What I have been thinking for a while though in this runup to the election is to actually acknowledge that I'm capable of making mistakes, and what they are. I've got one general category of mistakes, and then one specific issue. The general category is dividing my attention on too many things. Here's an incomplete list of the memos I've written: too many subjects. Obviously we do a lot more work than can be measured by memos, but those memos should usually be priority items. If I had chosen fewer subjects and put more time into them, we could have progressed further. (I'll still defend our progress overall, though.)
The other, specific issue is pretty technical but involves the best approach to resolving legal and environmental issues under both state and federal law for the protection of endangered steelhead salmon. We'd been attempting to get simultaneous state and federal permits but had been held up on the federal level. Some local environmental groups wanted to split the process to speed up actions to help steelhead under state law; our staff resisted this approach. A few months ago, our staff changed their minds. Maybe that could have happened two years ago instead - the split approach was the right one. Now we have to make up for that lost time.
Anyway, I think you can acknowledge mistakes while still doing a good job, and that's what I hope to do in this election.
And to be a good politician (or less guileless one), I'll also add that help is greatly appreciated.
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