In an e-mail newsletter from the Creigh Deeds for Attorney General campaign today, Creigh introduces a new campaign blog:
I hope you will take the time to read through my travel journal which I recently incorporated into my website’s blog, Creigh4AG. Everywhere I’ve visited during this campaign-from Abingdon to Hampton Roads to Winchester, and many stops in between-Virginians greeted me, and my vision for Virginia, with enthusiasm. This blog is my way of saying thank you and keeping you updated with the campaign. And, because I value your comments, this is a forum for anyone and everyone who wants to post.
If you are interested in writing about my campaign, or if you just want to connect with other supporters around the Commonwealth, please logon to the Creigh4AG blog.
I criticized Creigh’s blog last month, because it wasn’t a blog but, instead, just a flat HTML file that was sporadically updated. So I’m real pleased to see that the campaign has a proper blog, apparently established back on July 20. Some of the blog entries are written by communications director Peter Jackson, some by campaign manager Susan Swecker, and some by the candidate himself.
It looks to me like the entries by Creigh really are by Creigh, complete with somewhat disjointed writing and the occasional spelling error. (Hey, the guy’s a candidate for attorney general, not an English professor.) A lot of the blog just repeats campaign talking points, but there’s the occasional aside that’s nice, like this blog entry from last week:
When I was a commonwealth’s attorney in Bath County, every summer I would take my family to the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys (VACA) conference at the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach. My kids always associated the beach with the Caviler, so even after I left the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and joined the House of Delegates, our summer beach trips were to the Caviler. I felt right at home this morning speaking to many former colleagues at the VACA conference.
Campaign blogs should make voters feel personally acquainted with the candidate, make them feel invested in the campaign. Creigh’s blog, now that it’s an authentic blog, may just do that.
I should mention that Christian Grantham continues to maintain the best campaign blog in Virginia right now, for Bruce Roemmelt’s campaign. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s sweet, often it’s innovative, and it’s always well-written. I live a few hours’ drive away from the 13th District, and I’ve done very little for Bruce’s campaign. But following the blog as I do, I feel that I am a part of this campaign, and that Bruce’s victory will be my own. That’s a hell of an impact for a simple campaign blog.
Just got done cruising through Bruce’s site. I have never heard of this guy and didn’t know what seat he was running for, but his blog makes good reading. If what makes a blog effective is the ability to make someone want to know more – than Bruce wins hands down. Hell, now I want to know more about this SETI thing he does.
Thanks for pointing it out.
The reference was to SETI@home. A few years ago, SETI introduced the idea of distributed computing — a screen saver that downloads raw radio telescope data from SETI’s servers and, in a system’s downtime, analyzes that data for any patterns. Anything that’s found gets flagged and sent back to SETI, who manually reviews the data.
Millions of people have participated in the program, and it’s spawned many imitators. It’s pretty powerful, being able to harness billions of computing hours for massively distributed data analysis.
Hey! I just realized you designed Bruce’s site. No wonder you like it! :)
I just handed them a bundle of code that I already had lying around and said “have at it.” Besides, it ain’t the site’s look that I like. :)