For one small year Boyda Bloc, a local blog has lead the way in to covering the Second District Congressional Race. One of the most hotly contested races in the country this election, people were starving for information about the two republican challengers that were fighting out their chances to oppose one term democratic Representative Nancy Boyda who beat 5 term incumbent Jim Ryun in 2006.
The blog gleefully held the market on the race and often times was the most read state blog in Kansas (other than us of course). Weekly the anonymous team offered stories promoting the work Boyda was doing and poked fun at republican challengers Lynn Jenkins, the state Treasurer in Kansas, and former Rep. Jim Ryun who couldn't let his 2006 loss go. They also provided unique youtube videos hitting the republicans or promoting the democrat, and weekly "photo caption contests" where readers could make fun of the republicans themselves.
But last month the blog went dark.
Many speculated it was staff run and the new opposition of Lynn Jenkins posed a serious threat to the reelection. Other conspiracy theorists believe it was always run by Jenkins supporters in attempts to disproportionately slam Jim Ryun and provide more of an opportunity for Jenkins to blame the blog for Boyda being out of touch. But the anonymous team assures me via email and gchat that none of those rumors are true.
"There are three of us, we live all over the place," BoydaBloc says via gchat. "And we want to make sure Nancy Boyda stays in Congress. . . All of us are either in or have lived in the 2nd District."
I asked the blog why Boyda and not Gov. Kathleen Sebelius or the democratic party in general and they responded it was more about helping the vulnerable freshman hold her seat.
"She needed someone to cut through the republican smears and talk about the truth," BB said. "the Right was piling on- we decided we needed to respond. Trumpeting Nancy's successes and smacking the republicans running against her whenever we got the chance."
Blogs have become more and more influential in the past few years, and their outreach has turned from more journalistic or preaching to the choir efforts to one-stop technology shops. Blogger Chris Bowers of OpenLeft was the architect behind the skeem Google Bombing where bloggers would constantly link to a specific article about a republican to increase the level it appears on a google search.
With the emergence of sites like Digg.com, Twitter.com, Reddit.com, and the progressive linking site BuzzFlash.com spreading the message of a small district blog can be as easy as an hour's worth of promotion. Incorporate video and BoydaBloc says the readership soars.
BoydaBloc sent out a message via Facebook announcing to their members that they were back after the month off saying that all of the team members were working on campaigns in a more physical way.
"You know, phone banking, door knocking- all things each and every one of you should be doing!"
But BB will not divulge which campaigns the team was working for, saying only that they were all working on different efforts and not necessarily in Kansas.
Sources close to the campaign are happy about the relaunch,
"Whether netroots or grassroots, we are grateful for all of our volunteers, its how we'll win this race."
Crossposted from Everyday Citizen