An 'old-fashioned' blogger

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:16:18 -0400

Robert Peterson considers himself an old-fashioned blogger.

A life sciences researcher in Chapel Hill, Peterson started out blogging for The Daily Kos, where he first learned about BlueNC in 2005 when he saw a piece crossposted by James Protzman.

"At the time, I thought it was this well-established Web site," he said. "It wasn't until some time later that I found out that I was user No. 14."

Peterson, 37, started out writing about health care, something he knew about from a stint as vice president of Health Care for All's North Carolina chapter. As a volunteer for John Edwards, he also wrote a lot about that campaign.

When that ended, Peterson became interested in the race for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.

He says that the main contributors to BlueNC agree on a few basic principles: They support increasing health care coverage for the uninsured; they think No Child Left Behind should be changed or scrapped; and they opposed the proposed landing field in Eastern North Carolina.

The one area where they disagree: Which candidates to support.

What is BlueNC?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:25:01 -0400

Answer:

A liberal Web site in North Carolina.

The site started in the winter of 2005, and is managed by BlueNC LLC, a limited liability corporation formed on March 8, 2006, by Lance McCord Jr., John C. Livingston and James Protzman.

McCord and Livingston later left to start law careers, but Protzman remains a regular blogger, sometimes writing under the screen name Anglico.

Several other regular contributors play a role in running the site.

Greg Flynn, a Raleigh architect; Linda Cloud, the head of a nonprofit agency in Moore County; Robert Peterson, a life sciences researcher in Chapel Hill; Gordon Smith, a child and family therapist in Asheville; and Betsy Muse of Union County have the ability to promote a post by themselves or other bloggers to the site's home page.

Over the years, BlueNC has had some influence on Democratic politics in North Carolina: Helping Larry Kissell's unsuccessful Congressional campaign in 2006, targeting a proposed Navy landing field on the coast and breaking the news of Senate candidate's Jim Neal's sexual orientation in a live blog.

In March of 2008, it hosted an online debate between Democratic gubernatorial candidate's Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore.