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Utah’s First Politician Blogger
The Utah blogosphere has taken a major leap forward with the first
serious blogger who is an elected official. Rep. Steve Urquhart,
a Republican from St. George and House majority whip, is publishing
a Web log at www.steveu.com.
Rep. Urquhart has actually been blogging for some time, but has
kept it relatively quiet. He and I have been carrying on an e-mail
conversation about blogging for a few weeks. He’s now ready to go
public with his blog.
Urquhart’s blog has a nice tone and flow to it. He addresses a wide variety of issues and he’s a good writer. He is a pioneer of sorts, and deserves credit for doing this. I remember one politician telling me, when I suggested he become a blogger, “The less I put down in writing that I can be held accountable for, the better.” So Urquhart is taking a risk. But it’s a calculated risk and I think the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks.
One of his postings says: “I'll continue to have town meetings and mail out updates, but I'm excited that this space might contribute to a fuller public conversation. Feeling my oats a bit, I'm going to start getting the word out to constituents that this is up. I hope they'll jump in the dialogue and share their collective wisdom and insight.”
Urquhart’s blog is important, because for the first time ever, a real political insider, involved in daily meetings and discussions with top Utah leaders on public policy issues, will be, in effect, publishing a public daily diary of his activities and observations.
I don’t want to raise expectations too high or create too much pressure, because publishing a quality blog is a lot harder than it looks. But if Urquhart does it right, then journalists, lobbyists and interested citizens will have a window into the inner workings of the Legislature and the thought processes of someone in leadership.
It will be tricky, because Urquhart will need to keep his postings interesting, insightful and lively, yet he will have to be careful not to disclose sensitive information or strategy that could hurt the GOP caucus. A lot of his colleagues will joke that they had better shut up when they’re around him.
Having read many of Urquhart’s postings, I believe he can walk the tightrope and turn the blog into an asset for him, his legislative priorities and the House GOP caucus. After all, if his blog is popular, he will control a direct communications channel to an audience of political insiders and activists. He will be able to frame issues, put his spin on things, talk back to the news media, release important information, and even tell bad jokes.
The tough thing about blogging is that to develop and maintain a following, you pretty much have to post every day and somehow keep it relevant, insightful and interesting. That’s hard to do, but Urquhart will be in the thick of action on Capitol Hill and will have no shortage of things to write about.
I wish him luck on his leap into the blogosphere and encourage other political leaders to try blogging.
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