“All Politics is Local” turns 3

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When we started this blog three years ago, we weren’t sure how people were going to react.

Turns out that, like the Columbia River Crossing, a Cowlitz casino or candy corn, we inspire strong feelings. One local soon-to-be-former official told Editor Lou she doesn’t know how the newspaper in good conscience can allow this blog to exist, while on the other hand we’ve been judged to be pretty great.

See?

WordPress tells us this is our 1,000th post, which, like the death of the Columbia River Crossing, may be an exaggeration. (WordPress is about the fourth platform we’ve used, and counts a few posts twice.)

But this month does mark our third birthday, and we wanted to celebrate by sharing 10 of our favorite posts. These include ones we submitted for the 2013 EPPY contest and the 2012 and 2011 contests, in which we received honorable mentions, plus our new friends the sock puppets.

Our Muppet blog is overdue for an update, but I haven’t yet identified Muppets for incoming Vancouver City Councilors Anne McEnerny-Ogle and Alishia Topper.

Remember this meme? McKayla Is Not Impressed?

We’re not always making fun of people. Sometimes we ask questions such as, “Does $200 buy you a tax break?”  Or we report the questions officials ask, such as when Commissioner David Madore wondered how someone can live a meaningful life on $50,000 a year.

We also point out cases of DoAsISayNotAsIDoitis, a common ailment among candidates, such as this example from Mister Madore’s Neighborhood.

A goal for Mayor Tim Leavitt’s second term can be to keep his shirt on, unless he wants to continue being known as Topless Mayor. He can also stop flexing for Gov. Inslee, even though Inslee does give off that frat-guy vibe and we can only hope Leavitt never flexed for Gov. Chris Gregoire.

We also use this blog to dish when an elected official acts naughty but not in a way that merits a news story, such as when Councilor Jeanne Harris dropped the f-bomb in response to a news story. On voicemail.

Or sometimes we have written so many stories about a subject it makes us delirious, as exemplified in this obit for the CRC.

Speaking of delirious, our sock puppet video is either brilliant or a cry for help. Or just obnoxious.

Love us or hate us, thanks for making us the best-read blog on columbian.com.