...is that coders got hooked on $ 5 years ago, and political work never pays like the private sector. I learned HTML and such because it was a way to find my niche in the political world, not the other way around.

The other thing about political work is that it makes time demands that normal jobs often don't ... late nights that aren't necessarily convenient, and that sort of thing.

The combination of good political sense and technical abilities is getting less rare, but there's still a market for it. I find that by hanging out with political folks, and then bringing technological solutions to their problems, I earn a lot of goodwill, and my career in politics, while not putting me at the top of the heap (you won't see me on Crossfire), has been one of steady work and opportunity.

A lot of people who got involved with Dean's campaign by starting their own state Dean blogs or whatever have found that their expertise is now in demand. I think that the trend will continue, and that the market will stay strong for people who are into politics and have technical skills who aren't demanding software developer salaries.

One way to get started is to fire up your own blog (you may have one already), and take a disciplined aproach to it. Don't go crazy for every tin foil hat theory, as that is a big turnoff for political professionals...just find the interesting stuff that's out there, and write about it. Gently grow your audience, and you'll start to gain contacts in politics in the Bay Area and beyond.