Christopher Swope was GOVERNING's executive editor.
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Mayor on Blogging: The Smartest Thing I've Ever Done
I've been trading e-mails with Bill Gentes, the "Blogging Mayor of Round Lake" in Illinois. Hizzoner has been keeping a blog for about two years. And unlike a few blogging pols we've speared here in the past, Gentes writes pretty much every day and fairly candidly at that.
I thought the mayor's reasons for blogging were pretty interesting. He says:
I know of a few mayors who blog regularly and by regularly I mean 3 times a week. I know of no one as crazy as me to do it every single day. The comments are hysterical, you have to live here to get some of it, but I allow uncensored comments so I get the negatives, positives and the inane!
It is the single smartest thing I have ever done as Mayor, it allows me to control the dialog, it gives me the ability to answer my 18,000 residents questions in depth and gives me a way of going over the top of every naysayer and right to the general public.
Twitter: @governing
Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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