Rating the Candidate Websites: Lieutenant Governor (Dem's)

I've reviewed the Democratic candidates for LG's websites, trying to look at the same criteria across all of them, and have rated them as follows. Obviously, the website is only one part of the overall campaign, but it's an increasingly important part, as Barack Obama and many others have shown in recent years. With that, on to the ratings...

Jon Bowerbank
The website appears to have had a major overhaul recently and looks very sharp (I believe the programming language content management system being used now is Joomla, while the previous version was WordPress). I like the fact that Jon's "Twitter" feed is front and center (and updated), as this is dynamic content that's essential if you want people to come back to your site. Also, having the most visible buttons as social networking, volunteer-related, or "contribute" (in red for even more notice) is an excellent idea. I like the mouse-over feature for the menu items going down on the right. Overall, the focus here seems to be on interaction, which is definitely a good thing. "Join our team" is at the top, as it should be (and usually is on candidate websites). I don't see a splash page, which I have mixed feelings about (I've heard they're effective but I find them annoying). The issues positions are good, although I'd like to see more issues and more details. But again, what's there now is fine. I like the feature where you can follow Jon's travels around Virginia. My only wish there would be for Jon to offset the carbon his SUV is spewing into the atmosphere as he racks up miles on his odomoter (another cool feature; now at 86,222 miles). There are lots of photos on Jon's Flickr page, with the latest from February 19, but only one video under multimedia. One other issue: introducing a new domain name this deep into the effort seems a bit unusual. True, they'll be able to redirect the old one (jonbowerbank.com) to jb2009.com, but they've been promoting the old domain for a long time and it doesn't seem like the best idea to change now. The blog appears to be getting updated, although not as frequently as it could be. Finally, I don't see the word "Democrat" on there, as in "Democrat for Lieutenant Governor," and I don't particularly like that. Overall, though, I'd give this site an "A minus" - nice job!

Jody Wagner
A nice-looking site, although I find it a bit "busy" compared to the cleaner layout of Bowerbank's site. Also, where's the word "Democrat," as in "Democrat for Lieutenant Governor?" Hmmmm. Moving right along, it looks like the Wagner campaign has beefed up the issues section significantly, although there's still very little on controversial issues like "guns, God and gays" for instance. There's a video section, but just one video ("Jody's Jefferson Jackson Dinner Message") listed there. The photos button takes you to Jody's "Flickr" page, where the latest photo is from January 5. The "grassroots endorsements" roll on the left is a nice touch; to date, I see more than 700 endorsements, including elected officials (which appear to be listed twice, under "grassroots endorsements" and also under "delegates" or whatever). Jody's Twitter feed is ok, although not my cup of tea at all with the constant exclamation points and exclamations about how "great!" everything and everyone is. Overall, a nice site, A minus/B plus.

Mike Signer
He's got a good-looking splash page which says "Democrat" for Lieutenant Governor. Good to see. Overall, the site looks sharp, with clear buttons at the top and a big "Join Us!" on the right side. In comparison to Jon Bowerbank and Jody Wagner, Mike Signer has lots of videos, and they're much more informal, grassroots-style, than the other two candidates. I strongly prefer that, but then again, I've got a strong netroots/grassroots leaning. Also, those "coffee break" videos are well done and, I think, effective. On the issues, there's not a lot of detail and I'd like to see more. Mike's photo gallery is fairly slim, a bit out of date (Mike in 2005?) and too much outside of Virginia (Mike in Denver, Mike in Qatar?). Also, overall I prefer that candidates have Flickr pages, and I don't see one here. Mike definitely "gets" Twitter, with a frequently updated page that isn't just "attended a great meeting with great Democrats!" Finally, the campaign blog needs to be updated more frequently; right now, there are only two entries, although the top one is about Mike's "live blog" right here on Blue Virginia, which is cool. All in all, I'd give this site a B-plus, particularly for the excellent videos. Just beef up the blog and the issues and you'll get an "A" in my book.

Rich Savage
I could do without the "get Savage" tag line, although it's memorable - and that matters. I could do without the video that automatically starts playing; annoying. Other than that, this is a very basic site. The "news" and "events" buttons are non-functional. There's not much on issues, although what's there is very good (e.g., "Rich's environmental positions"). I don't see Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter pages. I don't see any "tell a friend" feature. I don't see the word "Democrat." Overall, this is a functional but rudimentary website. I'd give it a "B-minus/C-plus" and call it a "work in progress." Like the candidate?

Pat Edmonson
A very busy website which plays some kind of strange music/fanfare when you log on. Also, I find it jarring and a bit odd how Pat Edmonson's picture pops up when you log on. To each their own, I guess. On the plus side, I'm glad to see the words "Democrat" and "Progressive" front and center. Pat has Facebook, Flickr, MySpace and YouTube functionality, which is good. However, there aren't many photos on Flickr, the Facebook page is extremely sparse, and the YouTube channel has just 2 videos so far. Pat has the most detailed issues page of any candidate, most of which is strongly progressive (e.g., "We must make passage of an Equal Rights Amendment a top priority!", "Offshore drilling off the Virginia coast is environmentally irresponsible"). The blog has been updated recently, but there's a gap from February 8 to February 28 where there are no posts. Overall, I'd give this site a B-minus/C-plus...some good things, some not-so-good things, some that need to be fleshed out/filled in.

Full disclosure: I worked for Jon Bowerbank until the end of November 2008, when I decided to get out of blogging and political consulting. We see how THAT one worked out. :) Currently, I am not consulting for any of the LG candidates.

Should Be an Interesting Meeting Wednesday in Arlington!

Wednesday evening's Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC) meeting should be an interesting one. Gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds will speak for 5 minutes (Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran spoke at last month's meeting). Lieutenant Governor candidates Pat Edmonson and Jody Wagner will speak for 3 minutes each (Jon Bowerbank and Mike Signer spoke at last month's meeting, not sure about Rich Savage). Finally, Attorney General candidate Steve Shannon will address the committee.

Aside from the ever-fascinating candidate speeches, there will also be a vote to approve a primary as the method of choosing the Democratic nominee in the 47th House of Delegates district. ACDC chairman Peter Rousellot also writes that "there might even be a surprise or two by the time we get to Wednesday night." I presume that may have to do with the 47th House of Delegates race, where 5 candidates (Miles Grant, Patrick Hope, Alan Howze, Adam Parkhomenko, and Andres Tobar) are already filed, with at least one more (Alfonso Lopez) reportedly close to deciding whether to throw his hat in the ring. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Adam Parkhomenko is announcing a big endorsement this morning - State Senator Patsy Ticer (D-30). Also, Patrick Hope was endorsed by Arlington School Board member Elaine Furlow.

Ben's "Senate Partisan Index"

Putting this together obviously took a tremendous amount of work (and ability) and I can only say "thank you, Ben" for doing it. Also, "great job;" as much as I agree with my friend Chap Petersen that "We need daily reporters," I don't think I've ever seen them do something like this for the Virginia General Assembly. Once again, it looks like citizen journalists can do great work; the main problem is that the vast majority of them only do this part time (for no $$$), and very few have the time (or skillset) to put together something like this.

I've been working on this for a couple of weeks. I went through every bill that was on the Senate floor before crossover (i.e. bills introduced by a fellow Senator). For each vote that had a majority of the Democratic Caucus on one side, and a majority of the Republican Caucus on the opposing side, I scored Senators based on whether they voted with a majority of their party, or with a majority of the other party. This happened 55 times.

Three things jump right out at me from Ben's "partisan index" (which, by the way, covers Senate floor votes this year prior to "crossover").

1. Senate Democrats overall were actually a bit more "partisan" than Senate Republicans, with just two Dem's - Chap Petersen (80%-20% "partisan Democratic") and Roscoe Reynolds (78%-22%) - voting with Republicans 20% of the time or more.

2. In contrast, NINE Republicans - Harry Blevins (53%-47% "partisan Republican"), Fred Quayle- 55%-45%), Jill Holtzman Vogel (56%-44%), Ken Stolle (57%-43%), Richard Stuart (58%-42%), Tommy Norment (60%-40%), John Watkins (63%-37%), Walter Stosch (73%-27%), Frank Wagner (75%-25%) - out of nineteen voted with Democrats at least 20% of the time, with six Republicans voting 40% or more of the time with the "blue team." Looks like we may have a few "Russ Potts/John Chichester Republicans" in the State Senate (the House is another story altogether...), which I'd be happy to see if it holds up.

3. One Senator, Ken Cuccinelli, jumps out at me as wildly out of step with his district. "Cooch" was highly partisan (at least on floor votes, pre-"crossover"), voting 95% with Republicans, despite the fact that his district is increasingly Democratic (he only retained his seat by 92 votes last time around). No wonder why Cooch is running for statewide office.

I'd be very interested to see how the Senators voted after "crossover" and whether their voting pattern changed. I'd also love to know - but this would be a huge amount of work - how they voted in committee and what they took leadership roles on. And, of course, I'd love to see all of this done for the House of Delegates. Besides that, my only wishes are world peace, a booming economy, a magic cure for climate change, a cure for cancer... :)

Fairfax County Cancels School Despite Almost No Snow

So much for that big snowstorm, at least according to the Capital Weather Gang

Here are some revised snowfall projections:

West and northwest of beltway: 1-3"
District and Inside Beltway: 2-5"

Wow, 1-3 inches, almost none of which is "sticking" on roads or sidewalks. But never fear, despite the lack of snowfall, Fairfax County has canceled school for tomorrow. Hmmmmm.

UPDATE: Of course, as soon as the weather people began writing off the storm as a dud, they were wrong again and we ended up getting a few inches of snow. Looks like the Fairfax County folks were right after all. Pass me some crow! :)

UPDATE #2: More public school system closings include Alexandria City, Arlington County, Culpeper County, Fairfax County, Falls Church City, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, Manassas City, Manassas Park City Schools, Prince William County, Spotsylvania County, Stafford County.

Eric Cantor Claims No Republican Wants Obama to Fail

See 3:43 of the video (from this morning's "This Week"), where Eric Cantor claims that "nobody - no Republican, no Democrat - wants this president to fail, nor do they want this country to fail or the economy to fail." Hmmmm...did Cantor miss the CPAC convention? Did he miss Rush Limbaugh's comments about hoping Obama fails? Later in the video (7:47), George Stephanopoulos asks Cantor about Limbaugh, and Cantor says - incredibly - "I don’t think anyone wants anything to fail right now....What we need to do is put forth solutions to the problems that real families are facing today." Uh, Eric? You might want to tell that to Rush Limbaugh, his millions of "dittoheads," the CPAP crazies, etc. Good luck! :)

House of Delegates: Epic Fail

The General Assembly session that just wrapped up had a few successes, most visibly the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. Overall, however, we're talking about "epic fail," particularly on the House of Delegates side of the Capitol. Here's a short list.

1. Tobacco: An excellent proposal by Gov. Kaine to raise the cigarette tax from 30 cents per pack to 60 cents was defeated. An even better bill, this one by David Englin, would have increased the cigarette tax by 89 cents per pack, the revenues from which would have gone to Medicaid and public schools funding. Englin's bill went where so many good bills in the flat-earth-Republican-controlled House of Delegates go to die -- a subcommittee.

2. Energy/Environment: There was near-complete failure in this area to seriously address our energy and environmental challenges. Examples include proposals to charge a small fee for single-use plastic bags, Adam Ebbin's Green Public Buildings Act, a bill by Margi Vanderhye "requiring the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources that consume carbon-emitting feedstocks," another excellent bill by Margi Vanderhye to advance energy conservation and efficiency by "encourag[ing] investor-owned electric utilities to file tariffs with rate structures that reflect time of day and seasonal cost differential," etc., etc. We could go on all day. For this reason alone, we need to take back the House of Delegates this November. (Note: In fairness, the State Senate under the anti-environment leadership of Dick Saslaw, also killed several pro-environment bills, including several by Chap Petersen. Saslaw needs to be primaried in 2011.)

3. Voting: The House killed Rosalyn Dance's early voting bill, as well as her absentee voting bill. Also killed were a bill on provisional voting by Bob Brink and a bill by William Barlow (D-Smithfield) calling for a constitutional amendment to establish an 11-member, non-partisan redistricting commission. Lame.

4. Fair housing: A bill by David Englin to allow "localities to expand fair housing protections beyond the classes protected by state law" dies in House General Laws.

5. Access to birth control: The House Health, Welfare and Institutions committee killed (14-8) a bill that would have required "any pharmacist who refuses to fill a prescription for contraception to ensure that the patient seeking such contraception is treated in a nonjudgmental manner and is not subjected to indignity, humiliation, or breeches in confidentiality, and states that the pharmacist shall not confiscate such prescription."

6. Nondiscrimination in public employment: This bill by Adam Ebbin was Equality Virginia's top priority during the legislative cycle. According to Equality Virginia, "Every Virginian should have the right to a workplace free from discrimination and committed to equality of opportunity without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity." Apparently, Republican members of the House General Laws subcommittee prefer to allow discrimination against an entire class of Virginia taxpaying, law-abiding citizens. Wonderful.

7. Homelessness among veterans: A bill by Joe Bouchard that would have "the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study ways to "[reduce] homelessness among veterans in the Commonwealth" died in House Rules. What. The. Hell?!?

8. Autism spectrum disorder: Heck, the House of Delegates even rejected a bill by one of its own, Bob Marshall's bill to mandate coverage for autism spectrum disorder.

I could go on and on, but in short, the Republican-controlled House of Delegates was pathetic as always this year. We need a change badly this November or we'll see this "epic fail" for years to come.

Brian Patton Moves Up to Commonwealth Attorney?

Among the flurry of business closing out the 2009 Virginia General Assembly session last night was the confirmation of individuals to various court judgeships. For instance, SR 38 nominated 5 individuals - Michelle J. L. Atkins (Norfolk), Deborah S. Roe (Hampton), R. Michael McKenney (Northumberland), H. David O'Donnell (Rockingham), Michael J. Bush (Russell) - to juvenile and domestic relations district court judgeships. That last name jumped out at me, as my fellow blogger and good friend Brian Patton has been the Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Russell County since the summer of 2007. With Michael Bush moving up to the Twenty-ninth Judicial District for a term of six years commencing April 1, 2009, it looks like Brian Patton will be getting an interim promotion (pending a special election) to Commonwealth Attorney. Congratulations to Brian; we'll be following this one closely and definitely supporting his candidacy!

By the way, Russell County has a Democratic lean to it, going for Jim Webb 51%-49% in 2006 and with a county board that has 6 Democrats out of 6 supervisors (Danny Brown, Chairman Mike Puckett, Vice Chairman Shy Kennedy, Bob Keene, Billy Wayne Wampler, Jon Bowerbank). Other elected Democrats in Russell County include Sheriff Steve Dye, Treasurer Helen Baker, Clerk Ann McReynolds, Commissioner Randy Williams, and Commonwealth's Attorney (soon to be "Judge") Michael Bush. Finally, Russell County is represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by a Democrat (Rich Boucher), in the Virginia State Senate by a Democrat (Phil Puckett), and in the Virginia House of Delegates by two Democrats (Bud Phillips, Dan Bowling).

Given Brian Patton's excellent qualifications and high moral character, I'd certainly expect that he will continue the streak of Democratic success in Russell County. However, you can never take anything for granted in elections, so we'll be watching this one closely and - when the time comes - reminding people to support Brian for Commonwealth Attorney. Meanwhile, once again, congratulations to Michael Bush...and to Brian Patton!

The Intellectual and Moral Bankrupcty of Conservatism: Eric Cantor Edition

This could almost be parody except, sadly, it's not.

Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican Whip in the House, said yesterday that taxing rich people would be bad for poor people.

Cantor's GOP is lining up to defend the well-heeled from having to pay slightly more taxes, with fewer deductions, under the president's tax plan.

But the real reason this is bad? It will hurt charities, for poor people!

Got that? Yep, rich people will only give to charity in order to get larger tax deductions. Not because they believe in Christian values like helping the less fortunate. Not because they're good, caring, or altruistic people. Not because they know that helping build a stronger society ultimately helps themselves. Nope. It's all about those precious tax deductions. If they don't get them, apparently none of their wealth will "trickle down" to the less fortunate. In other words, as a friend of mine once said, the Republican Party is the "I've got mine so f*** you" party. And Eric Cantor, in his intellectually and morally bankrupt worldview, epitomizes that attitude.

Can Bloggers "Fill the Gap Left by Shrinking Press Corps?"

That's the question asked by Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher this morning.

Across the nation, it's not just that fewer reporters are covering state government; newspapers and TV stations are also devoting far less space and time to that news.

Does that mean citizens are less well-informed? Do blogs and other new media fill in where old media are cutting back? Is it really a loss if reporters cover fewer legislative debates?

The short answer to that last question, in this blogger's opinion, is strongly "yes." I agree with all of the following quotes.

*The smaller the press corps gets, the more you see personality stories rather than pieces about what is at stake for people." - Tim Kaine

*"What you want is an informed and engaged population, but with less manpower and less space, there just isn't the opportunity to talk about many topics that lie beneath the marquee issues." - Bill Bolling

*"...it's not just the bodies that are gone -- it's the institutional memory and knowledge." - Bob Lewis (veteran AP Richmond reporter)

"Something will rise to fill the news vacuum, someday. In the meantime, the lobbyists are getting the news they need. The voters, not so much." - Marc Fisher

In short, the decline of the "mainstream" media (aka, "corporate" media, "legacy media") is not a good thing in any way, shape or form. As you probably know, I'm a big fan of the netroots. This does not, however, mean that I'm a big fan of all, or most, or even many blogs. In fact, to be blunt, I think that most (vast majority of?) blogs are not particularly helpful when it comes to independent reporting, in-depth investigative journalism, or the depth of coverage that used to be offered by the corporate media.

What I'm even more concerned about is that, not only are traditional news sources dying out fast -- with each week bringing news of layoffs, cutbacks, or even Chapter 11 filings by venerable U.S. newspapers (e.g., the Christian Science Monitor, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times, the Hartford Courant, etc., etc.) -- but there remains no serious "business model" for blogging, except for a few high-traffic, national or niche blogs that receive huge traffic (e.g., Huffington Post, Daily Kos, BoingBoing, Gizmodo, Talking Points Memo, Gawker). On the state level, even leading blogs often receive just a few hundred visits per day, with top blogs receiving a few thousand visits per day. Raising Kaine, for instance, was average around 3,000 visits per day in "normal" months, about 6,000 visits per day leading up to elections. Even so, RK was certainly not making enough money to support even one person (even at poverty wages), let alone an entire staff of writers and reporters. I use this example not to moan or complain, simply to highlight my fundamental concern with the decline of the corporate media; while their business model dies, there's no "business model" for state, local, or even national blogs (with a very few exceptions) to replace them. And even if there was, there's no reason to think that political blogs run by 1 or 2 people, mostly working at it part-time, can do what an entire newspaper bureau, with full-time staff and other resources, can do.

True, technology can address some of this; Richmond Sunlight, for instance, is a great resource (if you know about it) for tracking legislation in the Virginia General Assembly. But, I wonder, how many people use that site compared to how many people used to read the Washington Post (or LA Times or Hartford Courant) "dead tree" edition 10, 20 years ago? I'm also concerned about the issues raised here:

The worrisome thing about Google News though is the multiplicity of news sources that go into the coverage of each story. The students in their haste don’t always distinguish between the sources, all too often missing the inherent political biases that can push the coverage of a story more favourably to the right or to the left. To them, article 46 is just as good as article 47 on the subject of say today’s comeback victories by Hillary Clinton.

This points to one of the major advantages of having top-notch, full-time, professional journalists like Bob Lewis, Warren Fiske and Michael Sluss out there. Can an army of Kenton Ngos and Bryan Scraffords compensate for the loss of people like this? As great as Kenton and Bryan (and many others) are, I doubt it, as long as there's no business model for bloggers to do this part time.

Then, there's the issue of "bias." By definition, political bloggers are not objective. Nor should they be, necessarily. I don't necessarily see that as a major problem, no more so than in countries where they've got the "Communist," "Fascist," "Christian Democrat," and "Socialist" newspapers. Here in the United States, we have newspapers and other "old media" outlets with blatant biases (e.g., Faux News, right-wing talk radio, the Moonie Times, liberal magazines). That's fine, as far as I'm concerned; as long as you have access to different viewpoints, you can pick and choose, compare and contrast, and decide for yourself.

In the end, what I'm really worried about here is the loss of counterweights to corporations and other permanment, powerful interests. On this count, Marc Fisher says it best: "...the lobbyists are getting the news they need. The voters, not so much." And the lobbyists aren't going away; in fact, they'll likely rise in power as the watchdogs on them go away. Dominion lobbyists running amok without any reporters to keep an eye on them? I don't know about you, but that doesn't exactly give me a "warm and fuzzy" feeling.

March Comes in Like a Lion; "Significant" Snowstorm Coming

If I recall correctly, I learned the "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" expression back in 2nd or 3rd grade. Whenever it was that I learned it, I've never forgotten it. Not surprisingly, then, given that today is March 1, I'm hearing the roar of lions coming closer. Weather-wise, that is.

A significant winter storm appears likely to blast the metro area with snow late today through tomorrow morning along with strong winds and possibly blowing snow. We're expecting a general 4-8" of snow in the metro area, with greater amounts possible east/southeast and somewhat lesser amounts west/northwest. This is a high-impact storm that will probably cause significant disruptions, including travel delays and school cancellations.

In other words, batten down the hatches (does anyone have hatches anymore?) and get ready for a rare event - a major snowstorm in DC and Virginia in March.