Changes in the Virginia Blogosphere

If you are only a casual visitor to the Virginia blogosphere, you may not yet know that one of the two pillars of the Virginia blogosphere, Raising Kaine ("RK") is closing down on December 31st. (The other pillar being NotLarrySabato.) RaisingKaine has been the best community blog in Virginia for four years, and is where I got my inspiration to start blogging about Virginia and local issues.

Lowell, Eric and the whole RK team explain their reasoning for ending RK's run very well on the site, so there's no need to go into here. The end of RK, however, begs the question, "what do we do now?" Well, to quote the site putting itself forth to take up RK's mantle, "The Voice of Progressive Virginia is Dead! Long live The Voice of Progressive Virginia!"

BlueCommonwealth, a collaboration among some RK frontpagers, hopes to be that next progressive community blog for Virginia.

2009 promises to be an exciting - an dangerous - year for Virginia Democrats. After the three-year run we have had; electing Jim Webb to the US Senate, taking over the Senate majority in the Assembly, and electing Barack Obama president, along with three new Democratic Congressmembers; many Democrats are suffering from election and activism fatigue. With contested Democratic primaries for all three statewide offices this year (Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General), candidates are seeking grassroots support early and often. Meanwhile, many of our families are wondering if we will ever take a break from politics to actually spend time with them. All told, a recipe for complacency and backsliding threatens the gains Virginia has made.

Which is why the success of BlueCommonwealth is so critical. We must not become complacent. It is well and good to win an election, it is the necessary first step to fixing the problems we face as a civic polity, but it is only that - a first step. The governing itself is much harder and much more important. Here in Loudoun, we have witnessed just how difficult it can be to clean up after years of mismanagement and grandstanding. Our elected Democrats from Town Council to President will require our vocal support to defeat the forces of obstruction and regression.

That means a place where we can be heard and debate issues of policy, as well as politics, together. That means a new community blog to succeed after RK.

So come and join us on BlueCommonwealth. Together, we will help support a well-run and prosperous commonwealth for the future.

[Update] In light of the above, a post from Kos on what almost wasn't is worth a read.