Prior to Raising Kaine, I had barely paid any attention at all to Virginia politics. Mostly, I was focused on my job as an international oil markets and energy economist at the US Energy Information Administration. To the extent that I was interested in politics, it was pretty much all at the national and international levels (I had studied international relations as an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania and the Middle East as a grad student at George Washington University). My focus, in short, was more on places like Riyadh and Russia than on Richmond.
I first got back into politics -- after not really having much to do with it since I had been a Teenage Republican (totally different GOP back then) in Connecticut during the late 1970s -- during the Draft Wesley Clark effort of 2003. During 2003 and 2004, I probably spent over 1,000 hours of my time as a volunteer for Clark and then for John Kerry. Both lost, unfortunately. In 2005, I spent a couple thousand hours of my spare time working on Raising Kaine, as well as on non-blogging activities (e.g., leafletting, canvassing) for Tim Kaine and other Democrats. And in 2006, I spent thousands of hours working as a volunteer to Draft James Webb, then ultimately - after quitting my federal job - as a Webb campaign staffer (I served as Webb's netroots coordinator from July 2006 through the end of the election). In 2007, I spent a lot more time working for Virginia legislative candidates, helping to raise about $25,000 through the Raising Kaine PAC (we donated most of the money to Democratic candidates). I was very pleased when Democrats picked up 4 seats in the House of Delegates and 4 seats in the state Senate, although I had hoped that we would do even better.
This year, the focus turned to presidential politics, with an all-out effort on this blog to help win Virginia for Barack Obama. That effort was successful, but unfortunately it also led to some of the nastiest infighting we had seen since starting the blog. It was not particularly fun, as most of us here would much rather be fighting Republicans than our fellow Democrats. To me, despite Barack Obama's victory, this infighting was demoralizing.
Finally, we threw our weight behind three progressive candidates -- Jim Moran, Judy Feder, and Leslie Byrne -- in the June 10, 2008 Democratic primaries in the 8th, 10th, and 11th CDs. The candidates we supported won 2 of those 3 races, but Leslie Byrne got trounced. That was painful, but heck, you win some and you lose some. Unfortunately, the level of nastiness in that primary (I'm certainly not blaming anyone in particular, it came from many directions and I'll take my fair share of the blame) reached levels I hadn't seen since the Harris Miller-Jim Webb primary of early 2006. In fact, it might have even been worse this time around...or maybe I'm just tired of it.
At this point, I'd like to take a quick detour and comment about bloggers who make money as political consultants or in other ways related to their blogging. In my mind, there's nothing wrong with that, as long as there's full disclosure that the blogger is in an ongoing, paying relationship with a particular politician. For instance, since August 2007 I have been paid by Judy Feder as a consultant to her campaign. Of course, I supported Judy in 2006 when she wasn't paying me a penny, and I would have done the same this year as well. However, the Feder campaign wanted me to run a blog for them (Farewell Frank), and I agreed. In doing so, I have clearly disclosed this relationship and allowed my readers to calibrate their reaction to my writings on that subject accordingly. Same thing with Jon Bowerbank, the only declared Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, who approached me to work (for money) as his netroots coordinator. Again, I have disclosed this relationship on numerous occasions, simply because I think this is the right thing to do. Eric has done the same with his Bowerbank employment. Finally, I received a one-time, $500 payment from the Byrne campaign, a month after I had endorsed her (because I believed she was the strongest progressive in the race, and also out of loyalty and friendship for what she'd done to help Jim Webb in 2006), for help in Leslie's raffle of tickets to the Daily Show. Besides that, I never received a penny from the Byrne campaign, in exchange for hundreds of hours of work on her behalf.
More broadly, the issue here is whether bloggers should be able to earn a living in politics. In my view, the answer to that question is an unequivocal "yes," as long as the bloggers fully disclose to their readers what they are doing. Of course, campaign expenditures -- including payments to bloggers - are also reported to the FEC and the Virginia State Board of Elections. Still, my personal ethical code say that I should go above and beyond that, letting my readers know that I am taking money from a candidate so that they can judge my writings on that candidate accordingly. I would also point out that many people are paid by candidates in various capacities to speak for them, to run their campaigns, to conduct their research, etc.
Why would this strange class of humans known as "bloggers" be treated differently than any other people who work in politics? I don't have a great answer to that question, except that "bloggers" are valued in large part for their "authenticity" and perceived independence. And certainly, being paid by a campaign can create the appearance of inauthenticity or lack of independence. Again, however, I believe that full disclosure allows the reader to make his or her own decision regarding what value to place on the blogger's writings.
So, why is this my last diary? On the positive side, I feel that I've accomplished a great deal since 2005, including helping to elect Tim Kaine governor (among Virginia bloggers, though, Waldo gets by far the most credit for that one!), co-founding (with Lee Diamond, Josh Chernila and Corey Hernandez) the Draft James Webb movement and helping to elect Webb to the U.S. Senate, raising money for Democratic candidates and helping to elect them in 2007, working hard for Barack Obama, Judy Feder, and others in 2008. That's all good stuff, and I'm proud of it (notwithstanding my earlier comments about Tim Kaine). Unfortunately, along with those successes has come a lot of hostility towards this blog and towards me, personally. I don't fully understand it, but the fact is, it's there. And frankly, I'm not enjoying this anymore. It's kind of ironic, given that my book, Netroots Rising, is coming out now, but I believe it's time for me to say "Netroots, Farewell."
At this point, I feel it necessary to raise one other important reason that I'm not enjoying things anymore. This is painful for me to write, and I've held back from doing so in the past. However, I believe that I owe my readers a full explanation as to why this will be my last diary on Raising Kaine. To be completely blunt, I am extremely disappointed in Tim Kaine's governorship. From the repeal of the estate tax, which cost the state more than $100 million a year to benefit a handful of super-rich families in Virginia, to Kaine's tight relationship with companies like Dominion Power, to his failure to veto the "transportation monstrosity" (abuser fees and unconstitutional regional taxing authorities included), to his support for a no-bid contract on the multi-billion-dollar "Big Dig" Bechtel Metro-to-Dulles project, to...well, you get the idea. In my view, these have all been huge mistakes, and I can no longer in good conscience support this man. By the way, I get ZERO pleasure in writing what I just wrote. In fact, it hurts me greatly, as I like Tim Kaine personally and had high hopes for his governorship. But again, I wanted to be fully open and truthful with my readers.
One other comment: some of the criticisms of this blog, and of me, have been so outrageous that they'd be laughable if they weren't so nasty. For instance, the concept that we have ignored Virginia outside of northern Virginia (or even "dissed" it in some way) is utterly idiotic and infuriating. To the contrary, as Eric has pointed out, we have always viewed Virginia s one COMMONwealth. We have certainly not viewed any part of Virginia as "better" than any other. To most of us here, myself included, it's one state in which we all sink or swim, move backward or forward -- together.
In addition, we have always wanted this blog to have contributors from all parts of the state, from all walks of life. We have tried to recruit people to reach this objective, but sadly have not had nearly the success as we would have liked. It's a major bummer, and we're not sure why it's the case exactly (we've talked about this for many hours), but that's the situation.
Given that constraint, to the extent that I've been able to do so I've written about issues all over the state. I've strongly supported Democrats like Tom Perriello, Glenn Nye, Donald McEachin, Ralph Northam, Joe Bouchard, and many others. I've devoted as much attention as my finite time has allowed, but frankly, I live in northern Virginia and that's where most of contacts are. So, the fact that I've written more on northern Virginia should not exactly be a big surprise. Hence, my long-standing desire to recruit high-quality writers from all over Virginia to write on this blog's front page. Even now that I'm leaving this blog, I hope that people from southwestern Virginia, Southside, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and all over the state will feel welcome to come blog at RK.
I'm not sure what the future of this blog will be. My goal was always to create a group and community blog that was not "Lowell's blog." Therefore, it is now up to the rest of the members of this group and this community to decide how they want RK (or "Raising Kaine," or whatever they end up calling it) to develop. I wish them the best of luck, but I will no longer be an active participant, except for possible, occasional guest posts on specific topics that interest me (or on previous commitments, like a review of David Sirota's "The Uprising").
Thanks to everyone who has made this blog a success since 2005. Thanks in particular to Eric, the co-founder of this blog and the tech wizard behind the scenes who kept it all going and looking good. Thanks to the front pagers, the people who wrote user diaries, the commenters, and even the "lurkers." :) Thanks to people who agreed with what we had to say, and thanks to the people who disagreed without being disagreeable. And thanks to all the candidates and elected officials who put themselves out there on the firing line, in the public eye, for very little reward in most cases. I've been an activist and blogger, not an elected official or candidate for office, but I feel like I know a bit what it must be like for them. Best of luck, and thanks for the memories!
