my name is nick butterfield, and the nova pulse represents a mantra of mine, namely “the future starts now.” it will be a daily bulletin board, of sorts, for virginia and northern virginia politics. i should have started off by saying that i’m a republican. but i don’t want this site to turn you off if you’re not. the heart of this site, its very goal, is to encourage more state and local political involvement among my generation. it’s easy to get excited about presidential elections, but we often overlook what happens in the town halls, courts, and city council meetings in our towns and communities.

i think it’s time for us to hold the men and women who run our local governments accountable. democracy is so much more than just showing up at the polls once or twice a year. thomas jefferson once said that “information is the currency of democracy.”

in that sense, you could say that the goal of this site is to make you rich.