Fair to say that a State Senate campaign has more than a few moving parts. Some of those parts are parts I was familiar with when I started; part were parts I wasn’t. But over the last year I’ve done my level best with all of those parts, and on the whole it’s a campaign I’m very proud of at this point. But there was always one nagging shameful feeling.

That lingering feeling? I made the decision early on to convert VDB into a something closer to a campaign blog, heavy on reporting our weekly events, lighter on political satire and commentary, local and national.

Still entertaining, I hope, and still edgy. But different, and different isn’t always accepted by readers, especially digital readers who vote constantly, in real-time, with their mice.

Which was why it was doubly nice to wake up this morning and find out that the readers of Seven Days had awarded VDB the 2010 Daysie for Best Vermont Political Blog. Sweet.

I can’t tell you how gratifying that is, to know that the hours that go into VDB still connect with a solid group of loyal, smart, active political readers. Muchisimas gracias.

A shout out to runner-up Vermont Digger, a must-read reported blog that has very quickly become a major player on the state media scene.

And to the folks at House of Lemay, winners of the Best Vermont Non-Political Blog category, and Bill Simmon’s Candleblog, runner-up in that category. (Astute readers will remember Bill as director of the campaign’s excellent new campaign film, “Long Race.”)

And as always, profound thanks to all of the good people at Seven Days, not just for creating the Daysies, but for caring about local culture and politics and people enough to have started the paper in the first place.

And that goes for all of you out there reading this post, right now this moment, at your desks or on your phones, even those reading while driving. Couldn’t appreciate you any more than we do here in VDB HQ. [Cue up Lyle Lovett, “I Love Everybody (Especially You)”].