I've been thinking about my role as a blogger in asking candidates for state office questions I think are important. Not already elected officials - they have a soapbox already - but the challengers. As a blogger, I think this is probably my most "useful" time to ask and get responses to questions on an issue that most elected officials don't publicly discuss much. Candidates need publicity. Online candidates appreciate online publicity. The fact that they're responding to an issue of my concern is a benefit to them and to me. So I've been asking Pennsylvania candidates about an issue of interest to me - lobbyist registration/regulation in Pennsylvania.
It seems to me that more bloggers ought to take a structural approach to asking candidates about the "quiet issues" they find of interest and importance, because this is probably the best time to get answers on the table and to raise the issue in the first place. This is a good time for bloggers to leverage their candidate promotional position to ask questions.
So... what are you asking candidates about?