Local Blogs

Kos is exactly right here:

A thought -- "acting locally" includes blogging your local races. I will be depending on local bloggers (like Say No To Pombo) to keep me informed of some of the hottest races. I'm not interested in doing candidate interviews, but I'll link to such interviews in local blogs. Every congressional candidate, in their press page, should include a healthy dose of blogger articles on their races. Not only does it help us national bloggers when researching a candidate, but it also demonstrates to the local press that the candidate is generating a lot of local buzz. And while us bloggers are (relatively) poor at generating money, we are great at generating buzz.

I know this will take a few cycles to change, but campaigns are still too reliant on the local newspaper article to get their word out when there should be many local activists, on their blogs, willing and able to spread the word and help bypass the media filters that shut out many challengers. Is it a guaranteed path to true legitimate contender status? Nope. That still takes a lot of other things (like money). But it's going to be an increasingly integral part of any campaign's arsenal.

I realize that most districts probably don't have aggressive bloggers writing about their local political scene. But that's something campaigns can help jump start. They should encourage local activists to head over to Blogspot and set up their free site and start writing about the race. I'm not saying create astroturf sites, I'm saying let people know what this blogging thing is and encourage them to start their own sites.