Hey, hey - Thank you, from Blue Jersey

by: Rosi Efthim

Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 04:09:38 PM EST

The relationship between the Corzine campaign and some of the organized grassroots and netroots infrastructure was not what it could have been. I'm at a loss to explain it. We heard murmurs repeatedly during the campaign that 2009 was not 2005, and that this was an insiders campaign, with less room for roots involvement. Yes, 2009 wasn't 2005; we won 2005. One of the beauty parts of Corzine's first governor's campaign was something called the Corzine Connection which several people here worked on. It was an imperfect, but exciting, effort by Corzine to put himself and high-level surrogates into rooms with people who usually don't have that access. Smart. This blog, it should be said, also had its birth during that campaign and was an unofficial driver of its movement forward.

This year, very different. We wish the ties between us were closer. We very much enjoyed the opportunities we did have with the Governor, and his team. Some of the campaign's best and most forward-thinking idea-people may have been drowned out in the noise of the campaign's daily engine. We don't know. But we're proud of this campaign staff, who worked so hard. And we sure as hell wish our Governor and his kick-ass running-mate won. Hurts like hell.

Here at Blue Jersey, all the people you see in that list to the right - Staff Writers - stayed up late, sneaked away from work, and ignored their families to find new ways, new angles and hard info to help that campaign and more importantly to keep supporters informed, engaged, and supplied with arguments to make with their Christie-voter neighbors.

So, to the Blue Jersey frontpagers, a big and hearty Thank you. If I could send you all to St. Barts for post-election vacation, which is where the Governor sent himself, I would, oh yes I would. You were nothing less than an unpaid oppo team. You worked till you were tired and cranky; you were tough and you rocked.

Thanks, too, to the Blue Jersey community. We're a community blog, and there was a sharp uptick in participation we all hope continues. You gave as good as you got. Clued us in to what was going on by you. Pointed us to the local candidates who mattered. Traffic was through the roof - higher than Obama's election. But here's what we want now:

1.  If you haven't already, grab yourself a Blue Jersey account.
2. Then jump into the conversation, or start one by writing a diary.
3. Advertise here. Got a business or a group you want to tell Jersey progressives about? Do it here. Tell us what you have in mind. We discount for members of this community.
4. While you're at it, you'd look so hot in Blue Jersey blue.

Got your own thanks? Please drop them here. I want to close thanking Garden State Equality. Facing down a vote in lame duck, everything's on the line, because Chris Christie is no friend of this movement. GSE chose to spend some hard-earned advertising money here, which the Corzine campaign for whatever reasons, did not.We already back equality. But GSE spends here to engage you, because it values you, and needs you now. That means a lot to us. And it's what's next.