It seems that campaigns have learned the wrong lesson about the Hackett surprise, with a bunch of campaigns asking to 1) meet with me, and 2) help them raise money.
That's a double insult.
First of all, I'm not a gatekeeper. I don't decide who is "in" and who is "out". All these campaigns profess love for the netroots, yet none of them seem to be doing anything more to "reach out" to the netroots than sending me an email. That's not reaching out the netroots, that's reaching out to me. And I'm not the netroots. I'm a small cog in a netroots chock full of small cogs.
And just as importantly, the netroots is not an ATM. It's a message and activist machine. You do everything right, there's some money. But if you start sniffing around the blogs expecting to see dollar signs you're going to be sorely dissapointed.
If someone comes up to you on the street, someone you don't know, and he asks you, "give me money", what do you do? Get annoyed, perhaps creeped out, and quickly move past him. Well, that's how I feel when these campaigns ask me for money.
I'm only going to get behind candidates that have already built support online -- not just on big sites like this one, but particularly on the local blogs. I will be taking my cues from the bloggers who know the local scene best. They will be my, and your, eyes and ears on the ground in the most exciting races.
If I was into personal power and accolades, I'd consider this sort of attention flattering. But I'm not, and I don't.
Update: I think I need to be a bit more constructive. First thing campaigns need to do is read Chris and Matt's report. Do the things recommended in Appendix 1. Us bloggers will take you much more seriously if you do.
If you need help finding your local bloggers, use the BlogPAC's directory. (If you are a local political blogger make sure you're in the directory.)
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