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The Run-Off Blog Battle In Georgia

Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia faces the prospect of once again being tossed from Congress in a Democratic primary on Aug. 8, and her opponent in the run-off election, DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson, has taken his crusade to the blogosphere.

The two found themselves in a one-on-one battle after neither managed to win a majority in the July 18 primary. McKinney, who lost her 4th District seat four years ago only to reclaim it in 2004, won 47 percent of the vote in the first round. Johnson won 45 percent. A third candidate, John Coyne, won 8.5 percent.

Since the election, Johnson has become something of a staple in the blogosphere. To my knowledge, he is the first congressional challenger to post content at Congress Blog (an introductory entry on July 21 and a follow-up on Monday).

"I’m tremendously excited about the opportunity to use this unique medium to strengthen democracy by increasing open interaction between constituents and candidates," Johnson wrote, although he does not have a campaign blog of his own. "I hope to provide you with an inside view of this hotly-contested, high stakes runoff."

Johnson also is posting at Winds of Change, where he responded to questions after numerous visitors to the site commented on his initial entry there.

Marc Danziger, who goes by the handle "Armed Liberal" at Winds of Change, wholeheartedly endorsed Johnson by trying to raise $50,000 for him over two weeks via the blogosphere. "The organic rise of Johnson to challenge McKinney is an example of the self-correcting forces within the system, forces that we're potentially all part of. I'm happy to help them along," Danziger wrote.

Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice took note of the entries at Winds of Change. "These are fascinating posts -- worth the attention of readers of all persuasions -- because they show a candidate taking full advantage of Internet technology to directly spread his word and also (not a small matter) a candidate who's offering voters a different style of representation."

Johnson's activity is not restricted just to blogging, either. He currently is running an advertisement at Daily Kos to raise money for his campaign. "It's time to restore respect to progressivism," says the ad, which directs people to Johnson's campaign Web site.

McKinney, meanwhile, has a quasi-blog on her campaign site, but it's quite unimpressive. For starters, it doesn't even follow the reverse-chronological format of blogs. You have to scroll to the bottom of the single page of blog posts, which started in mid-April, to get to the latest entry from July 20.

Here is what you will find when you get there: "I will be pitted against a mostly unknown and unproven opponent, who will nonetheless have the unanimous backing of big national media and national money. The media and money behind my opponent will do their utmost to polarize the election along racial and party lines."

UPDATE: Johnson was back at Congress Blog today to talk about renewal of the Voting Rights Act.

UPDATE II: I just noticed that Johnson also has a fundraising blog pitch at Wizbang, which is not exactly Democratic territory. The tone of the appeal is quite different -- no mention of the word "progressive," for instance, and the image is a photo of McKinney with a red slash drawn through it.

"Hank will serve with humility and integrity, but he can't win without your contributions!" the ad says. "Help him seal the deal and boot Cynthia from Congress once and for all!"

UPDATE III: A new poll shows Johnson with a 46 percent to 21 percent lead over McKinney. A third of voters were undecided, and the margin of error in the poll was plus or minus 5 percent.

Posted by Danny | 04:34 PM

Comments

Quote:
"The media and money behind my opponent will do their utmost to polarize the election along racial and party lines."

Uhhh, aren't they both Democrats and black?

Lee | 07.27.06 03:33 PM

One wonders exactly how you can polarize a campaign along racial lines when both candidates are black.

But then, when you're insane minor lapses in logic like this are just par for the course. Thank you, Cynthia McKinney, for yet another example of why you need to be removed from national politics.

Joe Katzman | 07.27.06 03:38 PM

Racial and party lines? They're both black Democrats. McKinney isn't liberal--she's crazy. If Democrats ever want to win again they need to show the world there is a difference.

Nathan Hall | 07.27.06 04:24 PM

There's plenty of McKinney v. Johnson talk going on at Peach Pundit

Buzz Brockway | 07.27.06 05:08 PM

Lee:

Yes, but he's not black ENOUGH. Or Democratic ENOUGH. Why, he's really a white Republican with a tan!

She's nuts. Just plain nuts.

JLawson | 07.27.06 07:35 PM

I'm a conservative Democrat (i.e., "traitor neocon"); couldn't quite bring myself to change party registration after moving to Colorado, but came awfully close. McKinney is one of the reasons why I nearly left the party, and you can guess most of the other ones. So I was tickled to see the runoff, linked to the Winds of Change posting from my own blog, and backed it up by contributing to Johnson. Keeping my fingers crossed. ..bruce..

Bruce F. Webster | 07.27.06 08:51 PM

I am covering this race extensively. I almost ran against Cynthia myself but am now supporting Hank Johnson. I wrote about last night's rally for Hank.

Dignan | 07.27.06 10:13 PM

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