A Birthday Present for Blue Hampshire

by: Dean Barker

Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 05:58:48 AM EST

Since then, we've been through one of the longest and most exciting First-in-the-Nation Primaries in history. We've been witness to the election of New Hampshire's first female US Senator, and our country's first African-American president.  We saw New Hampshire adopt civil unions, and now full marriage equality.

Along the way we've had visits from presidential candidates, members of congress, state legislators, pundits, staffers, and politicos of all kinds. We've been profiled and quoted in national newspapers and magazines, made local and national TeeVee and radio appearances, and in a variety of state media venues.

That's all pretty neat. But what makes this place special isn't that at all.  It's the readers who make Blue Hampshire a part of their day.  The 2350 of you who have signed up for an account, and the near 3.3 million times you've leafed through our virtual pages.  More specifically, the community of writers and activists who drive the reality-based discussion here ever forward to progressive goals.

In short, the best part about Blue Hampshire is that it's an open space for New Hampshire progressives to confirm that we are not alone, that our goals and dreams for a better Granite State and country are shared by other patriotic Granite Staters.  I am often reminded that it wasn't that long ago that the country I love was run by the worst chief executive in the history of our Republic, and the state I love was dominated at all levels of public service by the party he belonged to and values he pushed.

But more to the point - I've got a birthday present for you!

Today we are proud to announce that Jennifer Daler is Blue Hampshire's newest Managing Editor!

This will allow Jennifer, already a fantastic writer and progressive with a real understanding of state house issues, to expand even further in the area of growing this community and making the functionality of this site as vibrant an experience as it can be for you.

As for me, I am looking to shift gears a bit. After three years of daily posts, on top of family life and the demands of my actual day job, this change will allow me to repurpose what little free time I have on writing, at which, among all the moving parts of running a community blog, I feel I'm strongest.  As the person most often managing the store, being the most public "face" of Blue Hampshire has inevitably had some impact on how I express myself.  Having Jennifer on board will let me be myself again, while at the same time opening up Blue Hampshire to new possibilities. There will probably not be much of a noticeable outward difference here for you, Dear Reader.  But what it will mean is that Jennifer will be as involved in the behind the scenes day-to-day blog management as Laura and I are.

To that end, if you are a politician, a political campaign, an advocacy group, reporter, producer, a someone of something with somesuch to offer, please also include Jennifer in your emails to BH (psst- you can find her email addy just like ours in the left margin masthead).

And for Laura, the two Mikes, elwood, susanthe, and Jennifer, thank you for being such a wonderful and supportive team.  The same goes to our core group of incredible hamsters - Kathy, JimC, Jim Splaine, DD, the Emperor, Doug, hannah, Jack, Ray, and many more big tent regulars I'm forgetting at the moment.

One last thing: in a felicitous bit of timing, the New Hampshire Young Democrats are having their "3rd Annual NHYD Kennedy Awards Celebration to be held at 6:00 PM on Friday, November 20, 2009 at The Shaskeen at 909 Elm Street in Manchester.":

We will present the C. Arthur Soucy NHYD Achievement Award jointly to Dean Barker, Mike Caufield and Laura Clawson. Together, they created www.BlueHampshire.com and in doing so created an open forum for progressive discourse that has helped energize Democrats in the Granite State.