to make clear to him, as our Senator, our abhorrence of partial birth abortion.
In closing, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you did for me. Special thanks go to my wife, treasurer, scheduling secretary- my everything- Kim, I could not have done this – or anything without her; and Larry my campaign manager and best friend - I feel they gave me their “kidneys”, and many others - you know who you are - I am grateful to God for all of you - and will pray for you, the citizens of District 12, and for all in the great state of Maryland. God bless.
Rick Martel
11.10.06
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