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Today we had a post-primary kickoff meeting for one of our state legislative campaigns. We're all somewhat familiar with each other, but haven't all worked on the same campaigns in the past. So, to get things going, we were asked to introduce ourselves with a brief commentary about who we are and what brings us to this campaign work.

It was a bit amazing that, out of the dozen people in the room, half were former republicans. I'd switched way back in the 1980s, same for a couple others. Three, however, switched as recently as 2008, due entirely to the message they heard from a certain Illinois senator. One of the more recent 'converts' said that he got tired of defining his affiliation as "enough, already".

The good news -- we're all, today, very committed Democrats. We have some tough races ahead, all in a deep red area of a state trying to move from purple to blue. For those of us not 'born to the blue', the hard work of these campaigns gives an unlooked for but very welcome sense of respite. The mat on the front porch says "Welcome Home." And we are.