Leonard Fleming's acticle titled, "
Web logs' influence is growing: Online political opinion sites give big boost to some underdog campaigns" mentions Mydd and Kos and focuses on our
Ginny:
Markos Moulitsas, a Californian whose brainchild is the Daily Kos political blog, said that "when the race began, Ginny Schrader had no chance" against Greenwood and his $600,000 in campaign cash. "But the second Greenwood dropped out, I knew the district and knew that it would jump to the top of our list," Moulitsas said of his Kos Dozen, which lists important Democratic candidates, money raised for them, and the number of donors.
Thus began a blogger love affair with the Schrader/Fitzpatrick race, as they studied the Eighth District's moderate leanings and strong support for abortion rights.
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"It had nothing to do with the message, it had to do with it being a winnable seat," Moulitsas said of bloggers' initial interest.
He said that many bloggers, and those who read their pieces, are "political neophytes" who are active for the first time because of the war in Iraq and the lackluster economy.
Schrader, still in shock about how bloggers helped boost her candidacy in its darkest fiscal hour, used the money to pay for expanded office space, an updated phone system, and more staff.
"It was definitely strange to go onto the Internet and see everybody talking about me," Schrader said. "I've never blogged. Maybe I've heard the word before, but I wasn't even sure of that. So when people came to me and said, 'You're a blogosphere phenomenon,' I said, 'What?' "
and on the other side?
Fitzpatrick said that he didn't think he received any money through blogs, but that "clearly it's a phenomenon of technology" that brings younger voters to the political process.
Identifying bloggers as "one of many interest groups," Fitzpatrick cautioned that bloggers who throw money into races like his won't have the impact that person-to-person campaigning provides.
"It's not a wholesale way that changes the way people campaign," he said. "All politics are local, as they say."
Help finish the job, make a final donation to Ginny and show Fitzpatrick what happens when the netroots finances campaigning on the ground locally. How much the netroots contribute now will decide the how many final pieces the campaign can print.
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Speaking of Act Blue they ended up in the story too:
"I think you've seen the real strength of the blogger community," said Matthew DeBargalis, co-founder of ActBlue, a political action committee and Web site that allows Democrats - especially bloggers - to give money to House and Senate candidates whom they support, as well as to offer campaign analysis.
DeBargalis said bloggers gave Schrader a "shot in the arm" that put her "in a position to run a competitive race."
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