Welcome to The Public Interest

Hello!

A warm welcome to you. My name is Brian Amaral, and I'll be your blogger on politics, government and – here's the important part – how they intersect with our lives.

First, a bit about myself. I came to Watertown to cover politics after seven months in the Ogdensburg bureau. Before coming to the Times, I worked at outlets in Pennsylvania and Syracuse, and was a contributing writer to the Huffington Post. I'm a proud Syracuse University alumnus.

I'm immensely honored to cover the politics and government beat for you, but I'm also a little bit surprised; I had never wanted to write about politics. The 2008 elections really turned me off to political reporting, and I still consider many of those criticisms valid – mainly, that a candidate's prescribed policy was often measured by how well it polled, rather the effect it had on your everyday life.

But there's a way to write about politics that isn't facile and shallow. The best journalists – like Channel 7's Jude Seymour, my predecessor who has set the bar extremely high – already know this. I learned it in 2009, when working for a political news site in Syracuse called Democracywise, and its indefatigable steward Charlotte Grimes.

It's simple. Explain, in plain, stark and honest terms, how the actions of our democratically elected leaders affect our lives so you can make an informed decision in our democracy. That's the type of ethos I'm going to bring to this blog.

OK, enough with the first-person pronouns. Here's what's going to happen here.

First, the blog will start off the morning a sampling of stories and tidbits from around the politics and government realm, from our paper and from other publications, in a segment called “NNY Agenda.”

Over the course of the day, you'll see posts ranging from breaking political news to a heads up on stories that are in the hopper.

And, even though the focus is on hard news, you'll occasionally see some stuff on the lighter side, too.

Finally, you should know that this blog will find success with a healthy amount of interaction. We'll soon start a mailbag – e-mail me your questions, comments, autograph requests, whatever. I'll post it, with my answer.

So e-mail me at bamaral@wdt.net — especially if you have tips — or follow me on Twitter, @wdtpolitics