I'm out.

For personal, professional and political reasons, I’ve decided not to run for Selectman.

The personal reasons are, well, personal.

The professional reasons are that I have recently gained a few new clients and new clients often want me to work off island, at least for the first part of the relationship. After a while clients become more conformable with me working via email and the web. But we are still in that honeymoon phase. Selectman’s meetings and duties, contrary to what some might think, are extremely time consuming.

The political reasons are the simplest and clearest of them all. Catherine Stover called me on Sunday to let me know she was running for Mike Glowacki’s seat. Catherine is a wonderful, caring, selfless person. The embodiment of the Nantucket First philosophy. To tell you the truth, because she is Town Clerk, I never even considered the possibility that she might run. But, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. She knows the town’s business. Besides a former selectman, who is better equipped to hit the ground running?

Because I admire Catherine so much, I see no reason to take even a single vote away from her. (Not that she wouldn’t mop the floor with me, vote wise. She’s universally loved and respected.) She deftly fills the void that I saw in the race that caused me to pull my papers in the first place.

I may not be running. But I still have a campaign to run. I’ll be writing and talking about the Nantucket First movement, and asking people to wear the Nantucket First clothing or putting a sticker on their vehicle*. I still believe there is value in this idea and that we can change the island for the better if we all work together.

So there you have it. I’m out of the race. But I’ll still be running alongside.

Nantucket First.

* These goods are not marked up. All money goes to printing and distribution of these items and not a single dime goes into my pocket or anyone else's from their purchase... FYI.