Did you know that 3/4 of Democratic state party webpages do not have blogs on their sites?
Those results were uncovered by Bob Brigham after the fallout between bloggers and the Association of State Democratic Chairs this weekend in Orlando.
Bob's results got us thinking about implenting some change within the state parties themselves by convincing them to put blogs on their webpages.
So last night, I emailed every state party without a blog, explaining the benefits and offering my help to get them off the ground.
Results below the fold...
So, last night I sent out 34 emails to the states without blogs on their webpages. You can find the list
here.
The email talked about the usefulness of a blog to inform, involve, and communicate with constituents. It also refernced some of the things we accomplished on the Seemann campaign, incase they needed evidence.
By the time I woke up this morning I already had some replies. Was your state among them? Let's find out...
Vermont
We are interested.
Short and sweet, but that's alright. They will get a phone call and will hopefully be on-line within the next few days.
North Carolina
Thank you for your message. You're right about the blog and we are
currently in the process of revamping our website to include one.
Kentucky
Thank you for contacting us about having a blog on our Web site. We
switched to a new Web site recently and it does have built-in blog capabilities. We do plan to turn that feature "on" soon.
Again, thank you for bringing the importance of using blogs to our attention--more precisely, thanks for reminding us that we need to further explore how we will use ours.
That was my favorite response, until...
Alabama!
i have been wanting to do this. not sure exactly how to go about it. any
insight would be greatly appreciated.
Finally, Florida (an exceprt -- was a long email)
I've gone so far as to walk through the blog creation process at blogspot.com and to download movable type for potentially hosting a blog on our webserver. We also wrote a very simplistic web diary for use by our delegation during the convention. One reason I'm not hosting a blog is maintenance. [...]
I love blogs. I read several regularly. We already run a yahoo group that allows some members to carry on discussions. What more will a blog do for us?
I emailed him back, talking about how much a blog could have done in 2000 for Florida. I also noted the potential for 2006, since they have a Governor and Senate race up.
The interview
While we're at the effort of bringing the state parties into the new century, here is an excerpt of my interview with the Michigan Democratic Party's (MDP) Communications Director. The Executive Director of the MDP, Mark Brewer, is the man who tossed Jerome Armstrong and Matt Stoller from the DNC Candidate Q&A, sponsored by the Assoc. of State Democratic Chairs (He is the chairman of that group as well.
The whole thing can be read here
1.) Is the displeasure in the blogging community understandable?
It is unfortunate that those bloggers who were asked to leave feel offended. They were credentialed as press and therefore treated as press. We apologize for any confusion.
The Chairman and the ADSC are seeking substantial reform and change at the DNC, focusing it on building the grassroots structure of the Party in every part of every state rather than continuing as a D.C.-based, paid consultant-driven organization. We would appreciate the blogging community's support of those shared goals.
There is more. I will leave you to form your own opinions. I am certain they will be a mixed bag.
Like I said, check Swing State Project for the rest of the interview. We are spending alot of time reaching out to the state parties to help -- in the spirit of a 50 state strategy, working from the grassroots. If you care to join the effort, please do.
Thanks for your time,
Tim