Shawn Dixon July 2nd, 2007

The team at DMKY is sad to learn that BlueGrassReport.com, run by Mark Nickolas, is shutting down.

We want to take this opportunity to thank Mark for his tremendous service to the state of Kentucky during his time here. He paved the way for progressive bloggers in Kentucky and was in many ways a pioneer in the blogosphere, building one of the most successful state and local blogs anywhere in the country. Our work at DMKY is enhanced by the great community Mark helped to build.

The team at DMKY is optimistic about the state of progressive blogging in Kentucky. Over the past few months many of you have offered up your support and advice on how we can continue to build a better blog here and we appreciate it and ask you to keep it coming!

The great thing about the blogosphere is that it’s people powered, driven by readers. As we move forward, we hope that you will help DMKY build upon the increasingly strong progressive online community in Kentucky.

While the impetus for the website stemmed from the need to defeat Mitch McConnell in the 2008 elections, as we have grown, so has our mission. DMKY will continue to cover all areas of state, local and when relevant, national politics for Kentucky. We hope you will use this blog as your outlet for expressing opinions, ideas and beliefs in the coming months and years – even well after we defeat Mitch McConnell in the next election cycle.

Thanks again for your support! We look forward to the dialogue!

-Team DMKY

• DitchMitchKY.com , Mark Nickolas , Uncategorized
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Matt Gunterman May 24th, 2007

The H-L PolWatcher’s blog has a post up about the impending departure of blogger Mark Nickolas of the Bluegrass Report from Kentucky. Here are my reflections on Mark’s work and the importance of BGR for the state and its progressives. I wish Mark the best, and I’m really glad he’s decided to keep BGR up and running.

The memory of how I first heard about Mark Nickolas and the BluegrassReport.org is a little fuzzy to me these days. All I know for certain is that it was sometime in 2005 and that I was immediately hooked.

BGR revolutionized the way I interacted with Kentucky politics. I had always been a political animal, and before BGR the highlight of my week (in a political sense) was Al Smith and his revolving crew of regulars at Comment on Kentucky and the various Sunday political columns, especially anything by Al Cross.

But, with BGR, the news cycle of Kentucky politics went into overdrive for me.

Before BGR, I felt like my relationship with Kentucky politics — which I formed through the mainstream media — made me something of a casual observer, not the active participant I wanted to be.

In other words, as things worked then, by the time I heard about it, even if it outraged me, it was probably too late for me to act on that. Even though I was never technically or formally excluded from the democratic process, the learning curve and obstacles to information that remained in my way as a private citizen to be as engaged as I wanted to be were substantial.

Then BGR appeared on the scene and in it I had a new tool and outlet, and in Mark Nickolas I had someone to help me interpret what was going on and fill me in on the issues and circumstances that I — as a liberal and progressive Democrat — should be aware of. One of the best examples of this at work, I think, was Mark’s de facto watchdog role with the state Democratic party organization.

Now, not only was I seeing the action unfold in pretty much real time through BGR, I was also able to influence these events in real time through a collective activism with other participants at the blog. We’ll never get that sort of constructive interaction with the mainstream media blogs.

Today, Kentucky has an extremely healthy and active lefty blogosphere, and that’s been made possible by the example and work of Mark Nickolas. He made the mainstream media see and take seriously the possibilities of blogs.

Kentucky still needs BGR. Only a full-time blogger can do what Mark does and build what he’s built. Mark has been very much at the center of making the news that has changed Kentucky for the better in the last two years, and there’s no-one in Kentucky who’s equipped at the moment to fill his shoes.

I’m extremely glad that Mark is sticking around the Kentucky blogosphere even though he’s moving to Montana.

We will need his help to defeat Senator Mitch McConnell, that’s for sure.

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