Big news for PubliCola. I’ve taken a job as the speechwriter for Seattle mayor Ed Murray. I’m excited to get to work helping the mayor of our deep blue American city articulate the alternative to Trump’s reactionary national agenda. I believe American cities are at the forefront of progressive action right now, and urban centers like NYC, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, LA, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, DC, Boston and Seattle are under the spotlight to deliver. We are sanctuary cities in more ways than one, and after covering four Seattle mayors, I believe Murray has the boldest track record of getting stuff done.

Having said that, I’m reflective, sad, and a little scared about leaving PubliCola. I’ve been a working reporter for 20 years. And PubliCola is my baby. I founded it exactly eight years ago—the week that Obama was inaugurated in January 2009. And it’s been a trying wonderful blast finding Fizz every morning since.

January 19, 2009

PubliCola, the first online-only publication to get credentialed to cover the state legislature, was an online startup for three exciting, but tenuous!, years before Seattle Met bought the site in 2012. PubliCola has now been under Seattle Met’s banner longer than it existed on its own. The editors here have been great, and did not, as some thought a glossy city magazine might—try to rein in PubliCola’s candid coverage of local politics.

In fact, in addition to making PubliCola a prominent part of the Seattle Met website, they added my voice to the hardcopy of the magazine. And I must pause here, and give big shout outs to the two exceptional editors I’ve had at Seattle Met, Katherine Koberg and the magazine’s current editor, James Ross Gardner. Bar none, they are the most thoughtful editors I’ve ever worked with, especially Gardner. If you’re just a Cola reader, I strongly suggest checking out what Gardner is doing with Seattle Met—next month’s issue in particular.  

The other person I need to thank—and there just aren’t words—is the inimitable Erica C. Barnett, who took the risk with me to leave our high-profile gigs at the Stranger to start PubliCola together. A workhorse reporter and super brain, she joined me six months in and catapulted the site into a big civic deal with her scoops and cranky analysis.  

PubliCola has been a success at Seattle Met, and I’m thrilled to report that they are committed to keeping the site going; more news on that in the weeks to come.

Fizz Up.