I haven’t been around Roll Call for all 70 years, but it’s been a while. 

When I first stepped foot through the doors 24 years ago, Democrats could get elected from South Dakota and Republicans could win statewide in Rhode Island. We were spending more time on MySpace than LinkedIn, and Season 1 of “The Apprentice” hadn’t aired yet.

While my role at Roll Call has evolved over the years, there have been a few consistent themes. Often understaffed and underappreciated relative to its grand mission, Roll Call has always been a gritty team, committed to covering Congress in a credible and dispassionate way. No matter the external forces or internal circumstances, Roll Call has cultivated a trusted brand to cover the people of Capitol Hill and the candidates who want to join them.

My Roll Call journey began in 2001, when columnist Stuart Rothenberg hired me for The Rothenberg Political Report. I wasn’t immediately part of the Roll Call masthead but more aptly described as “Roll Call adjacent.” 

Inside the office, my desk was nestled between Stu and the Roll Call breakroom, where we’d debate Philadelphia Phillie Bobby Abreu’s appropriate place in baseball history with now-Washington Post senior congressional correspondent Paul Kane. Outside the office, I roamed the outfield for Roll Call’s softball team and spent my early days in Washington sprinting across the gravel paths of the National Mall and dodging tourists to catch flyballs through the canopy of trees to try and propel the EditOrioles to victory.

There have been many other memories. 

When one of our Roll Call colleagues opened an envelope that contained white powder during the 2001 anthrax scare, we were all quarantined in a vacant space on the first floor. Everything and everyone turned out all right, except we had to spend a couple of extra hours with mustachioed Maine Democrat John Nutting, who we had been interviewing about his campaign for the state’s 2nd District. 

I sat behind Vermont Gov. Howard Dean during a Roll Call editorial board meeting when he snapped at Stu for questioning his decision to privately sign a same-sex civil unions bill, in what ended up being a precursor to 2004’s “Dean scream” in Iowa.

Over the years, I’ve had a prime seat to quality journalism. I watched Team Roll Call break stories from Idaho Sen. Larry E. Craig’s bathroom incident at the Minneapolis airport back in 2007 to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence being added to the Republican presidential ticket in 2016. In 2012, we broke the story that former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords would lead the pledge of allegiance from the stage at the Democratic National Convention. And I remember watching top Capitol Police brass come to the newsroom to complain about Roll Call’s penchant for reporting on officers leaving their loaded firearms in bathrooms around the Capitol complex.

While the basics of journalism, including quality sources and hustle, remain the same, covering campaigns has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades. Instead of having nearly instant access to ads online, I remember writing about Kentucky GOP Rep. Anne M. Northup’s tough reelection race and watching the campaign ads on a VHS tape after the race was over. When Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski got mad about something I wrote, he yelled at me over the phone and faxed us his supporting evidence. 

There’s been plenty of change during my time with Roll Call, including an ownership change. I think I’ve worked with at least a dozen different editors-in-chief and, unfortunately, outlived one. As the political news business has been flooded with talent, making it more difficult to write unique analysis, I’ve often taken the late Tim Curran’s advice to heart: “Write it before it doesn’t happen.” 

Too often dismissed or disregarded, Roll Call is embedded in the fabric of political journalism in the United States and has been an incubator for journalistic talent and entrepreneurship. Politico, Axios and Punchbowl News were all co-founded by Roll Call alums. 

At any given moment of the day, there’s likely to be a Roll Call alum delivering political news and analysis. Kick off your morning with C-SPAN’s John McArdle. Catch Nina Totenberg on National Public Radio or Mark Preston and Jake Tapper on CNN, or Susan Glasser on MSNBC or Chris Cillizza on Monumental Sports Network. NBC News Chief Data Analyst Steve Kornacki had a brief stint at Roll Call, and former “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell began her career with the paper. 

Other former Roll Callers are driving coverage at The Washington Post, Politico, Bloomberg, CNN, NBC News, NOTUS, Punchbowl News, Pluribus News, The Daily Beast, The Boston Globe, The Bulwark and The Hill. Brody Mullins went on to The Wall Street Journal and earned a Pulitzer Prize, a George Polk award and two Everett Dirksen awards, along with being one of the top softball pitchers in the city.

I admit, like many current and former colleagues, I have a chip on my shoulder that comes from years of perseverance without the fanfare. In my humble opinion, Roll Call never gets the credit or attention that it deserves relative to the quality of the journalism. The paper’s integral role even extends beyond the newsroom. For example, Roll Call kept the annual Congressional Baseball Game alive for years before it became the cool thing to attend. 

While I’ve seen a lot of people come and go at Roll Call over the years, each iteration of the team has been a pleasure. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work in an environment with colleagues who push me to be better, with the freedom to be creative and permission to have some fun.

There’s a common bond among those of us who’ve worked at Roll Call because in the face of what feels like constant change, Roll Call endures. And I don’t expect that to change.