I didn't intend to get involved with the political campaign in New Jersey this year. It just sort of happened... but I'm so glad that it did.
It all started this summer because I was broke and the governor's race was paying door to door canvassers. I started working there, during the dog days of the summer, knocking on hundreds of doors every weekend day instead of going to the beach. I met a lot of interesting people and started to get to know the local candidates well.
Where I live is run by Republicans. Our state assembly reps are GOP, our freeholders (county commissioners) is 100% GOP, the bulk of the towns in this county are run by the GOP. The people who were running on our side this year were special. The kind of people - I learned as the campaign went on - that I wanted to get behind. So I got more involved. Started volunteering beyond my paid canvassing.
Then last month, the local coordinated campaign asked me to stay on a full time basis. My job was to reach out to the GLBTI community as well as the Haitian community. I also helped with volunteer coordination and crowdbuilding for events. The more I worked, the more I believed.
We worked harder than the other guys. We had more fun than the other guys. We created more excitement than the other guys... but on election day, Corzine won - and the other guys - not so much.
It was razor thin losses for us on almost every local race. Considering that the GOP usually dominates elections here, it was progress - albeit basically invisible progress.
The challenge remains. We jumpstarted a lot of infrastructure that will let our county party take back power and bring it back to the people who live here. The only question is whether or not the excitement we built will stay or wither on the vine. Like last year with John Kerry, this loss energized me. Because it proved how far we've come - and how close we are... and that its in our grasp for the taking.