As you may know, one of the events that took place this weekend was a blogger gathering that took place before Chap PetersenGÇÖs kickoff event. One of the primary reasons that I enjoyed the event so much was because it finally allowed me to put a face to some of the bloggers that I frequently read, but had never had the opportunity to meet. Furthermore, I was also glad to see that Del. Dave Marsden, Del. Chuck Caputo, and Morris Meyer (Democratic candidate for Delegate in the 40th) mingled with the crowd.
All three of the politicians were also kind enough to make some impromptu remarks about how they view the blogosphere and the growing influence of the internet in politics. Although I did not take notes on the event, all three speakers had extremely positive things to say about bloggers and I felt as though they were sincere in their statements that bloggers have the ability to accomplish a lot of good for the Democratic Party.
Below the flap I have provided some brief highlights of the event and an idea for a future gathering.
Del. Dave Marsden spoke about how a silent movie was made during the 1920GÇÖs or 30GÇÖs that discussed the need for better roads. Ultimately this movie illustrates how transportation has been a problem in Northern Virginia for decades and yet the Republican legislature has continuously failed to improve the situation.
Del. Chuck Caputo issued a challenge to bloggers to discuss the ins and outs of the General Assembly session which might not make the mainstream media outlets such as the Washington Post. This is a great challenge because it will allow us to illustrate how Democrats are attempting to improve the quality of life for all Virginians.
Morris Meyer, who just had his campaign kickoff yesterday, spoke on how Democratic bloggers should use their influence to move things forward. He showed how passionate he is about his message, which I believe will help to rally his supporters as his campaign continues to heat up.
Although most bloggers then proceeded to go to the Chap Petersen Kickoff event, Mark LevineGÇÖs Inside Scoop did feature some of the bloggers that were at the event GÇô mainly teacherken who doesnGÇÖt have a blog of his own (at least that covers Virginia), but is a frequent diarist over at Daily Kos and on Raising Kaine. Kenton Ngo also made an appearance during the last half of the show (he would have been there sooner, but I managed to get us briefly lost while driving from the Chap Petersen event back over to the television station).
PS
IGÇÖd like to end by thanking Jim Southworth for putting the event together. He put a great deal of effort into ensuring that we had a good time, which we did. I was also thinking that it might be extremely interesting to have another gathering in a couple of months once the GA races have gained a little more momentum. It could be extremely informative if perhaps there were certain bloggers who would report and accept questions about the particular races that were going on their area.
I am most widely read at dailykos. Besides RK, I post at Not In Our Names, Streetprophets, and occasionally at MyLeftWign and Boomantribune. I have accounts at quite a few other places, but usually limit my participation there to commenting.
I stayed at the station because I was afraid Chap's event would run late, and I wanted to be sure that Mark had at least one person with whom to talk!
DO IT AGAIN, and I'll be there hell or high water.
-Nate