The BlueNC frontpage team for 2012

I'm in Vienna marking the start of the New Year six hours early. Fireworks exploding everywhere. I'll be back in Raleigh in 24 hours to make sure we have fireworks everywhere in NC, a progressive 2012, and hopefully stay at least six hours ahead of Thom Tillis. Happy New Year!

Another veteran BlueNC frontpager, Betsy Muse, will continue to work with us in 2012. When I asked her for a few words she offered these: Mother to two beautiful, brilliant daughters and wife to one good man. Always writing something.

You can find Betsy here at BlueNC and also at Democratic Muse.

BlueNC would not still be operating if it weren't for Steve Harrison. He has picked up my considerable slack while working a demanding day job, and has become our most reliable blogger for environmental issues, including hunting down material for Friday Fracking Videos.

I love Steve's sense of humor.

"I see myself standing at the intersection of politics and public policy, taking note of the pedestrians who are injured while attempting to cross. And I worry that if I stop watching, even more will get hurt."

In addition to our old-timers, several other BlueNC community members have agreed to step up to the frontpage in January. One of them is Katy Munger.

Katy Munger is a founding staff member of Progress North Carolina and serves as its New Media Director. She is also past Communications Director for Democracy North Carolina and the author of 14 novels. She specializes in political messaging that highlights the overlapping concerns of middle-of-the-road voters and the progressive community.

You can find Katy here and there.

Many of you already know Jake from his tireless coverage of equality and LGBT issues.

Jake is a North Carolina native. He holds a BA in Philosophy and a Master of Public Administration degree from North Carolina State University. He is employed as an organizer with Democracy North Carolina. He has worked on and volunteered with numerous campaigns in North Carolina ranging from the local to national level. And he has long been an advocate for LGBT equality, voting rights, clean elections, and sound public policy.

You can keep track of Jake here at BlueNC and also at Democracy North Carolina.

You may not know Gray by his real name because he has written as TrueMeckDem from the earliest days of BlueNC. I'm very excited that Gray has agreed to join our frontpage team.

Gray lives in Mint Hill, NC (of which Charlotte is a suburb) and will primarily be posting about campaign finance reform, ballot access, third party politics and the Great State of Mecklenburg. Gray was the last member of the Green Party to hold elected office in NC and the only one outside of Orange County, he also served as a national co-chair of the Green Party.

I'm tying up loose ends on a couple of other new frontpagers who have volunteered their time and wisdom to keep North Carolina thinking. As soon as I have the green light, I'll add them to this comment thread.

In addition to the folks referenced in this thread, I want to offer a special note of thanks to usernamehere, who has been a steady BlueNC voice for years ... and who does a great deal to help us keep the site clean and clear of inevitable spammers.

It takes a village, so to speak, and usernamehere is a vital part of our frontpage team.

Here's a primer you may find interesting.

There are plenty of BlueNC community members who represent the best tradition of the armed services, and one of them is our new frontpager, Bill Franklin. You can find him here.

Bill is retired from 24 years in Army and 21 years in computer security businesses as product/program manager. He is addicted to books on economics, history, psychology, forecasting, intelligence, analysis, and of course, politics.

Sorry to be late in getting one more frontpager announced, but it's definitely worth the wait. I'm excited to add Persondem to the list of BlueNC frontpagers for 2012.

Persondem is a past Democratic county chair and a current SEC member. He is a long-time educator, mostly concerned with special ed. Like to travel and be healthy.

Here's Persondem's BlueNC blog. How lucky we are to have a public school educator in our midst.

I find that Facebook has reduced my language ability to pathetically clicking a "thumbs-up-like" symbol. I'm considering this my first effort to counter-act that effect. Good luck to all of you!

I'm really looking forward to spending more time around the blog this year for sure. Great job!