Chris Savage (pictured left in a photo taken by his wife Anne) and his wife live in Dexter, Michigan. Chris is the voice behind the progressive-leaning Eclectablog. Well, actually, progressive-leaning is putting it mildly. Chris Savage is a guy who thinks Democrats who voted for Rick Snyder are fucking stupid. He posted this comment on A2Politico in response to a recent piece about Ann Arbor Democrats who financially supported Snyder’s candidacy:

“Hey! Where’s the ‘I’m a Democrat who wasn’t stupid enough to vote for a Republican governor’ option??? I told you guys so. I totally did ; )”

Chris posts his writing at The Daily Kos as well as the site Blogging for Michigan. A recent piece he wrote about the “takeover,” as he puts it of Benton Harbor by the State of Michigan’s Emergency Financial Manager Joseph Harris, was picked up by MSNBC political analyst Rachel Maddow. As it turns out, Chris doesn’t only write, he’s a chemist by day, as well as a devoted local food movement supporter, baker and all around writing enthusiast. A2Politico caught up with Chris Savage and got him to slow down long enough to answer a few questions about blogging, politics and, yes, his need for attention.

A2Politico: There are lots of bloggers in Michigan writing about state politics. What got you started, and what do you think makes your blog stand out in the crowd?

Chris Savage: I got started blogging about six years ago and landed at my current spot, Eclectablog, about a year and a half ago. I started blogging primarily because I love to write and to synthesize information from a variety of sources, connecting dots and drawing conclusions. My assumption is, of course, that I whatever popularity my blog enjoys isdirectly related to how skilled my readers think I am at this. I’m also highly opinionated and write better when I have an “audience,” so blogging was a natural outlet for my interests. I think what separates Eclectablog from other blogs is that, rather than just regurgitating content from other sources, I bring together items that others have not connected and show how they relate to each other and to the larger picture

Having original content, including commentary as well as news that is unreported at the national level, is another way I try to make Eclectablog unique. Certainly, my wife Anne’s photos add a great deal to the quality of my posts so I’m always eager for her to shoot for blogs I’m publishing. Sometimes, however, in live blogging situations, nothing beats my iPhone where I can shoot photos, upload them to a server and instantly put up a blog with the photos. I did this for the Recall Rick rally during the UofM commencement last weekend, for example, and at the protest march & rally in Benton Harbor the weekend before that. But, at the end of the day, nothing beats having high quality, original photos. One of my most popular blogs ever was of the John Dingell health insurance reform rally in Romulus two summers ago when he was verbally assaulted by countless tea party types. Anne took some incredible photos of that event, one of which is now in a text book.

By the way, the name “Eclectablog” is a mash-up of “eclectic” and “blog.” Although my main focus is on politics, I do like to include non-political things from time to time to give folks a break from the monotony of  “all politics, all the time.” Unfortunately, it’s often misread as “Electablog”—not surprising since I write about politics so much, I suppose. Even Rachel Maddow called it that on her show recently. That has been corrected = )

A2Politico: You also do a site with your wife, Anne, called The Savage Feast. There, you write about the slow/organic/local food movements. Thanks to the politics/food writing, you’re choosing to live a lot of your life in the public eye (at least in the eye of the public who reads your writing). Are you just an extrovert, in constant need of attention, maybe a little of both?

Chris Savage: The Savage Feast is more Anne’s project than mine though I do contribute some writing and editing from time to time. It’s a definitely a showcase for her remarkable photography.

I suppose I am an extrovert, but my blogging is not intended to lay my life open for all to see and there are many parts of my life that I never blog about. What we’ve tried to do with The Savage Feast is to take the concept of eating locally, eating healthy and participating in what I call “suburban homesteading” and show that it is not at all difficult. You don’t have to “do it all”; you can pick and choose the things that you want to incorporate into your life to lower your carbon footprint, lead a healthier, more fulfilling life, and have fun while you do it. It doesn’t have to be hard, but, too often, it comes across that way in so many of the articles and news items you see. It intimidates people. We’re trying to take the intimidation factor out. Some of the posts actually describe things we’ve tried that don’t work. It’s sort of like our readers get to experiment with us!

A2Politico: On your political blog, you’ve been writing about the city of Benton Harbor and the implementation of the EFM/Financial Manager there. What impact do you hope to have by keeping the Benton Harbor story at the forefront on your site and cross-posted to other sites you write for, such as Blogging for Michigan and The Daily Kos? Aren’t you kind of preaching to the choir on those sites?

Chris Savage: Blogging on liberal sites is, of course, preaching to the choir (though you might be surprised at the diversity of opinions on any particular topic you’ll find at these places.) My intention, particularly with the Benton Harbor/EFM reporting, is to make sure that it doesn’t get overlooked at the national level. I am an organizer at heart and my goal is to inform people, maybe get their dander up about a particular issue, and encourage them to get involved. If we read news items that upset us and simply shake our heads and not act, we’ll never shape the world into a better place. Well-educated, knowledgeable activists are the ones that lead the way in terms of change and, if I can help people to become more knowledgeable and to learn how talk about issues in a sensible, articulate way, then I will have helped move our country in a better direction. I have seen time and time again how the actions of a small group of determined individuals can have a huge impact on how things turn out.

One other thing regarding Benton Harbor and the new Emergency Financial Manager law: this is a major issue across our state and even across the country. When Rachel Maddow describes Michigan as “ground zero” for even Bigger Government, she is exactly right, and Benton Harbor is the red dot in the center of the bull’s eye. What happens here, like what is going on in Wisconsin with regard to kneecapping public employee unions, has wide ramifications for the entire country and we should all be paying attention to it. My blogging is intended to help with that effort.

A2Politico: On May 3, 2011 you posted an exclusive in which you wrote about the possibility that nine Michigan Republican representatives would be targeted for recall. Where do you get most of your tips and how do you verify them before posting?

Chris Savage: Because I have begun to be seen as one of the more popular liberal Michigan bloggers, I get tips and information sent to me on an almost daily basis. It’s because I now have a louder bullhorn than most others. In some cases, I verify the information by finding confirmation from other sources, either online or by contacting the people or groups involved. In other cases, such as with the recall efforts, I am in direct contact with the group leading the effort so I’m getting the information directly from the source. Part of what makes my blog legitimate, in my opinion, is that I provide information that is accurate, timely and useful. So, it’s very critical that I vet anything I write about before I publish it at Eclectablog.

A2Politico: On Savage Feast, you self-identify as a “community organizer.” What kind of community organizing projects have you done in past? Are you planning to get involved in the Snyder recall effort in any way?

Chris Savage: Before I moved to the Ann Arbor area, I was in East Lansing where I cofounded a neighborhood association that was essentially a community service group. We worked within our 400-household community to help those that needed, establish a youth program in the summertime and to make sure our neighborhood was a good, safe, caring place to live. Before I left there, I had written over $60,000 in grants to administer programs for kids in our economically-challenged area and helped to establish a community service program for teenagers.

Also, in East Lansing, I was the coordinator for one of the Greater Lansing Food Banks Garden Project community gardens.

In 2008, shortly after we moved to Dexter, I got involved with the Obama for America Campaign for Change to elect Barack Obama as President. After the election, that group became Organizing for America (OFA) and I have been volunteer organizer in Washtenaw County for OFA since then.

I am also the co-Vice Chair for Precinct Organizing for the Washtenaw County Democratic Party.

Last year, I coordinated a garden at my company’s site and between June and October, we donated over two tons of organically-grown fresh produce to the Livingston County Gleaners food pantry.

I am convinced that the only sure way to be happy is to help others and I try to give as much back to my community as I can. It’s very important to me.

A2Politico: I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you don’t make a living from blogging. You’re a chemist. Where’d you go to college? What kind of chemistry are we talking about here?

Chris Savage: It’s true, I make next to nothing as a blogger, though maybe that will change one day. I have a chemistry undergraduate from Michigan State University and an MBA from the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at MSU. I currently work as an R&D chemist for a coatings company. My work life is one of those areas I keep private, in terms of my blogging.

A2Politico: Dexter, where you live, is one of the cities surrounding Ann Arbor that showed some pretty impressive growth according to the 2010 census. Ann Arbor is losing population while the surrounding smaller cities are growing. How did you and your wife end up in Dexter as opposed to Ann Arbor?

Chris Savage: We moved to Dexter because we wanted to be near Ann Arbor but also wanted at least an acre of land to garden on. We have about 1,300 square feet of organic gardens and grow/preserve an enormous amount of the food we eat year round. We could never have afforded an acre in Ann Arbor plus Dexter is closer to where I work. Dexter is nearly ideal for us. 10 minutes to the east we’re in downtown Ann Arbor and 10 minutes to the northwest we can be floating in our kayaks in the Pinckney Recreation area, photographing birds and enjoying nature or hiking on the trails, hunting for mushrooms and berries, etc.

A2Politico: So you read AnnArbor.com? What do you think of the site’s coverage of politics?

Chris Savage: I do read AnnArbor.com pretty regularly. I think they do a pretty good job covering local politics. However, like most news outlets these days, they suffer from having too few reporters so a lot that is happening gets missed. In some ways, blogs like mine fill a niche that creates. The drawback is that blogs, mine included, typically come with a very specific perspective. There is a big shift in the way people get their news these days and many people gravitate toward getting their information from sources they agree with. This is unfortunate because the impartial nature of newspapers and sites like AnnArbor.com help ensure that people get more than one perspective.

A2Politico: Why do you think Mark Brewer, Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, has not uttered a peep in public about whether the Mich Dems will support the effort to recall Gov. Snyder recently launched by the folks at firericksnyder.org?

Chris Savage: There seems to be a great deal of ambivalence regarding the recall efforts. I think the State Democratic Party sees there being a lot of risk in an effort recall Rick Snyder. First of all, if he IS recalled, his Lt. Governor, BrianCalley, becomes Governor until a new election is held and Mr. Calley is even more conservative than Rick Snyder. More importantly, though, if they aren’t successful, it will be seen statewide as yet another loss for the Democrats and, given what happened last November, I’m sure they are reticent to have any further defeats. I should say, however, that I haven’t been in communication with Mark Brewer or any of his staff about this so these are just my impressions and not based on any specific knowledge.

A2Politico: Lots of pundits see what’s happening in Wisconsin and Michigan as part of an organized national GOP effort to destabilize organized labor in anticipation of the 2012 presidential elections. What do you think?

Chris Savage: I think there is absolutely no question about the fact that this is true, though I think it goes beyond just the GOP. With private, very conservative groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Mackinac Center literally writing these pieces of legislation, their intentions are very clear: break the backs of the unions, privatize as many government services (including schools) as possible and turn government services into a for-profit industry. I just wrote a major piece for Eclectablog and Firedoglake on this very topic this week. Keep in mind, the major donors to the Democratic Party are not corporations, they are labor unions. Hurt themand you hurt Democrats across the board. It’s not surprising that they are doing it. What’s surprising is that voters are letting them do it.

A2Politico: On The Savage Feast you write that you like “hot and spicy foods.” On Eclectablog the writing can be hot and spicy at times. Meanwhile at The Savage Feast, the writing is more like comfort food. Which kind of writing do you like to do best? Which do you find more satisfying?

Chris Savage: I get up every morning at between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. to blog before I head to work and I usually blog more at night. I am constantly thinking about what I will write about next and how I will frame any particular issue. There’s no doubt that I am happiest when I am writing about politics. Without exaggeration, it has become part of who I am.