Having been here on Daily Kos for just over three years now, I'm not exactly a founder. But I do have my "Get off my lawn" moments from time to time. And I have found myself making "This is not a diary" comments lately.
"Drinking from the fire hose" hardly seems adequate to describe this place of late. As someone who is interested in strengthening Democratic majorities in the House - even moreso the Senate - hundreds of Sarah Palin diaries can be hard to wade through to find stuff on the races.
Way back in the ancient days of 2006, user sidinny started combing the site for diaries on House and Senate races from around the country, and posting them in a daily summary not unlike Diary Rescue.
At first, Election Diary Round-up was just that one user. Which couldn't last. (Just like SusanG couldn't do Diary Rescue all by herself. So it evolved into a team project. In time, others did join in. Not unlike Top Comments or IGTNT, etc. And The Mighty Kos himself took notice and it got promoted to be a daily Front Page post. A terrific asset.
This year, the Presidential race dominates, and there has been phenomenal increase in site traffic. There were nearly 4 million page views on Friday, and for the second time in as many weeks, over a thousand diaries were posted. I think it's time to bring this feature back.
This diary (by barath) last night got me thinking about it again. It didn't get anything like the attention it deserves. To me, it would have been useful to have it on the Rec List. Useful in a practical way: It will help us actually reach the goal of winning in November. Including the goal of sidelining Joe Lieberman!
As it happens, Election Diary Round-Up was born in reaction to the flood of Lieberman/Lamont diaries in the summer of 2006. To remind people there are other races going on. For those of you who joined up here in 2007 & 2008, and as a refresher for the rest of us, here's a link to one of those diaries. They went up daily for a few months, there was polling information, snarky stories, breaking scandals, and serious research - promoting our candidates, and oppo stuff on the Republicans running.
So, let's bring it back. I emailed sidinny, the founder, and he wants to be a part of the team again. But he's a little concerned about stepping on brownsox's turf, who does those house and senate roundups. Personally, I don't see a problem, because our collective knowledge and experience is beyond what he can cover. Especially the first-hand on-the-ground reports that I, for one, am especially fond of. (I'm a big brownsox fan, too, and will keep reading his, too.)
COME TO NEW MEXICO!!!
Oh, and since I'm using a diary allotment, and the diary about traveling to volunteer prompted this? I'll re-post a comment I put there. Use this diary to talk about that, too. Places needing volunteer help, people planning to travel this election season? Let's hear about it.
I'm staying home here in NM. Working on the voter rolls, and participating in GOTV efforts. Probably for Ben Ray Luján campaign, a powerful vehicle for Democratic GOTV in northern New Mexico.
Here's that comment reprise:
Come to New Mexico!
As a bonus to helping out on the Presidential, we've got 3 open House Seats, and an open Senate seat. All the campaigns need volunteers. (Well I don't know much about NM-02, but it's an intriguing long shot.)
At any rate, Obama needs GOTV in NM-02, the southern half of the state. And that'll boost the chances of taking NM-02, which is good. If you travel to volunteer there, you see the Aliens Museum in Roswell, visit Carlsbad Caverns, the Trinity Site where the first atom bomb went off (open one in October annually), or the fabulous Bosque del Apache NWR and other birding locations. GOTV in Las Cruces, home of NMSU, will matter, too. But there's a lot of student volunteers there.
NM-03 is safe. But our candidate Ben Ray Luján is a strong Obama supporter and wants to push for way more past winning to help Obama take the state. He's an old political Hispanic family (his father's Speaker of the State House now) with tons of ties. La gente are really proud that one of their own is likely to get elected, so Ben Ray is a great means to get more Dems to the polls. We've got Los Alamos here, and some good high altitude birding. The aspens are gorgeous in October (and this year's been wet enough for good foliage). Taos Pueblo San Geronimo Feast day is on Sept. 30th; I think there's a coupla other Pueblo Feast events open to the public, too. There's a voter registration both that day gonna need people to help out. That was fun in 2004. The clowns got into our bumper stickers and started sticking 'em on each other. And so on. You'll get to feast in a private home, too, on stuff like red chili buffalo stew. And they have a pole climb. It's a fun place to do voter reg.
Tom Udall's pretty safe, but again, he can help with GOTV for NM-02, and especially help Martin Heinrich in Albuquerque (NM-01). Martin's campaign could use help, too. Urban sprawl work, cuz the district has a lot of suburbs, too.
If you hunt, that would be another way to take a multi-purpose vacation. No moose in NM though. Elk, deer. Grouse in September. There's quite a few locals offering to put campaign volunteers up. Obama campaign's got a good database for that.
This is a state where Spanish - its own archaic local dialect - has been spoken since colonization began in the 1500s. If you're a fluent Spanish speaker, it's a great place to pitch in. We've got counties with 75+% of the homes reporting they speak Spanish at home to the Census.
By which I mean to say, even from beyond the shaded areas. If you are thinking about putting in a more protracted period of volunteering, give NM a thought. Make an adventure of it. Because everything's different here!
So yes, please do come to New Mexico. Especially if you speak Spanish! And other states could use your help, too. Out here in the west, let's take over ownership of that "connectect at the roots" thing about the aspens. There's plenty to do, and some extra helpers will be much appreciated.
If travel's not on your plate, joining in on assembling the daily Election Diary Roundup is another of the many ways to be of service. Assuming it gets off the ground again. I sure hope it does. It was one of my favorite features for the 2006 midterm season.
FOUR MORE MONTHS!!!