Doug Sparks, a tough-as-nails D.C. lawyer, is in Richmond as part of a huge crew of attorneys that will be monitoring precincts and doing election protections tomorrow. This project got some big play in the Post a few days ago.

An Obama supporter, Sparks has been assigned to a polling precinct in Richmond. He has already traveled down to VA’s Cap. City Desk spoke with Sparks while he is in his hotel suite watching Hardball trying to “get my wind here before everybody arrives.” “It’s like redeployment for us,” Sparks says. Sparks and several other D.C. trial lawyers volunteered for this assignment.

“I’m resting up,” Sparks says. (He wants to be called Doug the Lawyer. Ha). “I got all my voter stuff spread out on the table. There’s all kinds of rules that you have to know. We got a big training manual. And all these voter rules. They say it’s going to be raining all day tomorrow. We’re going to load up on rain gear. We got to be out there from 5:30 until polls close at 7. It’s a very long day for those of us who are stationed outside the poll. I have one of those Coleman Lanterns for the morning. The polls open at 6. They want us there at 5:30-5:45 a.m.”

Sparks is pumped. “I want to be part of history. This is history. This is going to be the moment when everybody remembers where they were and what they were doing. I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Just driving down here was fantastic. I saw Obama signs hanging over 95 (overpasses). It makes you feel pretty good.”

We will be checking in with Sparks throughout the day tomorrow.

One day before the election, Obama’s grandmother dies at 86. Very sad news. The campaign has a statement, Huffington Post has a slide show. You can see both here.

This afternoon Southeast Capitol Hill resident Arthur Delaney kicked off his write-in campaign for a spot on the local advisory neighborhood commission. Delaney, who is me, is campaigning entirely on a pro-single-beers platform for 6B08.

Lately, the local political establishment is united in its insistence that corner stores not sell single cans or bottles of beer and malt liquor. Delaney has two simple questions:

1. What is a person supposed to do if he or she wants a beer but can’t afford a six pack?
2. What if a person just wants one beer?

The answer to these questions is that a person who has ever been or ever will be in either situation must vote for Arthur Delaney in 6B08 tomorrow. Arthur Delaney has the necessary maverick qualities to begin to reverse the nannyish tide that will outlaw single sales in early 2009.

After the jump, more details, plus Arthur Delaney’s first campaign video.

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I am in arraignment court–C 10 to insiders!–to semi-live blog. The courtroom opens at 1 p.m. It is perhaps the saddest room to appear in on a Monday afternoon. It means that you did something to catch the attention of the police and got charged–open container, smoking weed, holding a crack pipe, fighting with a roommate, and so on. It means you have gotten intimate with a squad car, a cell, and ankle cuffs. In other words, your weekend really sucked.

C10 will be packed soon. It is ten minutes before 1. A few people gather by the door: a stern lawyer, a gray hair with hipster glasses, two kids jawing about whether or not being a police officer is a worthwhile job, and an ex-Marine waiting to see about a friend charged with assaulting a police officer.

“He was in rare form,” the ex-Marine, Kenny, says. The rare form means possibly drunk.

The door is unlocked with little fanfare. As we walk into the quiet, empty courtroom, one of the kids mumbles: “Into the motherfuckin’ dragon.”

C10 is not a Bruce Lee film. It is a lumbering, expensive operation. It is a film of despair.

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As one of City Paper’s Maryland staffers, much of the political noise broadcast on my TV set and left hanging on the front doorknob of my house involves Question 2—the referendum about whether slots should be permitted in Maryland. It’s as divisive an issue as any in this election: The Washington Post has come down against slots, while the Baltimore Sun has come down for slots.

That is, after being against them. Confusion! How to decide? An assortment of ads and footage on the referendum, compiled after the jump, should help. Or not.

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I must have called Shadow Sen. Paul Strauss more than a dozen times on Friday concerning his recent arrest for drunk driving. After LL broke the news, Strauss released a lame statement and generally hid from the press.

I gave him the weekend. He finally picked up his cellphone this morning. He immediately refused to comment on his arrest.

“We’re getting ready for tomorrow,” Strauss said. “I’m not really focusing on anything but that right now.”

He then wanted to know why I was calling and where my reporting would end up. I told him it would end up on City Desk.

I asked if the news of his arrest was some kinda dirty trick. I got this rambling statement:

“Yeah. Look. Not going to comment means not going to comment. I just. You know. So. I don’t mean to be rude. But. There’s. I issued my statement. It’s going to be a historic election. We’re going to work for the democratic ticket. Happy to talk at another time. This is not a good time right now. We won’t be giving any interviews until after the election. We won’t be discussing the other thing until after the court date.”

Strauss then went off the record to stamp out a rumor I had asked him about. I then felt I had to ask the elected official one more question.

Do you have a drinking problem? “Come on, Jason. I’m going to end this conversation now.”

*photo by Darrow Montgomery

For much of yesterday, I debated whether or not to go to Obama’s last rally–being held tonight–in Manassas.

Pro: It’s Obama’s last rally. It’s history. Bruce Springsteen may be there. If not Bruce Springsteen, may be Mark Warner(!) will be there. Obama has not tired of giving a great speech. His “closing argument” is pretty powerful. I’ve been obsessed with the election. Sometimes my obsession has become a burden to friends and colleagues. It’s hard to hold a conversation with someone who regurgitates the latest poll numbers, who sounds like he has “Election Tourette’s.” By attending the rally, I will be surrounding myself with other election freaks. That could be fun, right?

Con: The rally is in Manassas. It is an hour away without traffic on 66. There is always traffic on 66. Obama people are letting people in at 5 p.m. The rally starts at 9 p.m. There’s no way to get there without sitting in traffic for a long time. This would mean the making of sandwiches, carrying a blanket, wearing winter-like clothes, and perhaps lying to a boss about why you’re leaving work early. Did I mention the rally is in Manassas?

What are you gonna do?

Obama has a former president and a former secretary of state. McCain has this guy:

Via TPM.

Today, in the Post’s Trail blog, we get McCain Camp bigwig Rick Davis declaring that his candidate is set to achieve one of the greatest comebacks in election history. Coates calls BS. And we second that assessment. The story is all conjecture, theory, and truth stretching. Not a bit of evidence is cited. I know it’s just a dashed off item but it’s lazy.

Since when do news orgs just let the spin go unchecked? All the time?

Here’s the first two graphs:

“GOP presidential nominee John McCain’s advisers today said their candidate had closed the gap with Barack Obama over the past few days and would be competitive with the Democrat as voters headed to the polls Tuesday.

‘We are witnessing, I believe, probably one of the greatest comebacks that you’ve seen since John McCain won the primary,’ his campaign manager, Rick Davis, said in a conference call with reporters, adding that when it came to the electoral votes needed for victory, ‘We believe, with the combination of our base states and the states we’ve been able to put into play this week, we can achieve 270.’”

There’s no factcheck that follows.

Just in time for Halloween, the third installment of “Five Minutes You’ll Never Get Back” is live over at The Sexist. Listeners can look forward to Bobby “The Intern” Allyn’s savvy street reporting, Hess’ name-calling, and more un-PC references to the Goddess/Whore archetype than ever before!

Via Huffington Post.

It wasn’t just the opening shot of those sweeping waves of grain. It wasn’t the shot of Obama in a really nice rustic office that I will never afford to have. It wasn’t the moment when the senior citizen put on his Wal-Mart uniform and headed to work to pay for his wife’s arthritis meds. It was the thought I had at the end of the whole Ken Burns-like production.

Why does Obama have to keep reinforcing that he is an American? That he’s OK? Normal? That he cares? After nearly two years on the stump, we get another moment of introduction. This is sad. Shales wrote:

As political filmmaking, “Barack Obama: American Stories” was an elegant combination of pictures, sounds, voices and music designed not so much to sell America on Barack Obama as to communicate a sensibility. The film conveyed feelings, not facts — specifically, a simulation of how it would feel to live in an America with Barack Obama in the White House. The tone and texture recalled the “morning in America” campaign film made on behalf of Ronald Reagan, a work designed to give the audience a sense of security and satisfaction; things are going to be all right.

Isn’t it obvious that either presidential candidate would be better than Bush? As much as I can’t understand anything Sarah Palin says, I can’t believe McCain would be same/worse than Bush. But McCain doesn’t have the decency to at least admit that his opponent would be OK as Commander in Chief. Instead, he’s a terrorist, a secret Israel hater, a socialist, etc. It’s just sad that Obama has to keep reinforcing his American-ness. You can watch the video here.

October surprise?

It’s Travelgate Palin-Style. Wink. According to a CBS News report:

“Alaska Governor and Republican Vice President hopeful Sarah Palin may be facing another round of scrutiny, this time for charging the state for her children to travel with her while conducing official state business.

CBS News has obtained a copy of the complaint that Frank Gwartney, a retired lineman in Anchorage filed last Friday, with Alaska’s Attorney General, Talis Colber in Juneau. ‘Palin ran on the platform of ethics, transparency and anti-corruption. I’m tired of the hypocrisy that exists in Government and people need to know the truth,’ said Gwartney.”

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David Foster Wallace. There’s a long piece on his life that should be worth reading. Tomorrow, we are publishing two essays on the presidential campaigns. It’s hard not to think about Wallace’s brilliant take on McCain’s 2000 run and how different the coverage has been this time. The 24-hour news cycle, blah, blah, blah (to quote McCain on anything these days), the web, the Twitter. I still think Wallace’s essay would stick out. But would his thoughtfulness be appreciated?

This Friday, the 7th District police station will turn itself into a haunted house. Congress Heights on the Rise has the scoop. This is allegedly for children (of all ages). I don’t know about you but I have real low expectations for this. Police see bad stuff all the time. Are they really gonna want to make their police station all that scary? The one thing 7D has going for it is its incredibly ugly purple building.

You all can post lame taser jokes in the comments.