Politics1.com
Politics1.com is a
weblog founded and run by
Ron Gunzburger, a political consultant. Its focus is primarily
U.S. politics.
Originally started in late 1997 as a public service project, Politics1.com has gained a fairly loyal fan base over the years. It has been hailed by mainstream politicians, as well as
third party and fringe candidates who appreciate the site's willingness to give them equal time. In addition, Politics1 has gained praise from publications such as
PC Magazine,
The Wall Street Journal,
The Chicago Tribune,
USA Today, and
The Economist[
1].
Politics1.com was one of the first political blog sites to appear online. While the site initially published a political newsletter (The Politics1 Report), Gunzburger converted the weekly newsletter into a web site in early 2002. He did not begin archiving stories until late 2003.
The Politics1.com website consists of a main page, on which news updates concerning state and national political events are regularly posted. A "Free Speech Zone" is included with every news update. These Free Speech Zones, a reference to the buffer zones placed around President
George W. Bush when he attends public events, consist solely of a comments section that allow the readers of Politics1.com to discuss and argue about anything they wish. The website also includes a comprehensive list of state-wide and
Congressional candidates for each state, and, often, a list of candidates and potential candidates for the next presidential election.
The political coverage of Politics1.com has been accused by some of having a
liberal slant. This has especially been the case since Ron Gunzburger admitted to being an ardent supporter of former
Vermont Governor Howard Dean. However, Gunzburger notes that, in the past, he has worked for candidates of both parties, and that he has voted for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
Nevertheless, in 2005, Gunzburger admitted that some of his blog's contents have "shifted to the left". Still, he maintains that all editorial entries are noted as such, and that his coverage of politics remains fair and neutral. [
2]
When Dana Buker briefly took over daily operation of Politics1.com in May of 2006, he expressed a desire to "return the tone to the pre-2004 version of clean, bare-bones reporting without editorializing."
From July 2004 to April 2005 Politics1.com adopted a
U.S. Marine infantry battalion that was deployed to Iraq. This action was purely apolitical and allowed the readers a first-hand glimpse into the war in that nation. Captain James Crabtree regularly wrote updates [
3] on the unit and in turn thousands of care packages were sent to the battalion by elected officials, radio shows, schools, charities, and various other organizations.
Ron Gunzburger has left his role in the daily operation of Politics1.com on two occasions. Once in 2005, and again in 2006.
After Politics1.com had been up for several years, the work of posting daily political updates started to become too time consuming for Gunzburger, who runs the site alone. In 2004, he attempted to remove some of this burden by giving the readers of Politics1.com the opportunity to write their own entries. Few such entries were ever posted, however. In early 2005 Gunzburger announced that the site was shutting down because posting had become "dreaded work" instead of "fun." [
4]
Although Gunzburger said that he expected his time off from the site to last until early 2006, he began posting new entries again after only a few months. Gunzburger's brief hiatus was, however, long enough to give rise to several
spin off sites, including NewPolitics1, The Kentucky Democrat, and PoliticsVT.
Gunzburger again stopped playing a role in the operation of Politics1.com when he decided to explore a run for Broward County Court judge in 2006. He was forced to do so due to the fact that he fell under political speech restrictions that are imposed on sitting judges and all candidates for judgeships. Rather than shutting Politics1 down, Gunzburger decided to give control of the site to Dana Buker, whom he described as his "better half." However, control of Politics1.com returned to Gunzburger a short time later, after he ultimately decided not to run for judge.
As of this writing, news updates on Politics1.com are generally posted once a day Monday-Friday, plus one entry for the
weekend. Because of his busy work schedule, Gunzburger will sometimes instead post only a daily free speech zone with brief descriptions of recent political news, rather than his traditional long articles.
*
Politics1 website
