My New Job With Ned Lamont
Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 08:20:56 AM PDT
FYI - Following the Labor Day holiday, I will be working in an official capacity with Connecticut Democratic nominee
Ned Lamont's campaign for the U.S. Senate. I will be assisting the campaign with research, rapid response and strategy. I will continue the various other work I do with other publications, organizations and writing on my blog - that work outside of the campaign will be my own work, totally separate from Ned's campaign and in no way will it be speaking for the campaign. My capacity with the campaign is completely behind the scenes in a supporting, advisory role. And you can rest assured, anything I do write about the race in other publications or on my blog will include a full disclosure of my work for Ned (As you can see, I've already added full disclosure in the bio sections of this blog).
Ned is a sincere, honest and passionate candidate who is, unlike many in politics, in it for the right reasons. He is a guy who is committed to a cause I have worked hard for: fighting the hostile takeover of our government. Having
campaigned with Ned earlier this year when nearly every pundit, operative and insider wrote off his candidacy, I was struck by just how broad the grassroots movement is behind his candidacy. Obviously, anyone who has read my writing knows how important I believe Ned's candidacy is both for the Democratic Party and for the country.
That's why when Ned's campaign manager Tom Swan asked me this week to consider working for the campaign on an official basis, I was thrilled to accept the offer. Having been born in New Haven, and having experience in New England politics, I'm equally thrilled to have the chance to work in such a critical state and region at such a critical time. And on a personal note, I believe that we have too many writers/pundits who have not engaged directly in politics and who instead just sit back and simply comment on politics from the armchair. They seem to see the actual work of politics as some sort of disgusting behavior that they are too good to get their hands dirty engaging in. I think that is one of the reasons some of these pundits seem so disconnected from reality when they comment on politics - it's because they actually ARE disconnected from being a part of what winning politics is all about. It's easy to get things wrong if you've never actually worked in the trenches. That's why, as a writer, I make no apologies for putting my work into actual action.
Clearly, this is an uphill fight - but then, uphill fights are the kind of campaigns I have always worked on. Why? Because trying to change the status quo is always an uphill fight. In 1998, people told me not to work for Joe Hoeffel because they said he couldn't win a Republican congressional seat in Pennsylvania - but we won. In 2004, people told me I was crazy for working for political outsider Brian Schweitzer because they said he could never win a statewide race in as Republican a state as Montana. Now, Schweitzer is the widely popular governor of Big Sky country. People said Ned Lamont couldn't win a primary against an 18-year incumbent who grossly outspent him with a massive warchest of corporate cash - but he won. Even after Ned's crushing primary victory, elite cynics in Washington and the national Republican Party apparatus that is supporting Joe Lieberman still say Ned can't win the general election. And once again, we're going to prove them wrong.
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