..but still work to do. From reader Ellen:

I wanted to give you an update on what we have been doing since Christmas to defeat Mike Castle’s stem cell bill in Delaware. As you probably recall, we needed a miracle–with 25 votes, four more than needed for passage, and Mike Castle behind it, the bill was considered to be a slam dunk.

We started a campaign called A Rose and a Prayer–www.aroseandaprayer.org. We set up eight days–from the House hearing on the bill to the House vote–for people to pray 24 hours a day. We covered every half hour in that eight-day period with prayer. (The website now reflects the next stage of the campaign.)

In a very blue state, we recruited over 2,000 people to pray for at least half an hour for the defeat of the bill and to call their legislators, and we sent a rose on behalf of each person who participated. Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, and nondenominational Christians are participating. We have forged the first true partnership in Delaware between people of many faiths to fight this bill. It is working.

The secretaries in Dover told us Wednesday that they have never seen this great an outpouring of negative calls on a bill. One woman told us that she had received 500 calls in 24 hours, all of them against the bill. As I mentioned, sponsors had 25 votes only three weeks ago. Since A Rose and a Prayer mobilized our base, the votes have shifted. Last week, the sponsor tabled the vote because she didn’t have 21 votes to get it passed. She is writing a series of amendments to take out the fetal farming provisions in the bill, hoping to pick up some more votes. The vote could come as early as tomorrow. It’s on the agenda, so the sponsor can run the vote whenever she wants. I don’t think she’ll give us much notice.