17 thoughts on “When electeds blog”

1. 1) What works is when electeds are as candid as they can be. What makes blogging great for electeds like yourself is that it gives constituents access to you never given before, and vice-versa. You can literally talk with voters wihtout them being in your office.

   2) I think bloggers are very aware of what the traditional media >coughcough

2. What I find great is that you can provide an insider’s account of what is going on in the General Assembly.

   There are many, many people who are actively involved in politics who have no idea just how a bill gets passed. And especially don’t know much about the inside baseball that goes on.

   You guys can provide that to us.

3. Thanks to both of you. I will definitely share your comments with other legislators later this month. It does seem that the “inside baseball” stuff seems to be the most popular. That’s a bit surprising–I might have thought it would be the “here’s where I stand on Bill X.”

4. I’ve been working for a few days on a post about inside baseball, but no doubt electeds know the game better than anyone. Of course, I also know that you guys can’t spill the beans on all that you know.

   I think the access part, as Chris said, is the best part. Being able to engage an elected in a conversation – even if not in real time – presents a tremendous opportunity.

   I’ll take a stab at the blogging code issue: I think the blog writer sets the tone. That’s why the comments here have been civil. (And then there’s that little box up there that asks people to play nice ;) )

5. I love when you blog at session and explain virtually real time why a particular vote took place or what a procedural motion meant. I expect in 10 years there will be a position to do this sort of thing in all clerk’s offices.

6. What works? Same that works for every blog.

   Provide something that 1) no one else does as well as you and 2) makes people stagger back to your site like meth addicts.

   For the elected officials, that’s the inside track. Policy perspectives, pronouncements, and the occasional anecdote from the 7th floor.

7. Del. Amundson:

   What I look for out of elected officials on blogs are specifics, nuts and bolts on how a bill was created and passed or how a bill was created and defeated—and the political implications that follow from the perspective of the elected official. I don’t think that elected officials should delve into the insider baseball stuff, it is beneath you all in this forum. Do I want to know what was said during a meeting of the Democratic caucus or the Republican caucus when such and such happened? You bet. However, clearly if that information is disclosed in such a way as to bring undue attention on a subject or a strategy, the elected official disclosing it will not have access to that sort of information any longer from within their own caucus.

   I am interested in knowing the depth of an elected official when they blog. Does thier lake run 1 foot deep or 60 feet deep? Are they forward thinkers in how they articulate how a bill was passed/killed? Did they properly expound on the political ramifications on voting against or for a bill?

   Lastly, I always love it when an elected official, i.e. during a live blog, takes a hard question from someone on the other side of an issue and answers it directly. Thanks for sharing our views. Sincerely,

   Wayne J. Ozmore, Jr., Chairman
   4th Congressional District Republican Committee

8. What works

   Showing your human side (even not always talking about politics (gasp); your blog does a good job of this by the way)

   actively engaging comments in a timely fashion (doesn’t have to be immediate but within 48 hours is good)

   explaining why you support a particular issue or why you voted a certain way

   _______________________________________

   What doesn’t work

   Having it as an extenstion of your campaign. (i.e. vanilla scripted posts, deleting or not responding to comments that do not support your “agenda”

   Only updating sparingly (in my humble opinion for blogs to work they should be updated at least once a week)

   ____________________________________

   As far as keeping things civil. I think its a combination of good posts and good comments. I think the civil discourse starts with the blogger. If the blogger doesn’t use personal attacks or half-truths in their postings then naturally the comments will be more civil as well.

   Note you can still post controversial topics but you need to do so in a mature adult manor and back up your points with facts instead of empty partisan rhetoric

   ______________________________________

   Enjoy the conference

9. Thanks to all of you. This will be incredibly helpful to other elected officials who are thinking about blogging but may be afraid. I do think it’s something we will see much more of in the future. We in Virginia are so fortunate to have a vibrant community of bloggers. We don’t always agree, but we still try to keep communication going. I truly believe that democracy will be stronger when that is replicated elsewhere.

10. Kris – with all due respect to Mr. Ozmore, I’d leave out the nuts and bolts of legislative process, or not make it a central focus of the blog. The old saying goes that people don’t want to know how laws or sausages are made–but more than that, the “nuts and bolts” can often be very boring to all those not interested in the intricacies of parliamentary procedure.

    But that brings us to the heart of the matter for all writers, bloggers, journalists, novelists and otherwise: selecting your target audience? Are you writing for the chair of the 4th Congressional District Republican Committee and other political junkies who get excited by nuts and bolts? Are you writing just to your constituents? Or are you writing to a broader audience?

    If you want to write to a broader audience, I would reiterate what others have said here already: show your human side. Help show the humanity in the process behind the nuts and bolts. The media tends to highlight the bickering, the back and forth, us-versus-them mentality, and a lot of people I know think that’s all politics is. I think a blog is a great way to publicize the unreported moments of decency, honesty, integrity, and civility.

    Many politicians have said that the biggest legislative problem facing Virginia this session was the transportation crisis; I would argue that the larger-looming problem is that so many of us have a very negative impression of our legislators and the legislative process that goes into crafting our policy and laws. Were I an elected official, I would think that the best use of a blog would be to reach out towards that disaffected audience and encourage them to take an active interest in politics again by providing greater transparency into the humanity of legislative process.

11. Eric — interesting comment. Clearly, that’s part of what we try to do here (else why all that chatter about basketball). I do think that a huge number of voters don’t get a chance to meet legislators one on one. A blog like this won’t take the place of face-to-face conversations, but it is certainly more personal than my annual newsletter.

12. For whatever it is worth, my opinion of you as a legislator has gone up since you started this blog and I could see where you were coming from.

13. In real estate, it’s location, location, location.

    So in politicians’ blogging, it’s transparency, transparency, transparency? I don’t know. I like being able to get thoughts on what’s going on in the “inside” too, but it also is very important to me as a consituent to know more about you as a person, honestly.

    In fact, I like the idea of my legislator blogging about their ideas on bills—why they’re good or bad, whether you agree with their intent or not, and how you might improve upon them. But just as interesting can be the personal tidbits that give us a window into people.

    I do love the idea of legislator blogging transparency because it does give regular citizens much more access to understanding that they really do have the power within their hands to engage with their legislators on matters important to themselves, and ultimately, affect a change. That is the name of the game, after all, isn’t it?

    But I’m not sold that most people don’t already have that access. I think they may just not know that they do. Perhaps, in that sense, the best thing about legislators blogging is that it widens the audience of constituents who have a window into their lives as legislators, and invites their concerns.

    What doesn’t work sometimes? I think you guys are too busy legislator to quench the thirst of those who are hungry for more access to what goes on in Richmond. That’s why I also support a “Virginia C-Span” and why I loved the Assembly Access blog this year. There just wasn’t enough material on the subjects I’m interested in on the blogs to satisfy my thirst for this stuff though….

    In any case, thanks for leading the way, Kris!

14. Make that “too busy legislatING”….

15. No question that we try hard on this blog to tell people where we’re coming from as we are making public policy decisions. (“Blogging transparency”–great phrase. Look for it coming soon to a blog entry near you!) It’s good to know that is helpful to readers.
    I also think there is a real hunger for what other bloggers provide. Ben’s going to have better statistical analysis than we do. Kenton will have better charts. Vivian will have her thoughtful analysis. Waldo will have a wonderful, eclectic mix of politics, environmental issues, and foster dog care. (I could go on.) But together, we can meet the need of people who want to go deeper, learn more, and share their thoughts.

16. I definitely prefer reading political blogs when my aunt is the author! :)

17. And I like it when my Godchild reads my blog!

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