Here's an interesting article in the New York Times about a new type of campaign volunteer. With unemployment high, a number of bankers, lawyers, accountants, real estate brokers and other highly credentialed professionals, all of whom have been laid off, are now filling the offices of various campaigns, "looking for purpose and fighting off the despondency and isolation that come with being unemployed." Among the featured volunteers are a couple of folks working for P.J. Kim who is running for City Council representing District 1.

Yukyong Choi, 36, a former litigator who has not worked in a year, is now an unpaid volunteer for P.J. Kim, a City Council candidate in Lower Manhattan.

“One thing that I’ve discovered through this process is I don’t really want to go back to that life,” Mr. Choi said. “That was a life filled with 18-hour days, and having to work with people you may not enjoy. It’s not the money anymore; I want to do things that will have a real effect on people’s lives, as opposed to just trying to get a company out of a situation.”

...

On Thursday night, Mr. Kim, a 30-year-old Princeton and Harvard graduate who has worked as both a management consultant and an executive for a nonprofit group, and several unemployed volunteers fanned out across Wall Street, handing out literature about his campaign.

One of the volunteers was Kwadwo Acheampong, a 25-year-old native of the South Bronx who graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and Duke University before landing a job as an equities analyst at Goldman Sachs. He lost his job this summer and moved back in with his family.

While handing out the literature, he approached some clean-cut young men to tell them why they should vote for Mr. Kim. Then both he and they did double takes: They were former colleagues from Goldman Sachs.

“After you get past the split second of, ‘Hey, the last time I saw you, you were in corporate America, and now you’re doing politics?’ it’s O.K., because at least I’m doing something valuable,” he said. “But I never thought I’d be here.”

Incidentally, P.J. also just picked up the endorsement of the New York Times as well.

District 1, Lower Manhattan: This vibrant area from the Lower East Side to Wall Street and TriBeCa deserves a vibrant councilmember. Newcomer Jin “P.J.” Kim is a South Korean immigrant with degrees from Princeton and Harvard Business School. He has worked in business and more recently used his skills to manage and coordinate antipoverty programs. Other candidates include the incumbent Alan Gerson, an honorable public servant who has moved too uncertainly on vital issues; Margaret Chin, a community activist; and Pete Gleason, an anticrime candidate with few other credentials. We endorse Mr. Kim.