One Month

One month ago tonight, the lights went up on this establishment and Maryland Scramble was born. I’ve written about how it evolved from a few breathless Facebook posts in early March to a more regular thing, and then to its own website. I’ve begun to branch out to topics beyond who’s running and who’s not, and the overall response has been overwhelmingly positive and gratifying. Like Sally Field said, “you like me, you really, really like me!”

So at the one month anniversary, let’s take stock for a minute, and then I have a couple of small requests to make. The audience has developed much faster than I would have dared to dream: 2,253 unique visitors, and 9,667 page views. Starting from zero, that’s amazing, and humbling. My goal from the outset has been simple: to inform and entertain, and not necessarily in that order. When someone follows me on Twitter from a rural county, or I get a text from someone saying that he stalks my FB page more than his girlfriend’s (that happened, I swear it), or an elected official tells me he starts his day with my blog, I feel like I’m making a difference. And that’s gratifying. A lot.

Before I let my ego get the better of me, I know I’ve had a little to do with the quickly rising audience, but I think something else is at work too: there is a real void of news and analysis about Maryland politics. This isn’t a new problem, and I’m hardly the first to identify it, but it is real and it is a problem. Some are trying, and valiantly, but it’s not glamorous or sexy - except to weird people like me. I have a poster of Lou Peck in my office. Kidding. Really. But if I could get one, that would be so cool. Lou?

So now to the ask. No, it’s not for money. But this: (1) participate more. My only regret about the blog is that I sometimes feel like it’s all one way. On FB, we had 50 or 100 comments on some threads. I want that. (2) help build the audience. Tell your friends, at least the ones to whom you can admit your obsession with politics. (3) for today only, I’m gonna be that lame guy who begs for page views. I wanna be able to say “one month, 10,000 page views.” It’s neat and tidy, and it makes my head get even more swelled then usual. So let’s skew us some numbers today, OK?

I’ll post running updates every few hours so you feel as guilty as possible. Plus, if I can figure out who #10,000 is, I’ll think of something to recognize your enormous contribution. Maybe a poster - I bet there’s a lot of demand for a poster of me. Don’t you think so? Hahahaha. I wouldn’t do that to you, I promise. I’ll give you my Lou Peck poster instead.