Why did I have to undo my tie? Oh well, there wasn’t time to fix it. I walked through the door, turned to my left, and replied, “Congratulations, Mr. Governor. This is truly an honor.” My tie was rolled up in my jacket pocket, and my “Go Bob” T-shirt was showing through the opening of my dress shirt which was unbuttoned for the first time in 22 hours.

I had to plead my way into that hotel room, but it was worth it. It meant that the first state governor I have ever met face to face happened to be a man I helped put there. Bob Holden has hardly had time to contemplate how soft that gubernatorial seat is going to be, but I have spent endless hours contemplating my first experience working regularly for a political campaign.

For the past several months, I spent hours every day at the University City office where volunteers and employees tirelessly sought the goal of making Bob Holden, from Birch Tree, Mo., Governor of the “Show-Me” state. It has completely changed my view of politics, and allowed me to make distinctions within the structure.

National races are obviously very exciting. Everybody talks about them. You can go to Colorado, Kansas City, or St. Louis and debate with just about anyone about who should be president. But those campaigns have a completely different feel to them. After working with the Clinton/Gore campaign in Kansas City for extra credit in my high school government class, I realized that the campaign volunteers were working for someone whom most of them had never met. In fact, we knew nothing more about the candidates than what the media knew from press releases. We were working purely for the idea of the candidate. Which is good-in fact really good. We should base our voting decisions on these decisions. But for those volunteering or campaigning for them, you are fighting for what the candidate is said to stand on.

But in state races, it is a completely different feeling. After just a few weeks, I was no longer working for just the Democratic candidate for governor. Instead, I was working for Bob Holden. Bob is a nice guy. Bob knows my name. Bob and I had talked about his days at Southwest Missouri State and his involvement with Alpha Phi Omega. I met Bob’s wife. Lori and I talked about college and my future plans. My point is that when I wrote media pieces about Bob to be sent across the state, I wasn’t just writing to further an idea, I was writing in order to further Bob.

State politics aren’t necessarily cleaner; just look at the Dick Gephardt/Bill Federer campaign. But they don’t require the polished, Mattel-plastic-action-figure style of candidate. Bob Holden certainly hasn’t done anything to lose his southern-Missouri accent, nor is his speaking style anything that can whip a crowd into a feverish frenzy. And in a way, that’s nice.

The local candidates still seem like members of Missouri’s communities, who were accepting the call to public service. That was what impressed me with Bob. He really didn’t behave as if this race was his life’s goal.

He also didn’t behave as if it was simply a stepping stone to something more important. He seemed like a man applying for a job and often had a look in his eye that made it appear that he was surprised at all the attention he got.

It wasn’t just Bob, but many of our new local leaders, from Lacey Clay to Joe Hodes to Rufus Tate, who carry with them a commitment to the people. They talked about issues in a way that we don’t hear on CNN. They talked about specific roads, referred to the needs to specific small communities, talked about the effects of their plans on specific schools.

They were fighting for their offices one household at a time and were talking about tangible effects for real people. For me, time spent on the state level race showed me a glimpse of the governmental system that I studied in my high school government class.

It showed me that every two years, there are people seeking to actually serve, who feel the real pain of the people. There are thousands of candidates who run simply to make their little corners of the world better for their neighbors. It is a system where people elect women and men who will truly represent them.

For me, it was enlightening, empowering and downright inspiring that my first dedicated work on a political campaign was for a person whom I could get to know and then fight for. I didn’t have to excuse any of his behaviors in my mind. This was just your average American, running for one of our country’s most honorable positions.