I feel a little silly writing about myself in the third person, so I’ll limit that to the headline. I am running for Charlottesville City Council. I am seeking the Democratic nomination. I’ve been a civic activist for nearly a decade, and running for Council is the next logic step in continuing to work for my home, the city that I love. Jake Mooney should have a story in tomorrow’s Progress. I guess I need to recuse myself from writing about Council-related issues on cvillenews.com now, but I’m not sure of what to do. What do you think?
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Please continue to write about the council. However you may want someone else to cover the race. As long as you disclose it will be fine. To not write about it makes cvillenews not news about cville, it’s why I visit everyday. Though if you need an example of how not to please see “Citizen Kane”.
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Please continue to write about the council. However you may want someone else to cover the race. As long as you disclose it will be fine. To not write about it makes cvillenews not news about cville, it’s why I visit everyday. Though if you need an example of how not to please see “Citizen Kane”.
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Waldo asked:
I guess I need to recuse myself from writing about Council-related issues on cvillenews.com now, but I’m not sure of what to do. What do you think?
You’ve got a difficult task here; you are effectively in control of a media source while simultaneously being a news story. Maybe Max could take over writing and posting all Council-related stories? Pretty much no matter what you do, you’ll be accused of using this site to promote yourself and your campaign (I’m already envisioning next week’s C-VILLE article about how you post news about yourself in the third person). You admit your biases in the FAQ of this site, and although it shouldn’t, that fact may undermine what you hope to achieve with cvillenews while you’re campaigning. And then what happens to cvillenews.com if you’re elected to council and are representing a constituency instead of just offering your own private views?
I’m inclined to think that although I love the work you’re doing with the site, the wisest move given your political aspirations may be to hand over the controls to someone else entirely, as soon as possible.
Golly, I’d hate to see you avoid all stories on council-related issues. Even if Max or someone else posts them, there could still be the illusion of bias. Part of me thinks you should just go ahead and use cvillenews.com to post whatever you want, particularly if it’s related to council. Get the message out! Shake things up a bit!
Anyone know of any precedents in a situation like this? What did Forbes do when Steve ran for president?
Anyway — good luck!
As long as you are honest and up front about it, I don’t see why running for political office necessarily means you need to give up this site. If you have someone that can cover the specifics on the election, great! I would think that if you were elected, you would have an even more interesting and informative view of the council, perhaps be one of the few media sources “behind the scenes” as it were.
Perhaps the best way to think of it is to consider what you intended cvillenews to be, what it is and from there consider the possibilities of what may change or remain the same.
I think you have alot of good things to say and that the same civic-mindedness that brought you to create cvillenews.com is what is driving you to run for election.
Good luck!
Hey, Waldo, Hawes Spencer, the editor of C-VILLE, here. As long as you’re honest (and I’ve always known you to be), you won’t deserve any attacks for your website.
By the way, since I’m listed above as “Anyonymous,” does this mean I’m now responsible for all the anon. gibber-jabber that’s appeared on this site for the past year?
Take note that although Hawes says you won’t **deserve** any attacks if you’re honest, he didn’t say you wouldn’t be getting any from his newspaper. Heck, Gail Bentley was always honest in her publication (as far as anyone knows), but C-VILLE dug at her relentlessly because she wrote about herself. Be careful.
…hey, Hawes, nice to see where C-ville comes to get its late-breaking news…
gail bentley, you have got to be kidding. As long as Waldo doesn’t say he is the biggest thing to hit democracy since Jefferson he should be fine. Gail Bentley was a self-promoter who imbodied all that was wrong with dot.com. by the way I am Not Hawes
Oh, for heaven’s sake…we come to this site because it’s a breath of fresh air. As long as Waldo is upfront, and not hiding behind the “third person” I think it’ll be fun to check in and see what’s going on.
And to the person who thinks that Max should post the City Council news: Hello! Max’s mother is running for Council, too!
I know nothing about Max other than in the context of this site, so I wasn’t aware of his mother’s candidacy. No need to pollute the fresh air with rudeness. :-)
Obviously Waldo as moderator of a so-called “news” site could be an easy thing for someone to spin in the wrong direction.
I think it’s safe to say that putting moderation duties of anything council-oriented on someone else’s shoulders would be a good idea. Not to say Waldo ought not submit news; I’d like to know someone from the council did that. But it seems this site could work to the candidate’s advantage.
Without knowing anything about campaigning, but being one who is regularly victimized by bloodthirsty media, I can say I would want to hear about it from Waldo first.
If a city council candidate were to, as part of their platform, identify themselves as an enthusiastic initiator of public discussion and actually have some hard evidence to back it up, I’d be very enthusiastic about looking further into what they stand for.
Upfront facts would be important to me. independent operation. wise conflict-of-interest decisions.
Not a hard thing to have go your way, I’d think.
I am delighted you are running Waldo. As to the difficulty of a combining objective meta-news coverage and subjective partisan sniping, you’ve already described the right way to go in your annoucement. Write in the third person as a reporter, write in the first person as a partisan politician, and when you can’t separate the two–don’t write.
If I might offer a suggestion not so much about writing as about reading: please read the city budget. What would you cut?
First, congratulations on deciding to run. The City leadership is predominantly stale, and your candidacy offers the possibility of a breath of fresh air. In fact, two new faces on City Council would be most welcome!
Second, you should absolutely continue to cover the city government, this election, and all other affairs pertinent to the matter at hand. However, while I don’t think we’re in danger of Citizen Cane Redux, it would probably be fair and reasonable to disclose in all relevant articles that you are a candidate for City Council.
You and Max have done such a superb job of building this site into what it is, and what it will be, and to step aside at this point would not serve anybody’s interests (except, perhaps, your opponents’). If you try to deal with these issues with kid gloves, you run the risk of appearing to be wavering in your convictions, which isn’t what most people want to see in their elected leaders. Which is one reason why TWO new faces on City Council would be nice.
Personally, I’d like to see ALL of the candidates present their views on a variety of subjects daily without first consulting their “handlers.” Rest assured, it’s unlikely any of the others have enough confidence in themselves or their positions to attempt that.
Good luck in the race! GO FOR IT! A little revolution now and then is a good thing, right?