Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Happy sixth birthday, NPI Advocate!

It's time to celebrate another blogoversary!

Today marks six years since this blog, The Advocate, was launched as a project of the Northwest Progressive Institute. Compared to the history of Earth or even the history of civilization, six years doesn't seem like a long time.

But much has changed in the 2,193 days since we began publishing this blog.

For example: A young Illinois state senator, nominated by the Democratic voters of his state to be their nominee for United States Senate, was selected to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts.

After electrifying the convention with an unforgettable speech, he went on to overwhelmingly win his bid for Senate, and was sworn in on January 3rd, 2005.

Then, only two years later, he declared his intention to seek the Presidency as a Democrat. Following the longest contested primary season in modern history, he was nominated by Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic Party's standard bearer for President on August 26th, 2008.

On November 4th, 2008, he was chosen as America's first black president by popular vote, and he took office on January 20th, 2009.

All of that and more happened actually within The Advocate's first five years. But I don't mean to imply that our sixth year was uneventful. Here's a quick look back at some of the highlights from the last three hundred and sixty five days.

Liveblogging: The Advocate offered extensive coverage of Netroots Nation 2009 in Pittsburgh, the first end-to-end test run of Central Link, Central Link's opening weekend in July, KCTS' King County Executive debate, the opening of the Airport Link extension in December, and Vice President Joe Biden's appearance in Seattle for Patty Murray last month.

Notable Announcements and Scoops: Readers of The Advocate were among the first to learn that Craig Pridemore was running for Congress, that Rob McKenna had approved more than half a million dollars in bonuses to his top staff last year, that netroots author Jill Richardson was coming to town (she appeared at a party co-hosted by NPI), and . We also broke the news that Susan Hutchison had decided to come out strongly against Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033, and that our Fellow, Mike Finkle, was appointed to the King County District Court bench.

Guest Posts: Every now and then, we publish guest posts by distinguished special contributors. Our three favorite guest posts from the last twelve months were John Stokes' series on realizing a real transformation in education, Yuki Cheng's remembrance of events around the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, and Oregon gubernatorial hopeful John Kitzhaber's campaign pitch.

Most Popular: Readers really liked our daily reports during Filing Week 2009, the "Susan Hutchison Unabridged" transcript we published (of her remarks at a North Bend candidate forum), our recap of Senator Cantwell's interview with Bill Press (in which she announced her support for a public option), and the photos we published of Tim Eyman holding a NO on I-1033 sign, to name a few.

Today marks the end of a fun and exciting sixth year, and the beginning of the Advocate's seventh year. We're still going strong, and we hope you'll stick with us as we continue to chronicle our perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Comments:

Post a Comment

By posting a comment, you agree to be bound by the Northwest Progressive Institute's Comments Policy, which may be updated at our discretion.

<< Home