Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

It is with great excitement that I announce that I will be joining the headquarters staff of the Tennessee Republican Party in late October to serve as the party's communications director. Robin Smith, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, notified the members of the party's State Executive Committee, of my hiring in an email Friday, along with two other staff additions. In it, she said the TRP will be running "at a vigorous pace during the next 15 months" to help build a Republican majority in the state legislature.

Demcrats currently control the state House 53-46, while the state Senate is split 16-16-1. It has Republican leadership thanks to one Democrat who voted for a Republican to lead the Senate, offsetting the one independent who was a former "Republican" who regulary voted for the Democratic leadership.

Gaining a majority in the state House and solifying Republican control of the state Senate is a good goal - indeed, the job feels like a calling to me. It also feels like a natural progression for me as more than five years ago I combined my interest in politics and state-level policy issues with my 15 years of experience in journalism to create BillHobbs.com, a blog that went on to impact policy debates at the state level and help usher in a new era of citizen bloggers watchdogging state government and politicians in Tennessee. 

Tennessee has one of the most robust political blogospheres of any state in the country, and I look forward to now applying my more two decades of combined experience as a reporter and editor, in media relations and with blogs and the new social media, along with my political knowledge and policy involvement on behalf of that goal.

I start on Oct. 29.

Sometime between now and then, Elephant Biz will transition to a new person writing the site. If you're interested in the role, let Dan Smith at Know More Media know that. His email address is dan-at-knowmoremedia.com.