What I said

John Stevens sent out an email today asking for campaign donations.

My response?

John, if you were running for BOS, I'd be giving you money. But you're not. And I'm still pissed at you about that.

Because we all know that he could beat Suzanne Volpe. And yes, Susan Buckley could, too. As could Andrea (probably).

News you can use:

• The campaigns for Shawn Mitchell, Jennifer Wexton, and Cliff Keirce have all announced yard sign availability.
• The Coalition for Women's Health is having a rally down in Richmond on October 15. Bus ride is free if you RSVP ASAP.
• Jennifer Wexton has challenged Jim Plowman to a debate. This is one to watch!
• I've got 21 responses on the Metro question (out of 39), 7 responses on Full-Day Kindergarten (out of 23), and 4 on Donations (out of 20), with promises of more to come on each. Do you have a question you'd like me to ask the candidates? Let me know.
• Also, sometimes the obvious needs to be stated. Not everyone knows about the election on November 8. Make sure you get the word out to your friends and co-workers. People fight and die every day all over the world for the right to vote. Let's show our support by herding Federal voters of our aquaintance to the polls in the off-years.

A picture's worth a thousand words

Cliff Keirce in the news!

Terrific article on Cliff in the Ashburn Patch. My favorite part?

Keirce sees Metro’s extension into Loudoun as a pivotal hook to bring new businesses to the area, and he fully supports the project.

“I’m 100 percent certain it will be completed,” he said. “It’s important not only to the region but to the federal government.”

In a recent meeting with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Keirce learned that while Phase 2 does not have any federal funding currently, Sec. LaHood promised that the federal government would assist in some way with Phase 2 – likely through low-interest federal loans.

Go read it all.

On Blogging in the Open

I started blogging in May of '05, under the pseudonym "Mystery Mommy" (a mommy who liked mysteries). I blogged anonymously partly because I didn't want to be Dooced, but mostly because all the bloggers I was reading (almost exclusively personal bloggers) were blogging anonymously. I didn't care really if people outside of my bosses knew about my blog. I told Stevens about it. I told my friends about it. Heck, I told my mom about it.

Mostly, I didn't want to be googleable.

I came up with descriptive names for people when I wrote about them (my mom is "QuiltsALot", my dad is "MakesBooksForGrandkids"). I met several of my bloggy friends in real life.

So, along comes 2007, and I started having trouble blogging because the biggest thing going on in my life was just unbloggable if I wanted to stay ungoogleable.

But I found a way.

As time went on, staying ungoogleable became less and less important. I told more people. I told Stevens's campaign manager (Shaun Daniels, the World's Best Campaign Manager, Bar None). I told our '09 campaign staff. I twittered and facebooked. And I started this blog here.

And I was surprised at how long it took the Loudoun blogosphere to find me, because some of the folks in this arena are strong with the Google-fu (Hi Barbara!!).

The drawback to blogging in the open is that I am held personally accountable for the things I write.

The benefit to blogging in the open is that accountability breeds trust. Several of the people who responded to my questions for candidates told me that they were answering my questions because I blog under my own name, and they know that they have a remedy if I misrepresent what they say or break my promise to post their responses without editing or commentary.

Accountability, I has it. I get benefits from it. But I do pay a price. It's a price I am willing to pay, but I don't think you're wrong if you're not willing to pay it.

But here's the thing: If you're an anonymous blogger, don't whine that you're not getting the benefits of open blogging. That's the price YOU'RE paying for not having accountability.

Deal with it.