March 06, 2007

Blogger Spotlight: MyManMitt

Perhaps the best executed unofficial WH '08 candidate site, MyManMitt has only been around 1/3/07 but already has made quite a name for itself in conservative blogging circles. Today we talk to one of minds behind MMM, Justin Hart. Tomorrow we move left and west to talk to Emmett O'Connell of Washington for Richardson.

What is your full name?

Justin Thomas Olson Hart. Thomas - father's name; Olson - Mom's maiden name (my mom was the oldest of six girls... hence, I carry on the name :) )

What is your age?

35

What's your hometown?

I was born in Boston, lived in Maryland until I was 11 but I was raised primarily in the SF Bay Area

Where do you live now?

Ashburn, VA

What is your educational background?

Studied Comptive Literature, Russian and Polish at Brigham Young University

What is your occupation?

Engagement Director for large IT Consulting Firm. I do political strategic consulting on the side.

When did you first get involved in politics and why?

My father was the Appointment Secretary for President Nixon during his second term but he went into the private workforce shortly after that

I became really excited about the Conservative movement after watching the C-Span courses that Newt Gingrich taught in Georgia (the lectures he got "in trouble" for but was later recused). I was really into it. I even had the Washington Times mailed to my apartment in Utah (even though the issues arrived 3-4 days after publication).

In 1996 I worked as the Phone Bank Chairman for a Republican primary challenger in Utah's 3rd district. I've always been a bit of wiz with computers. During that time I got to know the folks at Aristotle Publishing (the premiere provider of voter lists to political campaigns). After the campaign they moved my family out to the D.C. area. I worked in tech support to political campaigns all over the country and then as a Capitol Hill trainer for Aristotle's Constituent Software package.

I'm not sure there was a single event or person that got me into the Conservative movement... rather it was a set of core ideas around limited government and core family-driven values that got me excited.

When did you start blogging and why?

I started blogging at RightSideRedux in February 2004. Here's a quick sampling of the niche I employed there:

• 1) Multimedia satire and comment: Conservative Ice Age
• 2) Live blogging from DC events: Blogging from the Capitol
• 3) Taking complex news items and organizing them: Pro-con Harriet Miers

How will blogs impact WH '08?

In my mind blogs will play a few roles in this Presidential campaign:

• 1) They will be the fermenting driver behind numerous grassroots efforts. The main audience for most blogs are like-minded people. 90% of DailyKos readers are hard lefties. 90% of FreeRepublic readers are on the hard right. If the candidates can succeed in moving those sites to their cause it will be to their advantage in the grassroots. Convince the readers of RedState that you are their man and tomorrow you can have 20 people in every major city pounding the pavement for you.
• 2) Blogs will be a laboratory for new messaging. Campaigns will be trying to use the blogs as a testing ground for new initiatives, new soundbites and new attacks (primarily the later).
• 3) Blogs will remain the end-run against the MSM. If a message needs to get out to beat a news cycle... the blogs are the ones to do it. Witness the Romney YouTube debate with the Instapundit response within hours.

What's your favorite most unsung specific example of a blogger affecting a political figure, organization, philosophy, or movement?

Hmmm... let me get back to you in a week's time. I'm curious where this thing will go...

Hart also volunteers on the Edwards/Marcotte affair: "The role of a blogger to the candidate is not to blog. Rather their goal and role should be to steer the candidate through the blogosphere and steer the blogosphere to the candidate."

Posted by Conn Carroll at March 6, 2007 02:55 PM