Pat Vunderink reached the end of a long battle with cancer Monday.
Pat was one of the first true believers in Howard Dean and played a huge role in herding us Deaniac cats through 2003. I've been with her in primaries and against her, and it was always better to be with her. She spent years doing the behind the scenes work of organizing and fundraisers and a lot of what we did wouldn't have happened without her. I just looked through my old inbox and found dozens of do-this, do-that messages that are little reminders of all Pat's work.
Here's an excerpt from one, sent two days after the 2004 caucuses:
I am so proud of the Dean people. We worked so hard. If my Dean caucus reflected how other caucuses worked I am amazed. We had all kinds of people in our group: young, old, rich, poor, doctors, lawyers, nurses, engineers, mothers, disabled, gay, straight, etc. It didn't look like that in other groups so much. For the most part people were cheerful about being stuffed in a too small, too hot room with lots of organized chaos. So many people had never, ever participated in a political event.
We all made so many amazing new friends. The staff in Johnson County was remarkable. We all became very close. I'd recommend all of them in a minute. I am so thankful for this past year. I think we even made a remarkable new friend--Howard Dean. It was a genuine tribute to our efforts and he pretty much started in Iowa City, and he closed his Iowa campaign here. I am thankful for his courage and sacrifice in doing this. He speaks to our hearts.
I look forward to continuing this journey. We are not done!
Send the good wishes of your belief system to Pat and her husband Hy Joseph.
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