Just announced: The communications director for the Barack Obama campaign in Minnesota is Nick Kimball.

Good choice. He's my nephew.

He says he'll be the primary spokesperson for the campaign in the state, and will work with the press to - as he puts it - "let Minnesotans know what Senator Obama will do when he becomes president."

He was busy with Obama during the primary season, starting out as new media director in Iowa, where the campaign really took flight. He came home to Minnesota to be communications director in the weeks leading up to our caucuses and then went to Texas, where he worked as spokesman for the campaign. Then it was off to Indiana and Oregon, where he was press secretary for those primaries.

Nick - he likes basketball, so I often address him as "Knick" - graduated from George Washington University in 2003 with a degree in political science.

He'll also work on the campaign's local web site.

One of the first things he'll try to publicize is an organizational meeting for Obama volunteers in Minnesota, to be held at 10 a.m. this Saturday at the Macalester College chapel.

Here's a quote from the newly-appointed quotemeister: "In a year that will see the Republican National Convention in Minnesota - which will also spotlight Gov. Pawlenty's ambitions for higher office - we'll work hard to show Minnesotans that Sen. Obama's has the ability to bring the country together by working with people from both sides of the aisle to get things done on important issues like building a strong economy, ending the war in Iraq in a responsible way, and putting America to work."