Wednesday, November 8, 2006

VICTORY: It is difficult for me to explain how it feels today. I don't even know if I know how it really feels right now.

I first met Patrick Murphy back in March 2005, when he joined my firm as an associate. Someone thought it would be a good idea for the two of us to meet for lunch ("You're both interested in Democratic politics, I think"), and so we did. At the Marathon Grill over on Commerce Square, he and I sat down and talked about running for this congressional seat, reviewing what we both thought went wrong with Ginny Schrader's bid in 2004, and what it would take to win in 2006.

You could tell he was serious about the race, and that he the resume, the beliefs and the people skills to make a real run at it. And we kept meeting -- lunches, my office, his office, and hten he declared his candidacy, and we watched as various candidates entered and exited the primary, and then fall turned to winter and winter turned to spring, and there was the primary contest, and it kept going, with our relationship becoming more cell-based than in person, and then there were the negative ads against him, and the polls, and all I kept thinking about was the fight itself: how can we win this? What does it take to get to where we want to be at the end of November 7?

Until this morning, though, I had no idea what it would feel like to wake up on November 8 and actually have my friend win a seat in Congress, to know that he's going to be down there as part of our new majority, with all the mighty powers and responsibilities granted to him under Article I. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

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