About six and a half years ago I discovered Daily Kos. It was shortly after the 2002 election, and I was hooked. There was a bunch of campaign talk, but what really sucked me in were the posts by Markos and the late Steve Gilliard on the idiocy of the war and the horrible planning they were reporting even before the invasion in March 2003. I started commenting in threads—there were no diaries in those days—and within a few months, Markos asked me to become what was then called a guest blogger, and has since become known as a contributing editor.

Daily Kos has been a constant in my life over these last six years. I love the community, I love having an incredible platform for my writing, I love the interaction my pieces generate, and I love being able to combine my contributions to DKos with my work as a political professional electing and serving Democrats.

I've worked in a state legislature, for labor unions, on Capitol Hill, and on campaigns. Since I've been at Daily Kos, I've done several campaigns; I worked in Louisiana helping legislative candidates, I worked for Wesley Clark, I helped run the campaign against Michigan's idiotic marriage amendment, and I've managed two successful races against incumbent Republican Congressmen.

My next challenge is to take out a third member of Congress: Minnesota Republican Michele Bachman.

Over the years I've done races, I've never written or commented on Daily Kos about anything on which I was directly involved; while managing the campaigns of Paul Hodes and Jim Himes—now Democratic Congressmen from, respectively, New Hampshire and Connecticut—I didn't comment on their races. I keep my blogging and my professional work separate. But we're now codifying what's always been the practice, and as you can see from my Daily Kos bio, I'm now officially on leave from my duties as a contributing editor to the site.

I will still be around, however. I won't be involved in any of the administrative activities of the site, but I'll probably still write an occasional piece as a featured writer, at least until the campaign really heats up and I’m working 80 hours a week. And I'll still be commenting in threads and participating in the community.

But for the next 16 months, my obligations lie in doing whatever I can to elect Elwyn Tinklenberg to Congress and relieving Michele Bachmann of her duties so she can spend more time warning Americans of the threats posed by the US Census Bureau.

I've just recently arrived in Minnesota, but I've already gotten to know El quite well, and he's as decent and honorable a candidate as I've ever worked with. He's a former minister whose sense of service has extended in to other forms of public service, such as serving as mayor of his town of Blaine, and becoming an expert in transportation. (As Minnesota's Commissioner of Transportation, he oversaw the implementation of the Twin Cities' light commuter rail system, which met its 20 year ridership goals in its second year of operation). He'll be posting more diaries on Daily Kos.

I'm incredibly excited to work for someone I'm absolutely certain will be a great member of Congress, a Democrat who I respect and who I'm confident you will as well, and who I already like tremendously as a person. And it's exciting to get the opportunity to work on what I think is the premier Congressional race in the country.

Minnesotan Kossacks, please let me know if when you get together; I've gotten to know Kossacks where I've lived in the last six years, including my home state of Michigan, in New Hampshire, Connecticut and in DC. Many of these folks have become close friends, and I hope to make more friends in Minnesota.

And I hope we can work together. I mean, you know how important this race is, I'm confident you'll come to share my commitment to helping El win, and you know it's going to be a lot of fun to win this race.