It was somewhat fitting that I finished my formal job duties for Fair Boundaries yesterday at the Davis County Clerk – frantically rushing in to ensure that the petitions we had gathered over the past weeks and months were officially submitted before 5:00 PM.

You see, back in 2006, one of the first real campaign job responsibilities I  ever had was to submit paperwork to the Davis County Clerk.  At the time I was the Campaign Manager for Beth Holbrook (now a Councilwoman for Bountiful) and I needed to submit some sort of financial paperwork to ensure that she had met a deadline.

I was a Senior in college at the time, just back from an internship in Washington DC, and was finishing up my degree in Political Science. I had been looking for some real world experience, and the opportunity to work as a real campaign staffer excited me right from the start.

Sadly, we lost that race, but the bug had bitten me.

Since then I have worked full time on three races and part time on at least five more. Sadly, I have never really tasted victory, though I do claim the Becker primary win as a sort of conciliation prize.

Campaigns are unique in their ability to turn really bad, really fast.  And the emotional and social toll sometimes makes me wonder if all of it has worth it. But, sure as the sun rises, I seem to fall back into it and I always find myself enjoying the job more than the last year. In the end, I regret nothing.

Furthermore,  campaigns are not designed for people who want to settle down.  It is no secret to those who know me personally that I am ready to settle down and, amongst other things, turn My Republican Girlfriend into My Republican Wife very soon (well, get engaged at the very least). I have often joked that I like to work on campaigns because I enjoy long hours and terrible pay – but campaign wages  simply can not sustain a Democrat in Utah who wants to eat more than ramen.

And, so, I made the commitment to myself to finish out the Fair Boundaries campaign and work my hardest to see if I couldn’t get at least one victory.  Sadly, it appears that we only gathered around half of the total signatures we would have needed to get on the ballot. But it was a personal victory as I have had trouble of the past years with other campaigns – I needed to prove to myself that I could, at the very least, see something to the end.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I need to announce, at the very least, my hiatus from campaign work.

I will still be writing, of course, and I have been kicking around the idea of a Liberal Think Tank (though I must admit that I haven’t had the foggiest idea where to start – serendipitously,  I received a text from someone else late last night who has had a similar thought). Furthermore, I will be refocusing my efforts back to the Young Democrats, an organization that has always been near and dear to my heart. Furthermore, I am happy to announce that I will be a co-host for Drinking Liberally, helping to set up events.

And so, as I was exiting the Clerks office, I felt the need to sit back and reflect on where I was and where I have come.  Who knows, perhaps it is nothing, but for me it really did feel that I had come full circle.