December 8, 2004

Blog Early, Blog Often

John Thune, who narrowly defeated incumbent Tom Daschle in the South Dakota senate race this fall, was aided by two local political bloggers in that state. Turns out the bloggers were paid by the campaign, a total of $27,000 over five months. While some on the Left are carping that there wasn't sufficent disclosure of the arrangement (even though months before the election one of the bloggers was identified by the Thune campaign as a paid consultant), I'm focusing on the fact that Thune was smart enough to recognize the power of blogs and to use blogs as part of his campaign strategy. Was it effective? It certainly didn't hurt as Thune defeated an incumbent Senate minority leader.

Meanwhile, the two bloggers have now teamed up at SouthDakotaPolitcs.