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January 2, 2010
Them Changes
The first entry on this blog, almost five years ago, was a blip about a Chattanooga City Council election. In 2006, TennesseeTicket tracked all the Hamilton County races and has provided information and commentary on local elections throughout its history.
Something has always felt a little strange about that, however, since I don't give much time to local elections outside Hamilton County, yet this site is all about Tennessee elections. The obvious reason is the sheer size such a task would be. There are 95 counties, and hundreds of municipalities, in the state. It would be physically impossible to extend the local layer that far and wide.
But until roughly a year ago, there didn't exist another blog that would have covered the Chattanooga metro area's political scene in its entirety, so I included what I could here. Now, that may be changing.
I will still write about local elections, of course. But I have started a discussion about posting my contributions on those topics at Chattarati, and further turning TennesseeTicket into the clearinghouse I've always wanted it to be for voters interested in deciding among candidates for the General Assembly, Governor, and Congress.
Naturally, there is already an exception. I write about the 3rd Congressional District at Chattarati (sidebar: check out the updated sidebar! Thanks, John Hawbaker!) and the rest of the federal districts here. Since Chattanooga is the de facto "seat" of the Fighting Third (but don't tell Oak Ridge that), this congressional race is of particular interest to Chattarati readers.
A number of daily visitors here hail from domains connected to Legislative Plaza and the U.S. Capitol, and many others are bloggers from Memphis to Morristown who follow statewide politics, and these may not be interested in whether Pam Hurst will have any opposition to her bid to continue as Hamilton County Register of Deeds. I could be wrong. But I hope the likely separation of state from local topics will make sense to all.
Another consideration is that segregating the local elections to another site will imply that they hold a secondary status, and I only bring that up to emphasize the opposite. Giving them coverage in a locally focused outlet will hopefully grow the online conversation about how these elected offices affect our daily lives, and if that conversation happens to draw interest from outside the immediate area, then that's a win-win.
About Blogs , Chattanooga City Elections , Hamilton County Elections , Site News | By joe lance | 12:30 PM
