Doug Bailey

Doug Bailey, the founder of The Hotline, RIP.

The Hotline was simply the best way to follow campaign news in 1988. And 1990. And 1992. And every election through at least 2000, which means at least through the point at which National Journal acquired it in 1996. I've had Hotline access on and off over the years, depending on where I worked, and it's been consistently excellent throughout. Not only extremely informative, but always a lot of fun. In fact, just last week I realized you could get "Wake-Up Call" via email, and subscribed.

Before the Hotline...well, you just couldn't get a lot of information. Polling aggregation, news stories about Senate and House races as well as presidential nominations, the important and the trivial; I don't know whether Bailey invented aggregation on that level, but it was definitely a big step forward for political information, and it was done right.

By all accounts, Bailey was also a good guy, and a solid campaign consultant before he left that business. I do know that there are Hotline alums all over the place, and the ones I know of are generally excellent. I assume he deserves a good deal of the credit for that, too, either directly or by establishing the right kind of workplace.

The Hotline was a terrific achievement, one that made politics better for a long time. He'll be missed.