Thank you, Watertown

What a night!

What a day, week, month, fall and summer!

This roller-coaster campaign came to a spectacular conclusion last night and it was better than I could have ever imagined.  Without conjecture about exactly how and why, suffice it to say that a perfect storm of circumstances came together and when the dust settled you'd chosen me to serve and I am deeply honored by it.

I want to take a minute to express my gratitude to my many volunteers and my amazing family for the faith you've placed in me and the efforts you made to get me elected last night.  Some of you had never met me before and you signed on because you saw something I wrote or took the word of a trusted friend.  Many of you had have small children or are single parents.  Others were dealing with difficult personal circumstances or were working for other campaigns simultaneously.  Still you managed to give me your time.  Some of you even opened your homes to me and others your wallets.  The level of commitment and passion for your hometown, your children and your planet is extraordinary.  Watertown, I've never loved you more than I do right now!

Furthermore, I want to clarify that in the article that came out today on WickedLocal.com, the writer quoted several complimentary things that I said about Paul Fahey and Mike Datolli.  These were in response to a question about the new candidates.  Had he asked me about the incumbents I would have said how much I respected John Donohue's dedication to the youth of this town through his work on the board of the WBGC and his long list of other sponsorships and charitable work.  I would have spoken about Steve Corbett's ability to steadily uphold parliamentary procedures in meetings as the council vice-president while also serving as an experienced voice of reason around our past municipal construction projects.  I would have conveyed my deep respect for Tony Palomba's dedication to participatory government and social services and Susan Falkoff's staunch leadership on environmental cleanup projects and town government reorganization.  In short, I hope that my respect for the incumbents did not go unnoticed in spite of my burning desire to take my turn at the leadership table.  I want to thank all of my fellow candidates, those citizens who voted for me and the ones who didn't.  Thank you for pushing me to listen and learn about your ways of seeing things and for all of your undeniable love for this town.

I promise to keep pressing ahead and working for the things I spoke about on the campaign trail.  I promise to listen to opposing points of view and above all, I promise to work for you as I did for this campaign.

Thank you!