I was going to speak to Josh Skaller on the telephone but he decided to come by instead.

"I didn't think I could handle one more cell phone conversation," he said as we walked up the stairs to my third floor apartment. 

I cleared space at my dining room table, pushed away the laundry and the breakfast dishes, and asked Skaller what were the highlights of his campaign for City Council in the 39th district.

"The volunteers keep showing up. They believed enough in what we were doing to work very hard. That was inspiring. I made many great new friends.

What did you learn?

The realization that you don't control the story. There's the stuff you want to talk about and the stuff the media wants to talk about. Sometime it becomes about their concerns.

Were you able to communicate your message?

I worked really hard to get my reform message out. It can be difficult to make reform matter to the voters. It's not emotional. It's a little removed. People have lives. They don't spend their time following Clarence Norman around.

I think we were loud and clear about development. We really shifted the dialogue to the need for real change in the way that developers do their planning in our communities. There has to be community participation. The community needs a strong, loud role.

What is the difference between you and Brad Lander?

I have a lot of respect for Brad. But we are different. I come from an activist mold. I am capable of standing up directly for issues and articulating them in a forthright way. I did that with the Superfund issue and the DiBrienza slush fund at the beginning of the campaign.

I was outspoken about the Atlantic Yards early on. And so were many
people. But good luck finding a politician back then who was.

I think it's important to represent the community in the way that  most accurately represents the views of the community. And there's wide spread consensus about things like Superfund, Atlantic yards.

Regrets?

I regret that there were those cribbed sentences
in that press release It was very embarrassing. And I abhor that sort of
thing on so many levels. Intellectual property and all that.

What about your so-called lack of experience?

I don't buy the lack of experience argument. I have a lot of experience running democratic races, political clubs. I have different experience in the private sector, delivering projects on time.

I gave myself  a lot structures going into this. This race was not delivered to me. There were no large donors. I don't owe any political favors to anyone. I have a lot of independence.

That said, I am very proud of those who support me: Chris Owens, Assemblyman Jim Brennan, a great reformer, the reform clubs, CORD, Park Slope Neighbors, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.

I did not solicit support from places I was not comfortable. Not from developers and I didn't solicit support from Dov Hiskind in Borough Park. He can deliver votes but we don't see eye to eye.

Your takeaway?

I have a lot more respect for people who do this.

Polticians?

Yes. It can be easy as an activist to villify politicians. But it's hard to do this. When you speak your piece, people try to drag you down. It takes guts to stand up and say it. I want to continue to stand up for the things that I believe in.