Well, it looks like I’m getting a chance to sit at the adults’ table!

Some of you may have noticed that my name appears on the upper right-hand side of this blog. That’s because Jim has graciously invited me to join his merry band of bloggers. He was an early promoter of my work at South of the James, and he has provided me with a good deal of guidance over the past months. As a lot of folks feel, Bacon’s Rebellion is probably the closest that Virginia’s political blogs come to being “mainstream,” due to both Jim’s impressive background and the standards that he has set for his contributors. Bacon’s Rebellion – the e-magazine – actually introduced me to blogging in the Commonwealth via its links.

This new move gives me a chance to delve deeper into the nuts and bolts of state public policy issues – such as economic development, education, taxes, and health care – and to focus more on the bread & butter subjects that really get me excited. Additionally, I have wanted to return to more long-form writing for quite some time, and to that end, my work may be showing up from time to time in the Rebellion e-magazine at Jim’s discretion.

I hope that adding my voice will bring some level of added-value to the great stable of writers and bloggers that Jim has managed to herd successfully. For those of you who care, South of the James is not going anywhere, but I have plans to do something a bit different with it.

— Conaway