Blogging Local Politics

Over at the Personal Democracy Forum, they're talking about local political blogs.

The community blog also "turns out to be a useful place for public officials to test out ideas and see how they float, and for journalists to get the pulse of at least some segment of the community."

Authors Sam Heib and Ed Cone point to a number of local political blogs - with examples from Virginia, New Jersey, and Oregon. They point to our project BlueOregon as an example of a local blog that's coming of age:

It's hard to point to a local election last November in which blogs made a decisive difference – the paid bloggers who helped John Thune beat Tom Daschle in the South Dakota Senate race come to mind, and blogging candidates like Jeff Thigpen, who ousted the incumbent Register of Deeds in Guilford County, NC, may have gained some incremental advantage. But clearly local poli-blogging is beginning to come of age, especially in relatively well-wired urban communities with some critical mass of web-aware readers.

Good stuff. Check it out.