"Peach Pundit is Georgia's conservative ESPN"
Creative Loafing, an alternative Atlanta magazine, has a great write-up on the "Five Local Bloggers who Matter." One of these five bloggers is Erick Erickson, Managing Editor of RedState, and one of those blogs is Peach Pundit, a great, bipartisan site for Georgia politics of which he is the grand poobah (and one for which I am an administrator, as well). From the article:
Why we love it: If Doug Monroe's Peachtree Screed is Atlanta's liberal Drudge Report, then Peach Pundit is Georgia's conservative ESPN. Every day its (growing) crew of 17 bloggers dishes up the inside-baseball-style dirt of the state's politics, from state congressional races to small-town political scoop. Peach Pundit is what the state's political power brokers read to find out what the state's other political power brokers are up to.Some kind words from CL's Andisheh Nouraee. Kudos to Erick for the well-deserved recognition!
Blogger profile: Why did you quit being a lawyer to become a blogger?
"That's the question I get asked the most," says Peach Pundit's principal poobah, Erick Erickson. In 2005, he quit his job at Macon's prestigious Sell & Melton law firm and became a full-time blogger.
"It scared my wife," Erickson says. "She was a month away from giving birth when I told her I was gonna do it. Fortunately, it didn't induce labor."
He says he actually makes more money as a blogger than he did as a lawyer. "Lawyers in Macon don't make a heck of a lot," he explains.
Peach Pundit is not Erickson's paycheck. He's senior editor of the national conservative political blog RedState.com, described by some as Daily Kos for Republicans. Erickson started RedState in 2004 before selling it to Eagle Publishing, best known for publishing the books of Ann Coulter.
In retrospect, Erickson's decision to blog full-time seems obvious. "As a lawyer, I was doing a lot of political consulting and writing," he says. "Blogging was getting me some attention, so I decided to try it full-time"
Despite its conservative pedigree, Peach Pundit has fans of all political stripes, because reading it is like being plugged into the Gold Dome. Literally.
"I see legislators fighting it out on the blog sometimes," Erickson says, explaining that even though they don't always use their real names, he knows who they are because of the e-mail addresses they use when they comment.
The rivalry between House Speaker Glenn Richardson and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, two early favorites in the race to succeed second-term Gov. Sonny Perdue, is an ongoing soap opera on Peach Pundit.
And some of the conservative Peach Punditocracy's disgust with Sonny Perdue is almost as bad as what you find on liberal websites. At this month's state GOP convention, Peach Pundit encouraged convention-goers to walk out during Perdue's speech.
As someone who successfully transitioned from attorney to full-time blogger without actually sacrificing income, Erickson is already something of an overachiever in the local blogosphere. This month, he decided to push himself a little further by declaring his candidacy for Macon's City Council.
How does he assess his chances? "I'm running unopposed in a district that votes Republican," he says.
He doesn't expect City Council to interfere with his blogging. "They have Wi-Fi at City Hall," he laughs.
(Oh, and if you'd like to contribute to his City Council campaign - and you know you want to - then click here).
Labels: Blog
