Jerome Armstrong

Jerome Armstrong (born February 26, 1964, in Los Angeles, California) is an American political strategist. In 2001, he founded MyDD, a blog which covered politics with an openly Democratic partisan perspective, making him one of the first political bloggers. Armstrong coined the term netroots,[1] and was referred to as The Blogfather[2] for having mentored many other famous bloggers such as Markos Moulitsas in their early years.[3] He is credited as one of the architects of Howard Dean's '04 grassroots presidential campaign, and bringing those tactics to campaigns globally.[4][5] He is one of the co-founders of Vox Media.

Background

Jerome Armstrong was an environmental activist in the late 1980s, working with Greenpeace and Earth First!. He later served with the Peace Corps, spent a year and a half at a Buddhist monastery, served in Americorps, with the I Have A Dream program, and did field organizing in Portland, OR in the early 1990s.[2][6] Armstrong has graduate degrees in Conflict Resolution and Applied Linguistics.[7]

MyDD

In 2001, he founded MyDD,[8] a blog which covers politics with an openly Democratic partisan perspective, making him one of the first political bloggers. Armstrong coined the term netroots,[1] is sometimes called The Blogfather[2] for having mentored many other famous bloggers such as Markos Moulitsas in their early years.[3]

In 2004 Jerome and Markos Moulitsas founded BlogPAC, a political action committee focused on progressive bloggers and politics online.[9]

Campaigns and Elections, in an early netroots profile in Oct-Nov 2005, as part of the article "Blogging Down the Money Trail", credited MyDD with being "the first major liberal blog." [10] In January 2006, the name was changed to "My Direct Democracy" as part of a site redesign, with a new tagline, "Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics."

Political consultancy

In January 2003, Markos Moulitsas joined Jerome Armstrong in a political consulting partnership called Armstrong Zuniga, before being formally dissolved in December 2004. Howard Dean hired them for a time as technical consultants in 2003. Armstrong introduced the campaign to Meetup.com and directing on online advertising and blogger outreach.[11] He worked with U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown's 2006 Senate campaign in Ohio.[12] He also signed on with Mark Warner's Forward Together PAC to develop their internet strategy, before Warner decided to not run for president in 2008.[13]

In 2007, Armstrong was awarded the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award for Political Organizing by 21st Century Democrats,[14] "for his visionary leadership in working to create the online netroots community". In 2008, London Mayoral Candidate Brian Paddick, a UK Liberal Democrat, brought aboard Armstrong [15] "to help boost his campaign's online presence". Armstrong has worked with over 40 campaigns through the political consultancy group Webstrong within the Democratic party and abroad.[16]

For the 2012 cycle, Armstrong went to work with Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, and as a senior advisor with the Campaign for Primary Accountability, a Super PAC which supports challengers against Congressional incumbents in both parties.[17][18]

Books

Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos co-authored the book Crashing the Gate: Grassroots, Netroots, and the Rise of People Powered Politics (March 2006). The book takes a critical look at the state of the Democratic Party, detailing the rise of a new movement that is reforming and taking over the Democratic Party. An Australian edition was released in July 2006.[19]

Business

Armstrong, along with Markos Moulitsas and Tyler Bleszinski, founded the Washington, D.C.-based Vox Media, a network of over 300 blogs and online verticals,[20] with funding led by Accel Partners.[21]

References

  1. 1 2 Tom Curry (2006-03-02). "Blog pioneer maps political strategy for 2008". MSNBC.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Blogfather". Salon.com. 31 May 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
  3. 1 2 "The Blogfather". AlterNet. 15 June 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
  4. ↑ Andrew Orlowski (2004-01-30). "Howard Dean's Net architect blasts ‘emergent’ punditocracy". The Register.
  5. ↑ "Paddick Signs Up Top US 'Blogfather'". Mayor Watch. 2008-03-28.
  6. ↑ "Key People-Former Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA)". George Washington University. 14 October 2006.
  7. ↑ William Safire (19 November 2006). "Netroots". New York Times.
  8. ↑ "Web Archive of MyDD from May 2001". Archived from the original on 2002-06-19. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
  9. ↑ "The Blogfather", Alternet, June 15, 2005
  10. ↑ David Weigel (November 2005). "Blogging down the money trail". Campaigns and Elections.
  11. ↑ "Key People-Former Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA)". George Washington University. 14 October 2006.
  12. ↑ Glover, K. Daniel; Essl, Mike (3 December 2006). "New on the Web: Politics as Usual". New York Times.
  13. ↑ Shear, Michael D. (29 August 2005). "Warner Won't Seek Allen's Senate Seat". Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
  14. ↑ "Honoring our Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award for Political Organizing Recipient: Jerome Armstrong". 21st Century Democrats. 1 May 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2007-05-01.
  15. ↑ "Paddick Signs Up Top US 'Blogfather'". Mayor Watch. 28 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  16. ↑ "The Arena". Politico. 25 October 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  17. ↑ Freelander, David (24 October 2012). "Netroots Bloggers Mark 10th Birthday in Decline and Struggling for Survival". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
  18. ↑ Kane, Paul (18 June 2012). "Super PAC targets incumbents of any stripe". Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
  19. ↑ "Crashing the Gate going to Australia". PlutoAustralia.com. 1 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
  20. ↑ "SB Nation: Startup Sports Blog Network Backed By Tech, Media Luminaries". HuffingtonPost.com. 28 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  21. ↑ "Blog network SportsBlog Nation scores funding". CNET.com. 29 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-07.

External links

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