Jerome Armstrong
Encyclopedia
Jerome Armstrong is an America
n political strategist and blogger. He is credited as one of the architects of Howard Dean
's '04 grassroots Presidential campaign, and one of the leading web strategists in the world. Also one of the founders of SBNation.com, a sports-blogging company based in Washington DC.
activist in the late 1980s, working with Greenpeace
and Earth First!
. He later served with the Peace Corps
, spent a year and a half at a Buddhist monastery, served in Americorps
, with the I Have A Dream program, and did field organizing in Portland, OR in the early 1990s. Armstrong has graduate degrees in Conflict Resolution
and Applied Linguistics
.
, a blog which covers politics
with an openly Democratic partisan
perspective, making him one of the first political blog
gers. Armstrong coined the term netroots
, is sometimes called The Blogfather for having mentored many other famous bloggers such as Markos Moulitsas in their early years.
In Campaigns and Elections, an early netroots profile in Oct-Nov 2005 as part of the article "Blogging Down the Money Trail", MyDD is credited by the magazine with being "the first major liberal blog." In January 2006, the name was changed to "My Direct Democracy" as part of a site redesign, with a new tagline, "Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics."
In January 2003, Markos Moulitsas joined Jerome Armstrong in a political consulting partnership called Armstrong Zuniga, before being formally dissolved in December 2004. Howard Dean
hired them for a time as technical consultants in 2003. Armstrong introduced the campaign to Meetup.com and directing on online advertising and blogger outreach.
In 2005, Armstrong worked for New Jersey
gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine
and U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown
's 2006 Senate campaign in Ohio
. He also signed on with Mark Warner
's Forward Together PAC
to develop their internet strategy, before Warner decided to not run for President in 2008.
In 2007, Armstrong was awarded the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award for Political Organizing by 21st Century Democrats, "for his visionary leadership in working to create the online netroots community". In 2008, London Mayoral Candidate Brian Paddick, a UK Liberal Democrat, brought aboard Armstrong "to help boost his campaign's online presence".
filed a civil action suit against Armstrong alleging stock promotion without disclosing of compensation. In September 2003, Armstrong submitted a response to the Court in which he denied the allegations, then agreed to a settlement with the SEC in December 2003 that neither admitted or denied the allegations of the complaint, and later paid a nearly $30,000 fine. The New York Times, in a post-settlement interview wrote, "Mr. Armstrong was very candid about his day-trading days, calling himself an "uneducated investor" and a "small fish" who got caught up in a much bigger trading scam."
co-authored the book Crashing the Gate: Grassroots, Netroots, and the Rise of People Powered Politics
(March 2006). The book takes a critical look at the state of the Democratic Party, detailing the rise of a new movement that is reforming and taking over the Democratic Party. An Australian edition was released in July, 2006.
In addition to political pursuits, Armstrong, along with Markos Moulitsas and SB Nation President Tyler Bleszinski (of Athletics Nation
), is a co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based SB Nation
, a network of over 280 sports blogs. The network now covers all teams of the MLB, the NBA, NFL, College Sports, Pro Cycling
, and other sports. Former AOL programming chief Jim Bankoff
is now chairman and CEO of SBNation, and mid-seven-figure funding led by Accel Partners has been secured for the network of sports blogs.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
n political strategist and blogger. He is credited as one of the architects of Howard Dean
Howard Dean
Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...
's '04 grassroots Presidential campaign, and one of the leading web strategists in the world. Also one of the founders of SBNation.com, a sports-blogging company based in Washington DC.
Background
Jerome Armstrong was an environmentalEnvironmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
activist in the late 1980s, working with Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
and Earth First!
Earth First!
Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....
. He later served with the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
, spent a year and a half at a Buddhist monastery, served in Americorps
AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps is a U.S. federal government program that was created under President Bill Clinton by the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 and later expanded by 50 percent under President George W. Bush...
, with the I Have A Dream program, and did field organizing in Portland, OR in the early 1990s. Armstrong has graduate degrees in Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of some social conflict. Often, committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest...
and Applied Linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
.
MyDD
In 2001, he founded MyDDMyDD
MyDD is a collaborative politically progressive American politics blog. It was established by Jerome Armstrong in 2001. Its name was originally short for "My Due Diligence." In January 2006, the name was changed to "My Direct Democracy" as part of a site redesign, with the new tagline "Direct...
, a blog which covers politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
with an openly Democratic partisan
Partisan (political)
In politics, a partisan is a committed member of a political party. In multi-party systems, the term is widely understood to carry a negative connotation - referring to those who wholly support their party's policies and are perhaps even reluctant to acknowledge correctness on the part of their...
perspective, making him one of the first political blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
gers. Armstrong coined the term netroots
Netroots
Netroots is a term coined in 2002 by Jerome Armstrong to describe political activism organized through blogs and other online media, including wikis and social network services. The word is a portmanteau of Internet and grassroots, reflecting the technological innovations that set netroots...
, is sometimes called The Blogfather for having mentored many other famous bloggers such as Markos Moulitsas in their early years.
In Campaigns and Elections, an early netroots profile in Oct-Nov 2005 as part of the article "Blogging Down the Money Trail", MyDD is credited by the magazine with being "the first major liberal blog." In January 2006, the name was changed to "My Direct Democracy" as part of a site redesign, with a new tagline, "Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics."
Political Consultancy
Jerome Armstrong does internet and campaign strategy consulting for various advocacy organizations and campaigns.In January 2003, Markos Moulitsas joined Jerome Armstrong in a political consulting partnership called Armstrong Zuniga, before being formally dissolved in December 2004. Howard Dean
Howard Dean
Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...
hired them for a time as technical consultants in 2003. Armstrong introduced the campaign to Meetup.com and directing on online advertising and blogger outreach.
In 2005, Armstrong worked for New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine
Jon Corzine
Jon Stevens Corzine is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and of MF Global, and a one time American politician, who served as the 54th Governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. A Democrat, Corzine served five years of a six-year U.S. Senate term representing New Jersey before being elected Governor...
and U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Campbell Brown is the senior United States Senator from Ohio and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2007...
's 2006 Senate campaign in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. He also signed on with Mark Warner
Mark Warner
Mark Robert Warner is an American politician and businessman, currently serving in the United States Senate as the junior senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Warner was the 69th governor of Virginia from 2002 to 2006 and is the honorary chairman of...
's Forward Together PAC
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
to develop their internet strategy, before Warner decided to not run for President in 2008.
In 2007, Armstrong was awarded the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award for Political Organizing by 21st Century Democrats, "for his visionary leadership in working to create the online netroots community". In 2008, London Mayoral Candidate Brian Paddick, a UK Liberal Democrat, brought aboard Armstrong "to help boost his campaign's online presence".
Stock Trading
Before his political career, Armstrong worked as an online day trader. Based on 1999 postings made on stock trading websites, in April 2003, the United States Securities and Exchange CommissionUnited States Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is a federal agency which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the United States...
filed a civil action suit against Armstrong alleging stock promotion without disclosing of compensation. In September 2003, Armstrong submitted a response to the Court in which he denied the allegations, then agreed to a settlement with the SEC in December 2003 that neither admitted or denied the allegations of the complaint, and later paid a nearly $30,000 fine. The New York Times, in a post-settlement interview wrote, "Mr. Armstrong was very candid about his day-trading days, calling himself an "uneducated investor" and a "small fish" who got caught up in a much bigger trading scam."
Books, Business
Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas of Daily KosDaily Kos
Daily Kos is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party...
co-authored the book Crashing the Gate: Grassroots, Netroots, and the Rise of People Powered Politics
Crashing the Gate
Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People Powered Politics is a book authored by American political bloggers Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and Jerome Armstrong of MyDD, published in 2006 by Chelsea Green.-Summary:...
(March 2006). The book takes a critical look at the state of the Democratic Party, detailing the rise of a new movement that is reforming and taking over the Democratic Party. An Australian edition was released in July, 2006.
In addition to political pursuits, Armstrong, along with Markos Moulitsas and SB Nation President Tyler Bleszinski (of Athletics Nation
Athletics Nation
Athletics Nation is a sports blog focusing on the Oakland Athletics baseball team. The blog was founded by freelance writer Tyler Bleszinski in 2003...
), is a co-founder of Washington, D.C.-based SB Nation
SB Nation
SB Nation is a sports network owned and operated by Vox Media with more than 300 separate web sites maintained primarily by part-time contract writers. They put together posts, facilitate dialogue and interact with commenters. At a kickoff event in February 2009, there were about 185 blogs...
, a network of over 280 sports blogs. The network now covers all teams of the MLB, the NBA, NFL, College Sports, Pro Cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
, and other sports. Former AOL programming chief Jim Bankoff
Jim Bankoff
James Philip "Jim" Bankoff is Chairman and CEO of SB Nation and is also a Senior Advisor for Providence Equity Partners. As the former Executive Vice President of Programming and Products at AOL, Bankoff has developed and led many notable websites including Aol.com, Mapquest, Moviefone, AOL Music,...
is now chairman and CEO of SBNation, and mid-seven-figure funding led by Accel Partners has been secured for the network of sports blogs.
External links
- MyDD
- Blog pioneer maps political strategy for 2008 - MSNBC.com, March 2, 2006
- Meet the Blogger: Jerome Armstrong Huffington Post, June 7, 2006
- "Replacing the Battleground Mentality with the Mapchanger Attitude in the Democratic Party" - article by Jerome Armstrong in The Democratic Strategist, July 2006
- "A victory for people-powered politics" - article by Jerome Armstrong in The Christian Science Monitor, November 2006
- "Interview with Jerome Armstrong: MyDD Founder, Former Dean Advisor" - Interview in Mother Jones, June 2007