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Campaign Blogging In The Buckeye State

Voters in Ohio's 2nd District will choose a replacement for Republican Rob Portman in an Aug. 2 special election, and The Stakeholder, the blog of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is billing it as "a campaign that could cement the blogosphere's reputation as leaders in the Democratic Party."

Portman left the seat to become U.S. trade representative, and with Portman having won 72 percent of the vote in the district last fall and President Bush netting 63 percent, GOP candidate Jean Schmidt seemed to be a sure bet for victory. But that was before the Ohio Republican Party was rocked by a scandal involving state investments in rare coins.

Now the DCCC sees an opportunity to trim the Republican House majority, and it is calling on bloggers to help the cause by supporting Democratic candidate Paul Hackett. "Can we raise $25,000 in two weeks to get Paul Hackett elected?" Stephen Yellin wrote at The Stakeholder. "We did it in 2004 with Ginny Schrader in a week, and this race is no less important. And when I threw the first pebble into Ginny's wave of money, I knew that her race mattered. So does Paul Hackett's."

By way of reminder, Schrader was dubbed "the candidate of the netroots" by Daily Kos, which also created "Blogosphere Day" (July 19, in case you're wondering) to recognize how bloggers rallied around her campaign in Pennsylvania's 8th District. Schrader lost her 2004 race against Republican Michael Fitzpatrick, finishing with 43 percent of the vote to his 55 percent.

Democratic blogs that have been covering the Hackett-Schmidt race regularly include MyDD, Ohio 2nd, Ohio Watch and even Lorax Political, which is published by a blogger in Seattle.

The race also is getting attention at GrowOhio, a new blog from the campaign of Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown, and at the blog of the Democratic National Committee. And today the contest generated a front-page post at Daily Kos (also cross-posted at GrowOhio).

Republican bloggers in the Buckeye State who have mentioned the race include Porkopolis, Right Angle Blog and VikingSpirit. But NixGuy apparently made its last post June 27, offering this bold proclamation: "I took the sidebar link for the 2nd District posts down. Unless Jean Schmidt is caught having tea with Patricia Schroeder, this race is over."

Posted by | 04:19 PM

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» Bahh! from Ohio 2nd
Sure... now EVERYONE is jumping on the Hackett blogging bandwagon. And what about me... what about your old pal the Big E? Huh??? Who's had your back? Who's been there from DAY ONE?! Sorry... every now and then I lose my awareness of Samudaya, the 2n... [Read More]

Tracked on July 14, 2005 02:15 PM

» OH-02: Blogging the Special Election from Swing State Project
From the new National Journal Beltway Blogroll: Voters in Ohio's 2nd District will choose a replacement for Republican Rob Portman in an Aug. 2 special election, and The Stakeholder, the blog of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is billi... [Read More]

Tracked on July 14, 2005 06:36 PM

» Happy Blogosphere Day from Swing State Project
A long time ago, even though it happened one year ago today, there was an event that proved to the whole world the united blogosphere's ability to deploy resources immediately into a single congressional district. Today is Blogosphere Day. As was annou... [Read More]

Tracked on July 19, 2005 12:54 PM

Comments

Chris over at OH-2 really does deserve the lions share of credit on the developing blogosphere phenemenon.

His work has been instrumental as far as inspiring and organizing others to get involved in the race. A profile of his work alone might be in order.

Tim

Grow Ohio
http://www.growohio.org

ttagaris | 07.14.05 02:42 PM

Indeed OH-2 has carried the water on this campaign as far as blogging is concerned. As an active volunteer on the Hackett effort I turn to Chris's blog several times a day. Often times he is the only source of new or breaking information. Chris has also shed light on things that have been ignored in Cincinnati's media.

roamomgcoyote | 07.14.05 04:22 PM

Much of the energy among bloggers in the Ohio 2nd (the MOST lopsidedly Republican district in the state) went into the GOP primary, where it was primarily directed against the bids by Sen. Mike DeWine's son and current Hamilton County commissioner Pat DeWine, and by former Republican congressman and current Washington-area lobbyist Bob McEwen. See here -- http://red-state.com/0605/#061505 -- for an analysis of the primary race, and for blogging on McEwen, check out the various continuing entries (such as today's -- http://www.bizzyblog.com/?p=283 --) on Tom Blumer's BizzyBlog, http://www.bizzyblog.com.

Michael Meckler | 07.14.05 04:31 PM

Mr. Meckler is correct about a lot of the local blogging energy was happening by bloggers in the primary. The major GOP alligned players being VikingSpirit (supporting Pat DeWine), BizzyBlog (anybody but Bob McEwen), ProjectLogic (Jean Schmidt), Waller Street Journal, Porkopolis and Nixguy. Several of the blogs, Ohio for Blackwell and The Political Influencials, don't exist anymore. BizzyBlog's muckraking in the primary against Bob McEwen was truly awesome.

Blogging wildcards (not directly affiliated with any Party) were Cincinnati Black Blog, The Dean of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Blog. Since these blogs offer anonymous comments often the most interesting (and offensive) exchanges were there.

Another big wildcard in the blogosphere is radical anti-tax rightwing muckracker The Whistleblower. His veteran insider status, questionable humor and perverse sense of justice have a corrupting effect on all political dialog in the area (what I call teh WhistleBlower effect). The fact that a local head of a "values" organization was quoted as referring to Pat DeWine by his WhistleBlower nickname (Jungle Fever Boy), is a sign of his popularity.

Several of the bloggers, BizzyBlog and Nixguy have abandoned blogging about the race almost entirely. Nixguy because he doesn't see any point in talking about it since he feels that Schmidt is a shoe in, and BizzyBlog because McEwen is out of the race. BizzyBlog is still very active on other blogs.

The main blogging players now from the GOP perspective are primary candidate Eric Minamyer and ProjectLogic. Minamyer was a very active commenter during the primary, but not that we are in the general his blog has had some of the most heated attacks against Hackett. All of this has sparked some very interesting exchanges as the threads bounce around the local blogosphere. To be honest neither has been able to generate any spark from the GOP perspective beyond the district.

You can get a good vibe on the race by using BlogPulse.

As a progressive, one of my key approaches to the race has been to maintain a good relationship with the opposition bloggers. I give them their props. As an underdog this approach has been very fruitful. I could say more, but a magician never reveales his tricks.

I will say that probably my biggest mistake in the primary was overestimating Tom Brinkman and underestimating Jean Schmidt. I did not see her coming at all, (Ann Driscoll did, much to her credit) and was not prepared for her enough after she won. Still... we've made some adjustments since then ;-)

Ohio 2nd Blog | 07.15.05 10:02 AM

Sorry, it stripped out my links:

http://deanofcincinnati.com/
http://www.blackcincinnati.blogspot.com/
http://cincinnati.blogspot.com/
http://wallerstreet.com/
http://www.ohioforblackwell.com/
http://vikingspirit.blogspot.com/
http://projectlogic.blogspot.com/
http://porkopolis.blogspot.com/
http://ann-driscoll.mydd.com/
http://www.bluechipreview.com/Whistleblower.html
http://ericminamyer.myblogsite.com/
http://www.bizzyblog.com/
http://www.blogpulse.com/trend?query1=%22Paul+Hackett%22&label1=Paul+Hackett&query2=%22Jean+Schmidt%22&label2=Jean+Schmidt&query3=&label3=&days=60&x=42&y=7

Ohio 2nd Blog | 07.15.05 10:05 AM

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