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Sunday, November 13, 2005

A Blog in Every District

Posted by DavidNYC

Peacenik23 at DKos has the right idea: There ought to be a blog for every House district in the nation. Now, granted, some uber-safe Dem seats could probably afford to be last on the list of priorities. But I like the idea of localization and specialization.

Sites like Swing State can only cover so much, and only in so much depth. And sites like OurCongress, while great for covering premier races, would get swamped if people started filing reports from hundreds of districts. But local folks naturally tend to know the most about local races. (Chris Bowers likes to talk about this concept, too.) They are best-suited to track developments on the ground and research the nitty-gritty of each race.

I don't think this can really be a "project" per se - I don't think it would be fruitful to try to go around organizing 435 different blogs. Rather, I simply think that people should be encouraged to start up blogs on their home districts, especially if one does not already exist. Anyone who does so should still also be encouraged to cross-post their best stuff at OurCongress and MyDD - Jerome and Markos can worry about overload if and when that becomes a problem - or post a comment in the weekly open thread here (or e-mail me). And if you wanted to find a way to unify these sorts of blogs, you could create some kind of aggregate RSS feed.

In that vein, Peacenik is off to a good start at IL-10. Unlike most blogs, I don't think this variety need to be updated daily (though if you feel the urge to post often, don't let that stop you). Everyone realizes that blog-worthy stuff doesn't happen every day in every district. Just as long as you cover the key stuff, you'll be providing an excellent resource. And I am sure the Dem campaigns you'll be covering will be thrilled if you reach out to them. So if it's something you're thinking about, go for it - after all, Blogger is free.

P.S. I am remiss in not mentioning Dump Mike, one of the first such blogs, devoted entirely to NJ-07 and getting ride of the odious Mike Ferguson.

Posted at 12:47 AM in 2006 Elections - House, Illinois | Technorati

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After the election reform issues failed here in Ohio, I found myself disappointed about the state of things. I felt, well, powerless. I spent a good part of the last week thinking about how I can help change things locally, at a grassroots level. A... [Read More]

Tracked on November 14, 2005 01:24 PM

Comments

A few progressives and myself saw recently that there was noone even blogging on progressive politics in North Carolina. We have started a site bluenc.com that is posting regularly on both issues and races across the state. I think that for a state as small as NC, with 13 house races and really only 3 or 4 competitive ones this is enough, but for larger states, we do need someone in every district. But why can we not build off of the growing number of statewide blogs and have the equivalent of district diaries to keep the number of individuals blogs under control. Just another idea.

Posted by: TarGator at November 13, 2005 09:01 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I have one for my campaign, David.

Mine's at http://jeffseemann.typepad.com/ - it could use a little graphic design, but it serves the basic purpose. I just fired up the burners on it this week, and traffic is already starting to rise.

Posted by: Jeff Seemann For Congress at November 13, 2005 10:53 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I don't think this can really be a "project" per se - I don't think it would be fruitful to try to go around organizing 435 different blogs. Rather, I simply think that people should be encouraged to start up blogs on their home districts, especially if one does not already exist.

I disagree. This is only a recipe for getting the low-hanging fruit. It does nothing for those areas in which the blogosphere is anemic.

There are still areas in which almost nobody understands the blogosphere in any sort of sophisticated way. So those of us who both understand the blogosphere and think it's important politically ought to actually engage in some political organizing and blog evangelism to get these people online and up to speed. Simply encouraging people to start their own blogs, when they don't have the faintest clue about the mechanisms of blogging, is not very helpful. We need to find out how to empower these areas, and that requires identifying them in some sort of systematic way.

If it sounds like I'm coming out of left field, let me just aver that the lefty blogosphere in California is very inefficient and under-developed given the huge number of progressive, tech-savvy people in the state. We have tons of people who read blogs, somewhat fewer people who have blogs, and a minuscule number who use their blogs in any sort of politically useful way.

I'm frustrated, and want to see the big name (or otherwise knowledgeable) bloggers actually do something to change the situation. We don't just need the information on blogs, we also need the information about blogs and blogging. We shouldn't lose this distinction.

Posted by: Matt Lockshin at November 13, 2005 04:29 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I've been trying to get people from around michigan to start blogs for congressional districts since somebody started 11th District Demolition (Thaddeus McCotter's seat). If anybody in Michigan is interested in other districts, or wants to help out in the 11th, that would be awesome.

Posted by: Jon Koller at November 13, 2005 05:26 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I completely agree. Here in Kansas, we are in the growth stages of political blogging.

http://www.theantisam.com has been Savaging Senator Sam Brownback since April of last year.

http://jgrr.blogspot.com is perhaps most viewed political blog in the state and gets mentioned in the msm on a regular basis. He also covers KS-3 quite well.

http://redstaterabble.blogspot.com covers school board issues almost exclusively and seems to be growing in popularity.

http://firephillkline.blogspot.com is focusing on the AG race. I will soon be co-blogging with the current writer and we are about to move away from blogger to a wordpress site.

Jim Ryun(KS-2) needs a oppo blog, and I have been considering taking the plunge. Unfortunately I go to school full time and work 25 hours a week. Currently I am trying to recruit a blogger for this post.

Todd Tihart (KS-4) also needs an oppo blog, but it is hard to recruit someone because he never has any competition. He is vulnerable beause of his ties to the Boeing tanker scandal, but I don't have high hopes that the KS dem party will find someone to run.

Jerry Moran (KS-1) is an institution and will be in his seat until he dies. In 2004 he took 91% of the vote.

Posted by: KansasNate at November 13, 2005 05:38 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I'm frustrated, and want to see the big name (or otherwise knowledgeable) bloggers actually do something to change the situation.

What do you have in mind? Few people have the time or money to undertake grand projects. I don't think Markos or Atrios or anyone like that actually has the ability to organize countless individual blogs.

Now, maybe an institution - someone like a CAP - does. But until that starts to take place, I'd at least like to see people start focusing more on local politics. There are so many (too many) blogs which focus on national politics - we don't "need" any more of those. But we could use more blogs with a local focus.

Posted by: DavidNYC at November 13, 2005 07:31 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Not a bad idea. I'm feeling inspired - I've been looking for the right outlet for my frustrations after last Tuesday (things didn't go nearly as well here in Ohio as it did elsewhere).

Anybody know of anything existing for OH-12?

Posted by: Brian at November 13, 2005 07:37 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

We're trying to be more local at NorCal Politics, and are hopeful that it will gain steam.

There are at least 2 NorCal blogs focused specifically on House Districts that I know of:

Say No to Pombo for CA-11

Dump Doolittle for CA-4.

There are a lot of bloggers in SF and elsewhere in NorCal who I think would be happy to help people set up blogs in their own districts.

Posted by: jsw at November 13, 2005 11:13 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Well, I went ahead and did it anyway - http://www.oh-12.us/

No content yet, I just got the domain set up this morning. I've started working up some details for the first few posts (OH-12 demographics, member communities, useful links, etc.)...

Posted by: Brian at November 14, 2005 12:19 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I've got one focusing on the TN Senate race:

http://forwardwithford.blogspot.com

Posted by: davidbander at November 14, 2005 01:46 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

This question may be off the mark -- if so, just point me to the right direction. :)

I'm curious about how to reconcile the drive for increased localization and specialization with the strategy that we should really focus only on those seats or races we have a chance of swinging -- even if it's a tiny chance, that's still less than all of them. Isn't there a conflict here? Or can we have the cake and eat it, too?

Posted by: shimamoto at November 14, 2005 02:29 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I'm a believer in the "contest every seat" 50-state strategy idea. Now, obviously, even if you believe that, you have to be able to organize and prioritize in some way, shape or form. But I'd much rather see us take on 100 seats than just 20.

And here's why. It's a question of marginal returns.

Posted by: DavidNYC at November 14, 2005 03:36 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Christine Cegalis has one for her campaign in Illinois's 6th Congressional District.

http://www.cegelisforcongress.com/blog

She faces Lindy Scott in the Democratic primary. He is a very creditable in his own right and the choice will not be an easy one for 6th District Democrats. The winner earns the right to face the Tom Delay lackey, Peter Roskam funded with Delay's overlaundered contributions.

As if things weren't tough enough already for Christine, she has to deal with the likes of Rep. Rahm Emanuel, DCCC Chairman who seems determined to undermine the 6th District campaigns by threatening to bring in yet another primary candidate at the last minute.

Rahm! Please stay out of the 6th District. Defeating Roskam will be difficult enough without you mucking things up!

Posted by: pascal1947 at November 15, 2005 12:29 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I wholeheatedly concur with the comments here about a blog for every campaign to help bring attention, awareness and support.

Another blog owner made a prophetic realization known to me in this regard, in that he was glad to see a Democratic campaign site with a blog; furthermore, he was pleased to see one that allowed comments. Apparently, a lot of campaign websites, particularly "red" blogs, do not allow people to sign up and make statements.

We've launched a blog to support Mike Weaver in the 2nd Congressional District of Kentucky to elect him to the United States House of Representatives; please have a view and comment at http://www.electmikewearver.com/

Posted by: wrmineo at November 20, 2005 07:08 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Rudimentary at this point, because RL has made some demands on my time, but I was inspired by the OH-2 blog to create one for my own Congressional District 21 in Texas.

Currently squatted in by Lamar "Can I Carry that Water for you, Tom?" Smith.

John Courage has declared his candidacy and won the endorsement of Grass Roots from DFA. As far as I know these are the only candidates so far.

Posted by: boadicea at November 23, 2005 02:41 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment