We’d like to thank all of you for attending this weekend’s Headquarters opening. 337 of you braved the newly two-way Stone Avenue and limited parking to celebrate with us. A special thank you goes out to all of you that filled out volunteer cards.

Starting next week, the office will be open in the evenings. Feel free to stop by 452 S Stone after you are done with work. After next week, we will be having regular office hours.

Remember, we are only three weeks away from THE GRAN MARCHA. We will be doing this on June 1st at 4 PM. Expect a phone call to remind you about this important event.

Many of you know Natalie Luna, who has served as my press aide both for the congressional office and the campaign. Natalie gave birth to her first child Lily this weekend. All reports are that Natalie and Lily are doing fine. Congratulations to Natalie and her husband Joshua.

Yes, you’ve gotten the post cards, e-mails and phone calls. Here is one more reminder:

As all of you know, we are doing walks every week out of our campaign office on 452 S Stone Avenue Saturdays at 9:00 AM. What is interesting is that this week, that section of Stone Avenue will for the first time in over a generation be a two-way street.

There has been ongoing construction in the area to accomodate the change. Since we haven’t had any big events at the office yet, this hasn’t created any big problems for volunteers. Although, I think I saw one staff member try to make a left turn out of the parking lot…

Although we have had the usual trip-ups involving plumbing and electicity that always seem to happen when you move into a place that has been empty for a while, this headquarters is one of the more interesting places we have run our campaign out of. For years, it was a tile shop. I think they used the floor as a way to show off their creations, since the larger rooms feature sections with different styles of tile. There is also a second bathroom outside that has a shower. Yes, a shower.

Another advantage: it is a straight drive of a bit more than half a mile to Le Caves.

It’s a very nice building, but just quirky enough to fit in on the list of unusual places we have had offices. The first congressional campaign office I had back in 2002 had a storage area in the back bounded by chain link fence. Our running joke at the beginning of the campaign was deciding who would have to work in “the cage.” We managed to fix that place up good, and it now serves as my official district office.

The 2004 campaign office was in the standard issue space-in-the-older-strip-center that you see on many campaigns. It was a bit cramped, but we were able to accomodate gatherings of volunteers just fine. It also was walking distance from the Safeway for those days when we needed to make quick runs for volunteer food.

The 2006 campaign was housed in an old Wendy’s on South 6th. The tables and grills were all out, but you could tell by the counter and dividers what the place used to be. The vault-like meat cooler, no longer working, was still there. Once again, we were always joking with the staff about who would be exiled there. I think this is the only time I had a campaign office with a drive through window.

Those of you that have worked our campaigns before know that we have traditionally had a children’s play area. We have one this year too, complete with a Bob the Builder doll. We like to keep our campaigns family friendly so volunteers don’t have to find babysitters when they want to make calls one night.

We still have limited hours at the office, but keep in mind that the official opening will be on May 3rd. We’ll have more details of this on here and our e-mail updates.

Last week’s walk, even with the wind, was a great success. Thank you to all of you who were able to attend, including City Councilmember Regina Romero and State Representative Tom Prezelski. For those of you who were not able to make it, we will be doing another walk this weekend. Like last week, we will be meeting at the campaign office at nine AM. We will be feeding you before you leave, and feeding you again when you get back. Don’t worry about the waistline, you’ll get plenty of exercise gathering signatures.

(Remember that address: 452 S Stone Avenue)

I am planning to make it back to Tucson this weekend, so I will be walking too. The way the airlines have been the past few weeks, maybe I shouldn’t be so sure about it…

On a related note, the petitions themselves will be due on June 4th. Even though we will be gathering signatures every weekend between now and then, get ready for our 4th GRAN MARCHA. That’s right, we need one hundred people to help us on Sunday June 1st at 4 pm for our big final push. With a hundred people walking, if we each get ten signatures, that is ONE THOUSAND SIGNATURES! This will also be a great chance to help other candidates in our political familia to cross the finish line and get on the ballot.

I can now give you the location of our headquarters. It will be at 452 S Stone Avenue, which is just a between Kennedy and Simpson. Even though you are free to stop by, remember that the official opening will not be until May 3rd, when the headquarters will be fully staffed during business hours.

Tommorrow is the annual César Chávez March. We will be gathering at Pueblo High School around 9 AM and marching to Joe Garcia Park. At the park will be a rally that includes speakers and food. For more information, you can check out the Arizona César E. Chávez Holiday Coalition’s website.

We will be opening our headquarters soon. We’d like to wait to make an official announcement about the place until we have the electricity turned on and it is fit for human habitation.

Okay, that is an exaggeration.

Like I said, we are waiting for the place to be ready before we post an address, but it will be on Stone Avenue on the Southern edge of downtown.

I’d also like to invite you all to Supervisor Richard Elías’s campaign kick-off party. It will be tonight at 5:30 over at the IBEW Hall at 750 S. Tucson Boulevard. Richard has been a good friend and a political ally for a long time. I’ll be there extending my best wishes to the entire Elías clan.

The American Association of University Women released their congressional report for the last session and I’m pleased to say that I received a 100% rating from them. The votes that they reported on included votes on the minimum wage, employment discrimination and student aid.

As much as it is nice to be honored in such a way, a more important fact is that more than half of congress scored above 80%. This is a reflection of the priorities of our new majority in Congress.

At my Campaign Kickoff on February 21st, we heard Los Gallegos play Rosa Maria. Thanks to everyone for a splendid start to our 2008 campaign.

What are you doing reading this blog? You should be on the way to the El Casino Ballroom for my campaign kickoff. It starts at 5:30, so you have time to put on your dancing boots.