August 4, 2006

Blogs Impact the Election

Adam Groves looks at the role blogs played in the campaign:

Tennessee Politics Blog Analysis -- 2006: The Election of the Blog -- Bloggers were incredibly successful in their primary bids this election season. The state's only blogging State Legislator Stacey Campfield won a "convincing" victory over establishment challenger Gary Drinnen with 70% of the vote. Surprisingly, John Farmer a blogger from the Memphis area, won the rights to be the GOP's nominee in Congressional District 8. Even though a victory in that race is unlikely, Farmer was not expected to come out of the primary. Nashville blogger Bob Krumm, who made a splash both for blogs and his campaign in a feature story in Business TN a few months ago, also won his primary handidly. Does that mean 2006 is the primary of the blog? Perhaps.

Consider Stacey Campfield: The mere fact of his blog - never mind the spelling errors and bad punctuation - marks him as a distinctly more accessible and connected candidate than any establishment-picked guy with an establishment-designed campaign and website. People prefer to be talked with, not at. A blog is the former. A campaign website is the latter.

Bob Krumm's blog, meanwhile, both provided Krumm a way to discuss issues and publish his positions unfiltered to the people, and marks him as a modern, connected, interactive candidate unafraid of discourse with the public.

That said, it's getting too late now, three months before election day, for candidates who don't have blogs to start one and be effective with it in this year's race. But potential candidates considering running for a state or federal office in 2008 ought to be preparing their blog strategy now. This is a good place to start.