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Ten
Questions for Will Vehrs
Over
the past two weeks, one of the leading lights in
the Virginia political blogging community – Will
Vehrs – has been at the center of controversy
related to humorous comments that he made about
local economic development officials in
Martinsville and Henry County on the Commonwealth
Conservative blog that he helps publish. What
apparently started as a few jokes too many quickly
turned into a cause celebre as one of
Martinsville’s local papers discovered the
remarks and gave them media coverage. As the
situation snowballed, “Vehrs-gate” gained
notoriety with a mention in the National
Journal, national conservative blog Instapundit,
and additional reporting and editorializing by
such outlets as the Washington Post and Richmond
Times-Dispatch.
A
state employee with one of the Commonwealth’s
economic development agencies, Vehrs was suspended
for 10 days without pay by his agency supervisors,
and state legislators called on the governor to
fire him. This incident has sparked a firestorm of
controversy throughout the blogosphere, and though
many bloggers from across the ideological spectrum
stand firmly behind Vehrs, he recently announced
his intent to cease blogging altogether. The
following is an interview with Will Vehrs about
the Martinsville affair, his future, and his view
on what this incident holds for the larger
blogging community in Virginia.
Q:
A lot has been made of the fact that your blog
comments were time-stamped during what appeared to
be normal business hours. How many of your posts
were done on your work computer? Home computer?
WV:
You know, I never counted them, but I think one of
my critics did and it was something like 34 while
I was at work, from 12:51 to 3:40, and maybe 25
Friday night to Saturday morning. Viewed in a
vacuum, I know that looks bad, but if someone
looked more closely at my work situation that
afternoon and knew my internal creative process,
they might see some mitigation. Of course, I know
that taxpayers shouldn't be expected to weigh
mitigation.
Q:
Del. Ward Armstrong (D-Martinsville) called for
you to be fired and Sen. Roscoe Reynolds
(D-Martinsville) has intimated such. Given that
you are a conservative who is GOP-friendly, do you
think that they were motivated by partisan
politics more than protecting the folks back home?
WV:
I don't think this was really about partisanship,
at least not at first. I have been incredibly
buoyed by the support of several Democrats,
including former Southside Del. Barnie Day and
Arlington Del. Bob Brink. Del. Saxman (R-Staunton)
was very understanding and supportive. I think
some partisanship may have slipped into the mix
once the whole mess rose to a level where it
became "Vehrsgate." I thought that was
an unfortunate development. Legislators are
sensitive and in tune with the folks they
represent. People in Martinsville-Henry County
were upset.
Q:
This incident seems indicative of the constant
struggle of economic development to juggle harsh
economic realities of a locale with the demands of
marketing the "product." What lessons do
you think this offers the field?
WV:
I'm not sure there's any lesson for economic
development beyond a fundamental tenet of the
profession: Understand the sensibilities of every
area in Virginia. I wasn't in touch with
Martinsville-Henry County, as my boneheaded
attempts at humor showed. I would say that I
believe the area of economic development where I
have worked -- existing industry development --
should at least spend a little more time trying to
figure out if there is more we can do in
Southside.
Q:
While this incident has been costly to you and
your family, do you see any silver lining with all
of this for you personally or for blogging?
WV:
I'm having a hard time seeing a silver lining for
blogging. If there are bloggers out there who are
concealing their blogging to some extent, I think
they have been intimidated by this. That may or
may not be a bad thing. While I think this
incident has raised the profile of blogging and
probably brought in some new readers and
participants, it also has also probably brought in
some new opponents or naysayers. Personally, I
have learned a great deal more about what public
service requires.
Q:
You were suspended for 10 days without pay. To
your knowledge, is such a move in keeping with the
precedent for your agency? What was the real
reason that your bosses gave for this punishment?
WV:
Punishments for anything seem to be relatively
rare in my agency and the only other one I know of
also involved me. I was punished for leaving a
"stress management" seminar to staff the
phone line. I did it because the last time I left
the line unmanned, the tape filled up and many
customers had to wait too long for an answer or
didn't even get to leave their question. That
whole situation seems a bit ironic to me now. A
VEC attorney looked into it and crafted a plea
deal before it went to arbitration; he thought the
punishment was way too harsh. The reason I was
given for my punishment was "accessing the Internet
excessively" and for "using the Internet
to make inflammatory comments."
Q:
Some of your biggest defenders have been
conservative and Republican bloggers who are
generally critical of government and its
employees. Does their support surprise you?
WV:
No, it doesn't because I think they know my work
and have found me to be reasonable and fair in
addition to supporting some of their initiatives,
such as the Cost-Cutting Caucus, that aren't
strictly partisan. I don't think any of them are
comfortable with the idea that someone is blogging
on state time, however, and I don't think they are
defending that practice.
Q:
How will this incident impact your blogging?
WV:
As of May 24th, I will, as I wrote in a letter to
the editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "blog
no more forever." I will no longer blog,
obviously on state time, but I won't blog on my
own time, either.
Q8.
With rumors of Chad Dotson being up for a state
judgeship, what does the future hold for
Commonwealth Conservative?
WV:
First of all, rumors that Chad is up for a
judgeship are just that--rumors. There are
unlikely to be any vacancies until next year.
Chad's earlier hard work is paying off as his
caseload has increased markedly. That is probably
more of a threat to Commonwealth Conservative --
the increasing demands of his elected position.
Q9.
Is there anything about this incident that you
feel has not been adequately addressed?
WV:
Yes, there is. I don't think people realize that
economic development work is a little different
and may have different standards from other state
jobs. By that I mean that economic development
professionals have more leeway to do and
participate in things that other agencies might
frown upon. The rationale for that is solid -- the
more you are out and about, the more people you
meet. The more people you meet, the better
the chance that you might uncover opportunities
that could benefit the Commonwealth. The biggest
state economic development agency, the VEDP, is a
public-private partnership and thus exempt from
some or all of state policies, as I understand it,
and I think that is because their work is
different from what you'd find at DMV or Taxation.
DBA, because it is somewhat akin to the VEDP,
probably is more like them in daily management
policies than it was to typical state agencies.
Because
of my duties, which required me to stay within the
confines of four walls, my "out and
about" was through the Internet and a part of
that was blogging. Quite honestly, I think my
blogging brought in as much as the face-to-face
type of work of some of my peers. I blogged in
plain sight, with my door open. Everyone knew I
blogged. For god's sake, I was on C-Span for an
hour in 2003 talking about blogging. My blog posts
used to appear frequently in Gov. Warner's news
clips. I participated in candidate Kaine's
conference call with bloggers on a state phone on
state time. In another one of those twists, I
asked then Lt. Gov. Kaine about his economic
development plans and was panned by Washington
Post reporter Michael Shear for the question.
Almost
a month prior to this incident, I tried to sell my
boss on letting me start an entrepreneur blog that
would be a link on the state business portal. I
actually started a draft blog and submitted it to
him. It took me making a monumental error in
judgment to be exposed as a blogger and to bring
the whole world down on my head. Maybe, just
maybe, if it results in a clear policy on state
employee blogging and better standards on what
defines "excessive" internet use, some
good will come of it. Please understand--I'm not
defending blogging on state time, just explaining
that I thought I had tacit toleration. The caption
contest entries were definitely something that any
state employee, and especially me, never, ever
should have done, whether blogging was okay or
not.
Q:
Since you're not blogging any more, what will you
do to stay in the punditry game? Will you continue
writing columns in another format?
WV:
I would like to continue writing on public policy
issues in some way, although with more depth than
a blog allows. The Bacon's Rebellion e-zine might
be a good place for me to do that--Jim Bacon is
wonderfully open to would-be pundits and
pontificators. The thought has also crossed my
mind, a la Barnie Day, that I might have a novel
in me...or at least a few short stories. We'll
see.
--
May 15, 2006
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