"I spent the day helping my son in his vineyard today. He lives in the country but a couple of neighbors dropped by to see what we were doing and say hello. Did I say he lives in Eric Cantor's district? Of course I had to ask them why they canned Cantor. The responses were all over the map, but one thing that came up I found very interesting and is our favor. One of the huge mistakes he made was constituent attention. It seems the general consensus in Hanover County is that he paid no attention to the people who elected him. We know that to be true - my son wrote him two letters asking that he meet with us to discuss our hobby distilling legislation and got no response to either letter.

I was surprised when I got an email on Friday from Senator's Warner's office asking for a copy of our proposal. I had sent a follow up email about a month ago telling him about the TTB raids in Florida and the formation of the Hobby Distiller's Association. My first letter to him last fall resulted in a phone call telling me they could not help us. The lesson here is that maybe the DC cats got the message that they need to pay more attention to the folks back home. I suggest that everyone send a follow-up email to their Congressional representatives because they just might be listening now that the word has gotten out that the voters are expecting attention to their concerns or else!

Tom"

Both parties need to sit up and pay very close attention.