Crossposted from Open Left.
Last week marked the return of the 50 State Blog Roundup, which had gone into hibernation for some time. Each week I will put together a synopsis of material from every state in the US by going through the list of blogs in the 50 State list on Open Left, soliciting entries from various state and local blogs around the country, and taking a peek at the Lefty Blogs state feeds to fill in any holes. Also, definitely worth mentioning that the amazing Steve Hanson of Uppity Wisconsin has put together 50stateblognetwork.com, a 50 state blog aggregator that will pull posts from local and state blogs who have opted in.
This week, I've privileged those who sent me their links by posting their states at the front of the roundup, and including the rest of the states in alphabetical order afterwards. Reminder - this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you get the hunger for some state news by reading my roundup, by all means feed that with an exploration of the 50 state blog list, 50stateblognetwork.com, and the Lefty Blogs state feeds. And if there's some blog I keep missing, by all means alert me to my error in comments!
As an aside, I want to recognize an achievement by a couple of bloggers, and the creation of a new blog. DFA has continued their tradition of awarding scholarships to promising activists to attend Netroots Nation, and have given two state bloggers, Bruce Reilly of RI Future and Zack Wisniewski of Blogging Blue, the opportunity to attend this year's conference in Las Vegas. Naturally, the scholarships have to be paid for somehow, so please help DFA fund them if you can.
Finally, and totally off topic, a group of national and state progressive bloggers (including Mike Lux and Adam Bink) have started a sports blog with a progressive bent. Check it out at Dirty Hippie Sports Talk.
And now, the roundup!
Iowa: While Terry Branstad repeats his zombie lies about the Iowa state budget, desmoinesdem at Bleeding Heartland challenges him to show how he would balance the budget without making any cuts.
Texas: Libby Shaw at Texas KAOS writes about the increasing poverty and high school dropout rates in Gov. Rick Perry's Texas, a subject that Off the Kuff also takes on. Charles also explores the Latino vote and Rick Perry, and writes about a PPP poll showing a tie in the governor's race.
North Dakota: Adam at North Decoder tells us how the Republican Secretary of State actually lost a Libertarian candidate's filing papers and left him off the ballot.
Alabama: Mooncat at Left in Alabama writes on racial politics and party switching (and switching back again) in a Democratic primary.
Missouri: WillyK at Show Me Progress finds Roy Blunt leaving out the part about the BP $100 million unemployment compensation fund when Blunt complains about the deepwater drilling moratorium. .Sean at Fired Up Missouri and Adam at St. Louis Activist Hub both did some excellent work on leading Tea Party candidate Ed Martin's latest ethics problem. And .Sean rightly worries about the traditional media's eagerness to cover Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder few mainstream views while ignoring his many objectionable statements, like alleging that lefty Jew hatred was prevalent in America, or that Obama is just like Hugo Chavez, or that global warming is a hoax.
Virginia: Not Larry Sabato finds wingnut Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli possibly involved in a pay to play scandal.
Oklahoma: Howie Klein of Down with Tyranny profiles the doggiest of the Blue Dogs, Dan Boren. The Borat-ized picture of Boren alone is worth clicking through to the link. DocHoc at Blue Oklahoma points out that opponents of SQ 744 forget the crucial fact that education has been underfunded in Oklahoma for years and years.
Utah: Howie also took a look at Claudia Wright's challenge of Blue Dog Jim Matheson before Tuesday's primary and finds that she would be just as good of a candidate in the fall as Matheson, and a much better Democrat. (Note: Wright lost the primary by a fair margin after being outspent heavily.)
Rhode Island: Brian Hull at RI Future lets us know about more Democratic challengers to Congressman Jim Langevin and openly discusses the future ownership of RI Future.
Ohio: Modernesquire at Plunderbund has a miniroundup of Kasich and Strickland news. Joseph finds that Kasich generally has no clue what he's talking about.
Wisconsin: Zach at Blogging Blue raises an eyebrow at mega-rich Republican Ron Johnson, who is running to oppose Russ Feingold for US Senate and is a big self-professed Tea Party guy. Johnson hates government spending but loves the $500,000 that the Wisconsin state government earmarked for his Oshkosh Opera House.
Alaska: A guest poster at Celtic Diva realizes that somehow, once upon a time we learned to shift away from Big Whale, and we have it within ourselves to shift away from Big Oil, too.
Arizona: Mackinac at AZ Netroots talks about JD Hayworth's free government money infomercial, and Mackinac and Mackinac and AZ Steve duel over who would be the best Democrat to replace John McCain this year.
Arkansas: ARDem at Blue Arkansas lambastes Blanche Lincoln's return to her corporate roots.
California: Robert Cruickshank has a comprehensive look at the November ballot taking shape.
Colorado: Song at Square State reviews the natural gas industry documentary Gasland. Saindenver meets Democratic Attorney General candidate Stan Garnett.
Connecticut: ctblogger at My Left Nutmeg recaps the Democratic gubernatorial debate with video.
Delaware: Delaware Dem at Delaware Liberal reviews recent happenings in the General Assembly.
District of Columbia: Georgetown resident Ken Archer writes at Greater Greater Washington about streetcars preserving historic districts, rather than spoiling them. As someone who rode streetcars a lot in Europe during my time there, I could not agree more.
Florida: Florida Politics has a news digest from around the state, including the recent debate between the Democratic candidates for US Senate.
Georgia: Mel at Blog for Democracy also has a news roundup from around Georgia.
Idaho: Sisyphus at 43rd State Blues looks at the First Congressional District GOP primary.
Illinois: Adam Doster at Progress Illinois picks apart the cuts in the state budget.
Hawaii: David Thielen solicits questions to ask Hawaii's Democratic gubernatorial contenders.
Kansas: Levi Henry at Forward Kansas tells us about a collective bargaining victory for Kansas public sector workers.
Louisiana: shandwerk at the Daily Kingfish highlights one Louisiana politician not afraid to speak out on the cozy relationship between most LA elected officials and Big Oil.
Maine: Gerald Weinand at Dirigo Blue writes about GOP gubernatorial nominee Paul LePage claiming that employees of his grocery store chain are like family, but apparently means it more like paying your son $5 to mow your massive lawn on a hot summer's day. Maine Politics rounds up items on maneuverings in state senate campaigns.
Maryland: Marc Korman writes at Maryland Politics Watch about minimum age requirements for politicians.
Michigan: Eric B at Michigan Liberal discusses nutrition and prison food.
Massachussetts: David at Blue Mass Group writes about the outing of a pro-Mac D'Alessandro blogger at Swing State Project, which sounds horrible, but in this case was probably warranted. Charley on the MTA takes on Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) on financial reform.
Minnesota: Bill Prendergrast at Minnesota Progressive Project is incredulous at Rep. Michele Bachmann's insistence on an energy policy of offshore drilling and more nukes.
Montana: Jay Stevens at Left in the West defends Missoula's anti-discrimination ordinance, and Montana Girl mocks the astroturf anti-Social Security event coming to Missoula on Saturday.
Nebraska: BoldNebraska at the New Nebraska Network comments on the passage of the Fremont immigration ordinance.
New Hampshire: Dean Barker at Blue Hampshire [http://www.bluehampshire.com/diary/10206/another-phony-controversy-from-team-mahoney gets the truth[ behind GOP congressional candidate Sean Mahoney's accusations against the Democratic incumbent.
New Jersey: Jason Springer at Blue Jersey catches Gov. Chris Christie changing his tune on tax and fee hikes now that he's in office.
New Mexico: Matt at NMFBIHOP is dumbfounded by poorly sourced accusations in a traditional media outlet that bloggers are careless and do not check their facts, especially as they sourced their accusation to a "legitimate" blog that acts exactly as they accuse others to act.
New York: Phillip Anderson at The Albany Project is excited about the prospects of Democrat Bill Owens winning re-election as local conservatives remain divided between rival candidates.
North Carolina: Mike Nellis writes at Blue NC about a unity rally with Democratic nominee for US Senate Elaine Marshall and her runoff opponent Cal Cunningham, with lots of pictures. And libertypoint tells us about the upcoming debate between Senate candidates, which will include the Libertarian candidate for the first time.
Oregon: Rich Rodgers writes at Blue Oregon about the intersection between city planning and educational reform. And I neglected to mention this last week, but Carla Axtman does a great Oregon news roundup called Spanning the State every week.
Pennsylvania: PA Eagle Eye at Pennsylvania Progressive discusses the 12th Congressional District primary process which gave us Congressman Mark Critz. Above Average Jane at her eponymous blog has a curious item about Pennsylvania having a center for Klingon culture.
South Carolina: Tim at Indigo Journal takes a look at GOP gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley's legislative record and finds it wanting, to be extremely polite.
South Dakota: caheidelberger at Madville Times reports on the link between a tar sands oil producer and waterfowl deaths in South Dakota.
Tennessee: KnoxViews talks up the Knoxville Pride Parade.
Vermont: Julie Waters at Green Mountain Daily reports on the Vermont Democratic Party barring press from an event with special guest speaker Barney Frank. The VDP subsequently relented and allowed press.
Washington: Goldy at Horse's Ass writes about Dino Rossi's persistence in holding seminars to advise potential real estate speculators, even during a campaign for US Senate.
West Virginia: Carnacki at WVA Blue reports on the West Virginia Democratic Party's race for chairman, and suggests that Tea Partiers should visit our national parks sometime.
Wyoming: Michael Shay at hummingbirdminds decries the standard budget-cutting talk by Wyoming Republicans.