About Me
The "journalism bug" bit me my sophomore year at Lakewood High School (Ohio) when I started working for my high school newspaper. I made my print debut with an article about how the school's study halls are ineffective. I went on to write stories about students' hatred of wearing identification cards and cafeteria food.
One of my first missions when I arrived at Kent State University (Ohio) was to join the student newspaper. I started as a correspondent covering bus stop closings and writing features about life in the dorms. I graduated to the police beat my sophomore year, and later spent three semesters editing.
In 2004, I became a political junkie. During my first of six internships I covered a visit by President Bush as well as the saga of political upheaval in a 2,500-person village. Back on campus I covered several candidate visits and for the first time felt the thrill of a newsroom on election night.
In 2005 I interned for the Cape Cod Times in Massachusetts, working the night police beat and covering another bout of small town political drama.
In 2006 I spent a semester in Washington, D.C. attending briefings around the capital and learning the ins and outs of Congress while interning for The Hill. During college I also did stints with the Akron Beacon Journal, the Elyria Chronicle Telegram and the Medina Gazette, all in Ohio.
Upon graduation I considered jobs in Washington State and Alaska, and decided on a reporting job in Maine with the Lewiston Sun Journal. I spent my first six months there covering a region in the rural, western part of the state. I covered everything, but my best work came from the courts beat where I developed invaluable sources.
I was promoted to the State House bureau where I covered the 2007 legislative session, writing about legislation that affected the paper's coverage area. There I broke a story about a battle to bring a casino to our region. Following the session, I produced a package detailing what each of the area's legislators had accomplished. The article received high acclaim from the Maine media critic at Downeast Magazine . Later that year I completed a four-part series on the state's prison system which was overcrowded and underfunded.
That fall I went to the CapitalBeat conference in Philadelphia where I networked with other political reporters and realized how much potential there is in using the Web and multimedia.
I returned with much enthusiasm and wrote a six-page proposal about a multimedia political blog that I would start up for 2008. By the time a decision was made to pursue this strategy, I had another offer.
The New York Observer Media Group was starting up a network of state-specific political news Web sites. They found out about me and my interest in both politics and multimedia and convinced me to come aboard to start Maine's site.
They mailed me a laptop, a smartphone and a camera. I wouldn't have an office, instead I worked from the halls of the State House and in coffee shops all over the state.
I had one instruction: "Write about politics". Contact with editors was minimal at first, but increased as the project became more and more structured, growing to 18 state Web sites. For the most part, however, I was on my own.
I covered a tough primary battle in a Congressional race, and explored the various advances and pitfalls of the state's public financing system. I covered the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Susan Collins (R) and former Rep. Tom Allen (D). I went to both national conventions and covered all the candidate visits, scoring an interview with Barack Obama in February.
The site grew and grew, and from the spring of 2008 on it averaged 12,000 hits a week, becoming one of the best in the network. This number would triple on some of my better weeks.
I was best known for my "live blogs" where I would provide up-to-the-minute information about major events, including the state conventions, candidate visits, caucus days, election nights and legislative leadership elections.
My audience also enjoyed the videos I took, edited and posted on the site. I also took and edited photos.
The state's media critic and political leaders around the state praised the analysis I did of all 186 legislative races. For this project I did short summaries of each race and which was it was likely to go. Twenty-six races were dubbed too close to call. Of the remaining 160, 90 percent were correct.
The project was a demonstration of my good relationships with sources. The information came from the very top legislative and party leaders who on background told me which races were in play and which weren't. These were the same sources who gave me tips which led to me breaking stories that would be picked up by the state's major news outlets.
I was also picked up by the national media twice. These stories came about because of my skill to be in the right place at the right time. I attended the Republican National Convention. At a breakfast of the Maine delegation where no other media was present, Karl Rove badmouthed Joe Biden after both campaigns promised to ease off the politics following Hurricane Gustov.
Later that year, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) denounced John McCain's negative robocalls as a result of my questioning while I was riding on her campaign bus through a rural part of the state.
The project came to an end about a month after the election. We had been told that the Politicker.com network was expanding, with 10 states to be added in 2009. However economic troubles forced the parent company to slash the entire project, laying off all the reporters and editors. That is where I am today.
Outside of journalism, I enjoy spending time with my two retired racing greyhounds, Pulitzer and Gigi. I also volunteer at the greyhound kennel in Maine.
I am a news junkie, getting most of my news through Google Reader and podcasts. I'm also a bookworm, enjoying biographies of politicians and journalists, and also Stephen King books.
I'm a hard worker, a risk-taker and extremely ambitious. I am eager to relocate anywhere if the opportunity is right.
