It is impossible to understand just how grueling a campaign for public office can be until you run one yourself.

Ask Josh Skaller, running for the 39th Council District seat, who has been knocking on doors on a near-nightly basis since December of last year.

He would say it isn’t easy. Even harder still is standing out in a field of candidates who, by Skaller’s own admission, are “pretty close on the social issue spectrum,” and who share similar positions on major issues from environmental cleanup to education.

Yet in a recent interview Skaller cast himself as the race’s true reform candidate.

Skaller was an early and vocal critic of Atlantic Yards, and the first in his field to support a Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal.

He does not accept campaign contributions from developers - another decision he said has resonated with residents across the district, from Carroll Gardens to Borough Park, who expect political independence from their elected officials.

“The original motivation for running has been in my view the real need for reform politics to take hold in Brooklyn,” said Skaller, a Park Slope resident and former composer who now runs a technology and marketing firm in Manhattan. “We’ve taken great pains in this campaign to position ourselves as independently as possible.”

Skaller came out in favor of a Superfund cleanup immediately after the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the plan in early April, before most other candidates and elected officials committed to the proposal.

“It's been very clear to me that people have been really asking for a cleanup for a long time and the city’s been incapable of cleaning it,” Skaller said. “I saw the EPA as a chance to actually get this done.”

He said his opinion was formed largely through discussions with district residents, who also voiced other environmental, education, and economic concerns that have helped shape his campaign.

Skaller told the story of a next-door neighbor who installed a geo-thermal station in her front yard, which heats and cools her home and generates enough energy for the eight-unit building next door.

He suggested the city government implement these progressive citizen efforts on a large scale to improve energy efficiency and build jobs in the emerging green economy.

“I’m really talking about the nuts and bolts work of pursuing a green economy,” Skaller said. “[This] might not work but we won’t know until we try it.”

Skaller, who was born in Manhattan, has been active in Brooklyn civic circles since moving there ten years ago. He said in particular his experience as president of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats best prepared him for City Council.

In his work with CBID and as a council candidate, Skaller has spoken out against overdevelopment, and called for improved education and transportation systems and increased city support for small businesses.

His candidacy has attracted roughly 150 volunteers, many of whom can be seen waving campaign posters at rallies across the district.

“It’s been really gratifying to see the number of people come out and get engaged,” Skaller said. “I think if the public is given a voice good things can happen.”