I have worked for many years in a variety of industries that require confidentiality. These include things like health care, law, government, and politics. The last two are particularly important as the effects of revealing political and governmental secrets not only effects a single person, but many people. As damaging as revealing a medical condition or even a personal legal strategy, the ramifications are often very limited.

In contrast, a political secret revealed can give the opposition an advantage. It can change the terms debate and make the possible nearly impossible. It's one thing to document how something was accomplished after the fact, but when the cards in your hands, you have to be very careful what you reveal. The ramifications of revealing a political secret can be major and it can literally effect millions of people and billions of dollars.

Therefore, in politics and government I take confidentiality to be a very serious matter. There are some things that I won't even tell my closest confidants, much less write down anywhere. There are other things that float around in the media, that I have less of a problem pointing to as a possible truth. It can be great fun to point to already existing rumors, but it's a problem when you start confirming too much and revealing things that will have a negative impact on the policy process.

To protect confidentially and balance it with the interests of my blog I have made some changes. These include minor and major changes like:

1. A decreased focus on state politics and more on photography, farming, rural life, environmental issues, and my own aspirations and dreams.
2. Avoiding all issues on the blog that are directly in front of me or my office, except for things that are already public or well known rumors on blogs like Capitol Confidential.
3. Not revealing who I work for except for the Assembly as an Intern, or similarly generic description.
4. Avoiding hot-button and controversial issues on the blog, particularly if they could come in front of me in the near future.
5. Remaining totally neutral at work (including not describing my own beliefs) and not revealing my own political stances on the issues that are in front of me – including working largely in areas that have little personal interest for me.

I still enjoy doing New York Cowboy, and I hope it forces you to think more about the political issues in front of you. I also enjoy working in New York State Government on many of the important public policy questions of our era. I believe these will continue to strike a good balance between keeping you informed, and allowing for a robust policy process in New York State.