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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

July 19 - Blogosphere Day

Blogosphere Day 2005 was such an overwhelming success that the press has taken notice. From the Washington Examiner:

Don't tell the folks in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the first primary in the 2008 presidential nomination race might occur on July 19, 2007.

Call it the Netroots Primary.

July 19 has become "Blogosphere Day" for progressive online activists. In 2004, these partisans turned their attention to unknown Democratic congressional candidate Virginia "Ginny" Schrader, who was running in an impossibly Republican district. Two days later her campaign was $30,000 richer. (She lost.)

This year, Paul Hackett, the underdog Democrat in an Ohio special election, benefited to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. (He lost.)

If the netroots can flex like that in an off-off-year losing House race, what'll they do for the big race?

"It'll be interesting to see Blogosphere Day in 2007," said Chris Bowers, a co-founder of MyDD.com. "It'll be interesting to see who gets the most."

He added: "The candidate that will raise the most is the one that doesn't look at the blogosphere and the netroots as just another ATM machine."

Candidate can read more on that here and here. Back to the story...

Which brings us back to Blogosphere Day. We used to talk about the "money primary" as the first test of political credibility. But that was when fundraising was a slog to amass enough cash to endure the primaries. Now ephemeral momentum can quickly produce cash (and vice versa). Whichever Democrat gets the biggest funding bump on July 19, 2007, will have passed the new first test and be the frontrunner.

The backstory behind Blogosphere Day is a funny tale that I'll feed to some lucky reporter next July. As for Blogosphere Day 2006, the focus will be on individual bloggers' Act Blue pages. So go set yourself up a page with your slate of candidates (avoid anyone on the list of shame) and start raising money now. My gut tells me that most pages will be able to double their totals in one day if we do it right. Actblue is a critical part of the new progressive infrastructure and everyone should be using it. Remember, you can't raise money if you don't ask. On that note, go support the Swing State Project Official Candidate List.

Posted at 01:04 PM in | Technorati

Comments

Hi Bob,

Blogosphere Day was certainly an amazing event last year. I hope when you "feed a lucky reporter the tale" that you'll remember to mention me. After all, I did start the ball rolling, as DKospedia will verify. Thanks, and keep up the great work on the site!

"Mr. Liberal"

Posted by: Stephen Yellin at August 23, 2005 03:19 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment