Popular blogger and blog commentator Naomi Parry (Larvatus Prodeo, and Polemica in its previous incarnation as Wsacaucus) has been mentioned in today’s Sydney Morning Herald as a possible candidate to replace NSW attorney-general Bob Debus in the state seat of Blue Mountains. The article predicts that Debus will announce his candidacy for the federal seat of Macquarie this afternoon. Macquarie’s boundaries were recently changed in a redistribution and now takes in parts of the seat of Calare, a seat now held by independant Peter Andren.
This is a new phase of politics when bloggers run for or are elected to a parliament.
I say this because anyone can access a large amount of their writings with a couple of clicks of a mouse whereas gathering the same information about other candidates or sitting members would involve costly newspaper searches etc. Even then you probably wouldn’t get to the same personal level of revelations (of thought mainly) that you probably can do with a blogger. This blogging history could end up to be a positive and/or a negative in a politician’s career, for some possibly a millstone around their neck.
Once in parliament and then taking up blogging, as does the wonderfully accessible Senator Andrew Bartlett of the Australian Democrats, is a different matter in that party policies etc. would more than likely strongly influence the lines that the blogging posts take and the personal would take a back seat or perhaps not even get into the vehicle.
Interesting times ahead if this, and I believe it to be highly likely, becomes a trend.
(Note: this post is not intended to infer anything about Naomi but is a general post caused by thoughts I had about today’s newspaper article.)
UPDATE: A related article at Stoush.
Catallaxy – been there, done that (Tom Vogelgesang is c8to)
http://elections.nationalforum.com.au/federal-election-2004/candidates/001036.html
This explains why Naomi has so myopically supported the alp in every post – she is about to get her snout in the trough it would appear. What does she do for a crust? Train driver, plumber, child care worker?
Shocking – ddn’t realise Naomi was from the Left faction. She sounds fairly sensible most of the time so I had her pegged as one of the NSW Right.
You obviously didn’t read the SMH article, Ansteybranchopolous.
Ron, I think you’re absolutely right, as Gummo’s post last week about Vic Liberal candidate Gary Anderton showed fairly graphically. It’s a bit worrying perhaps as we’ve all seen how very easy it is to have blogged words turned against their author by people who don’t wish them well.
But on the other hand it’s also a good development in that you can get a much better sense of what people are actually like as people.
And Jason, not everything’s a contest between catallaxy & the ROW!
What’s the ROW?
That was a tongue in cheek comment, laura.
Jason, get into an argument with her about nuclear power and you’ll pretty quickly figure out she’s ALP Left
To say nothing of how much time and money pollies (from all sides, alas) are prepared these days to spend on their dirt squads.
*momentarily coming out of self-imposed blogging hiatus*
Jason, from my 14 month membership of the ALP, I’d say that its members have all different sorts of views notwithstanding their membership of any particular faction.
I’m not in a faction – if I wanted to make a career change and go into the political “game” I’d probably make a career-driven choice as to whether I joined one, and if so, which one. Don’t know which one I’d feel most at home in, policy-wise. Possibly the centre-left, but that doesn’t exist anymore!
If I had to join a faction, I’d prefer to join one that emphasised enlightened and evidence driven policy making, with a prejudice towards social liberalism. No doubt Jason will point me towards the LDP!
*going back into my self-imposed blogging hiatus*
I think it is obvious that politicians will come from the blogeteriat. It is a cheap way to gain recognition through an audience. Who are these people? google searches will become a standard electoral device.
I think this is fantastic. I’m not sure about the concept of just using a blog as a cheap way to reach an audience, but in Naomi’s case, she has certainly used blogosphere constructively as a way to air and hone her opinions and debating skills.
I’m sure many people who have encountered her on LP and other blogs would vote for her because they have gained a stronger sense of her politics and ethics by reading her over a period of time, rather than just getting a second-hand mashup on glossy paper in the mailbox.
I’d like to see more bloggers get off the virtual soapbox that way, or inversely I’d like more politicians to get virtual with real voters.
I see the right-wing preselection candidate is proving the point that Liberal woman made the other week – her main claim to fame is apparently being the wife of Senator Steve Hutchins.
Go Naomi!
It’d be good to see people who weren’t intimately involved in the ALP to be its candidates – it’d broaden the “cultural gene pool” of candidates. This is one strength of the Libs, who often preselect people who havn’t been greatly involved in the Liberal party.
Natalie Sykes (aka Mrs Hutchins) is pleasant enough compared to most of her subfactional grouping but is no enormous talent.
What a terrible waste of talent!
I hope her tremendous research into Aboriginal issues doesn’t go the same way Peter Garrett’s environmentalism went.
It’s on public record that Naomi Parry was involved in the ALP well before her blogging days. The headline is more like, “Political aspirant blogs in her spare time, and furthers career in her real life.” She hardly “come[s] from the blogitariat,” as being trumpeted here.
UPDATE 2/11/06 It’s just been reported in the news that Phil Koperberg, NSW’s ‘hero’ Rural Fire Commissioner and Blue Mountains resident, has joined the ALP and will be standing for the state seat vacated by Debus.
I doubt whether anyone could win pre-selection against Koperberg and he will be a star performer here in the Mountains because of his ‘hero’ status during recent bushfire periods.
SMH Report
I wonder if this will be considered as ALP head office interference in local pre-selection?