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Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Introducing DistrictBlogs.com

Posted by DavidNYC

We've been talking a lot about single-district blogs here lately (see here and here). I'm pleased to announce that SSP reader Chris has launched a great new site to help organize this entire effort, DistrictBlogs.com.

Right now, DistrictBlogs does two main things. First, it aggregates feeds from already-existing single-district blogs, like OH-02 or Dump Mike. Second, it allows people who want to start their own district blogs to create one right away, hosted at DistrictBlogs. The combination of these two features means that DB has the potential to become a very powerful district-level tool.

Chris is looking for feedback on the site, so if you have any thoughts, please e-mail him. Also, if you have a single-district blog and you'd like your feed to be part of DistrictBlogs, let Chris know so he can add you.

Posted at 03:33 PM in 2006 Elections - House | Technorati

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Comments

Great post David. We need to build a serious and strong ground game locally and in every state in time for the 2006 elections. One area I admire Republicans is that they focus much more on local blogs, and that's truly where the power lies.

We need to shift our focus from the big name blogs to encouraging strong grassroots local blogs.

Please post this important diary on dailykos so more people see it. Thanks.

Posted by: purpleday at November 22, 2005 05:26 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Awesome!

Posted by: Ohio 2nd at November 22, 2005 07:59 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

MN - DFL on a roll!!! (sorry for the double post)

Terri Bonoff's victory tonight (nov. 22, 05) over Republican Judy Johnson is HUGE for the DFL. Starting with the most obvious, Bonoff's victory increases the DFL Senate majority to 36-30-1 (with the one independent, Sheila Kiscaden, caucusing with the DFL). The increased majority puts Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson in an even better bartering position compared to the GOP controlled House (which Republicans control by just 1 seat).

Bonoff's victory, however, means much more. Bonoff defeated the (supposedly) popular Mayor of Plymouth, which is more than half of the district (Johnson only won 51% of the vote in Plymouth), despite having never run for public office before. She managed to do this with Election Day scheduled just 2 days before Thanksgiving (Johnson got some assistance from One Term Timmy, see here) which should have depressed turnout (lower turnout almost always hurts the DFL candidate).

To top it all off, Bonoff's victory runs against significant historical precedent. The DFL has lost all but 7 of the 36 special elections held since 1990. If you throw out special elections held in districts either on the Iron Range or in Minneapolis/St. Paul (where DFL candidates typically get 65%+) the DFL has only won 3 special elections in the past 15 years!

Tonight has to be rough for One Term Timmy Pawlenty. This whole debacle is his fault. After all, had he not drafted Chris Gaither to be his Chief of Staff, Gaither would have held the seat until Bonoff beat him in 2006...tough luck guv!

Combined with Bush's abysmal poll numbers in Minnesota and Republican Randy Kelly's embarrassing defeat three weeks ago, this has been a horrible fall for the Minnesota GOP.

YES!

...

Posted by: wellstoner at November 23, 2005 03:10 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment