Introducing The Ticket

Welcome to The Ticket, a blog obsessively devoted to the crazy world of American politics.

Our goal is to cover anything and everything related to the national political debate, from the upcoming 2012 presidential campaign to what's happening in the halls of Congress. We'll be tracking the most important races all over the country, including pivotal House, Senate and gubernatorial elections--and the occasional oddball ballot initiative. (California, we're looking at you.) We'll also cover the continual fight for influence among political players. That means tracking key power struggles in Washington, monitoring the ways that party leaders use the media to shape and convey their central messages, and chronicling the perennial tug-of-war between the leaders of the national parties and the donors and activists who make up their base of support.

You might be thinking, "Oh great, another political blog." But here at The Ticket, our goal isn't just to bring you a running conversation about what's happening in the political world. We want to cut through the spin and navel-gazing minutiae that often cloud the debate. We want to put things in their proper context, to focus on the bigger picture and explain why you should care about certain stories (or, in some cases, why you shouldn't).

This won't be a partisan blog. We won't be taking sides—unless, of course, we're talking about fashion (seriously, President Obama, no more dad jeans) or whether it's OK for politicians to cry in public (it's OK, John Boehner; everybody gets verklempt sometimes). However, we will tell you when conventional wisdom is wrong or when a candidate or party isn't quite telling the truth.

That brings us to another part of our manifesto: Politics, while important, should also be fun to read about. That's why you'll see us covering very important stories like whether a lawmaker's tan is a turnoff to voters, rumors of presidential cameos in early '90s rap videos and political attempts to link candidates to horrific Kevin Costner movies.

Who are we? Before I joined Yahoo, I was a White House correspondent at Newsweek, where I covered both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. I also covered Republicans during the 2008 presidential campaign, which means I spent a lot of time following John McCain around and watching candidates feign interest in butter sculptures. I'm also a campaign finance junkie, which means I'll continue tracking the "shadow GOP" and the growing influence of other outside political groups as the 2012 election lurches into gear.

My partner is Rachel Rose Hartman, who joined Yahoo! after working at the Washington Independent. She also used to work for Congressional Quarterly and the San Francisco Chronicle's Washington bureau. Nobody understands the tea party better than Rachel, and she'll continue to track the way that the exuberant conservative protest movement handles its transition into power in the 112th Congress--and navigates its next big move onto the national stage with the 2012 presidential contest. Rachel also knows more about the dynamics at play in individual House and Senate races across the country than just about any reporter I know. (You should see her spreadsheets!)

That said, there are just two of us, so we'll need your help, too. Have you seen a crazy political ad or gotten an odd piece of political mail? Are we completely missing an important development in a certain race? Send us tips over email or via Twitter. Tell us what we should be covering or when we've gotten something wrong. Let us know how we're doing in the comments.

Again, welcome to The Ticket. We're excited to be here and grateful to you for reading.