Earlier this year I vowed to not just talk the talk but actually walk the walk when it came to the GOP’s state of affairs. I wanted to do something about it, so I volunteered for a Fairfax County race in February and followed up on my commitment by knocking on doors for gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell and the rest of the Republican ticket this summer and fall.

I was motivated in part by recent Republican losses in Virginia, dating back eight years to when I first moved here. But an even bigger motivation was the socialist direction President Barack Obama and liberals in Congress have moved the country. From the massive stimulus and bailouts to energy taxes and government-run health care, there was no way more obvious to stop this leftward shift than by electing conservatives. And no better place to do it than in my own backyard.

Along the way, I’ve done a little bit of everything and met some wonderful people — especially House of Delegates candidate Tim Nank, campaign manager Blair Palmer and super-volunteer Susan Valentine. Even though Nank (pictured with my son) fell short in his campaign against Delegate Mark Sickles, his grassroots operation vastly outperformed the incumbent in terms of fundraising, yard signs and literature. Unfortunately, in a Democrat-leaning district, it takes a lot more to win. I hope Tim considers a rematch in 2011.

Knocking on doors in the 43rd District was a lot of fun, but nothing tops today’s experience as a poll watcher in my precinct. I started the day at 6 a.m., and after a break during the middle of the day, wrapped it up at 7 p.m. We had 1,129 voters cast a ballots. The Democrat candidates won the precinct by a 60% to 40% margin, but that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm.

Democrats didn’t bother sending any poll watchers today; Republicans, on the other hand, introduced a new technology that helped streamline last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts. GOP poll watchers all over the commonwealth were equipped with BlackBerrys loaded with voter information. As voters checked in, I checked them off. The system wasn’t perfect — the devices themselves were a little slow to load the data — but I was glad to see Republicans make the move in this direction.

I plan to remain involved and hope others who haven’t become active in local politics will do the same. It’s incredibly rewarding, and although my role was small, I’m proud to say I was part of McDonnell’s victory, along with the wins today by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli for attorney general.