Thread by @Taniel

Some personal news: My time at @theappeal will end at the end of the month. I've had many great years there thanks to amazingly talented colleagues with whom I got to do exciting work covering so many local officials, policies, movements, & elections that I've long lost count.

I’ll definitely have more to say about celebrating my colleagues and their inspiring dedication to exposing the harms of the criminal legal system in weeks ahead! And also I’ll want to look back at how much has changed (politically) just over the past few years.

But first, as I continue to work out my next chapters, I wanted to pause on my excitement at all the Political Report has helped do to build to lift & cover local politics & get people to really care about legislatures, DAs, sheriffs, judges as much as their huge powers warrant.

Thinking back at my time with @theappeal, I want to share a few things I’m especially proud to look back on.

And extend an immediate shout-out to the stellar @annafsimonton who joined me in working on the Political Report in mid-2020 (mid-pandemic company!).

With our coverage of disenfranchisement, we really worked to put a new and sustained focus where it wasn’t in media (but was among activists) — on demands AND bills, more successful than ever, to enable voting for all and from prison. So rewarding. theappeal.org/political-repo…

And on that topic, I to interview Bernie Sanders: theappeal.org/bernie-sanders…

Though my favorite pieces to write involved talking to people in Maine and Vermont about what voting for all looks like there.
theappeal.org/politicalrepor…
&
theappeal.org/matthew-dunlap….

Working on local officials & elections that matter to criminal justice has meant figuring out their policy stakes and powers that are so neglected—this series of explainers on the powers of sheriffs was a great projet to get off the ground (with @JessPish) theappeal.org/political-repo…

Uplifting local elections whose policy and ideological stakes are often ignored was constantly exciting. 

Esp. in 2019—Virginia’s prosecutorial elections proved so transformative, & undercovered. & I got to bring it all together in this interactive tool! theappeal.org/political-repo…

The run-up to the 2020 elections, in immediate aftermath of the summer’s protests, was such a great time to connect the dots between dozens of local elections rocked by protests & more attention to mass incarceration. Absolute blast working on all these! 

https://twitter.com/taniel/status/1307049646603284480?s=21

Again, this interactive tool to keep track of local elections in 2020 was a lot of fun: theappeal.org/political-repo…

And so much to bring to life already this year for why 2021 elections matter: theappeal.org/political-repo…

AND we built this unique calendar: theappeal.org/political-repo….

Getting to tell the tale of how much politics is transforming was always special. But so have been stories like the terrible pattern of Oregon governors and prosecutors evading democracy: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

Since mid-2018, local politics has seen defeats for ICE, for local jail projects, for uber-punitive DAs, in ways that were then unthinkable. 

I wrote this 15 months ago... just since, so much more of this splintering has happened as if out of nowhere. theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

How can we talk about (reform) prosecutors without knowing more about what they're actually doing? This 2+ year tracker has been a project that I hope can help others get their bearings on how much the landscape has changed, & standards are being pushed.
theappeal.org/political-repo…

Getting to feature all 50 states on these 2 resources was such a personal milestone!
theappeal.org/political-repo…
& theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

So much of criminal justice reform is via states that waves of change on some issues are so easily missed unless we 👀 nationwide.

All this got so much stronger AND fun with amazing colleagues: @EthanSCorey & @MaleciaWalker improved it ALL, & I learned so much from @annafsimonton, @bcgoyette, @SarahLustbader, @vgullap & so many! More later; will drop this for now for more brilliance.

https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/1393024117855641604

And (finally?) it's been such a blast to work with so many amazing freelance writers whom everyone should be fighting to work with — @rmc031 @FelipeDLH @PiperSFrench came to mind immediately, and there are so many others that made my work an embarrassment of riches!