We're making a few changes to the netroots candidate page. On the page itself you'll noticelinks to local blogs that are covering the specific candidates we've endorsed. We're very excited about this small but significant change, because we believe that the distributed intelligence of the netroots is exceptionally powerful. In fact one of the best ways to get on that list is to have local bloggers covering a race. If you are covering one of the candidates, let me know in the comments and I'll add you to the page.
A lot of people think that leadership in the blogosphere comes from the bigger blogs because we get traffic. While we do serve as a sort of aggregator of content, leadership in the blogs comes from anyone on the blogs who wants to be a leader and is willing to put the time in to do it. That's what's different about this medium, and that's its strength. There is no way, for instance, that any of the big blogs could cover the Lamont race as well as Lamontblog. And Lamontblog, while it is narrow in focus, is powerful. Ned Lamont reads it. Connecticut journalists read it. Many large bloggers rely on it. And you can bet that as well funded as the DSCC might be, they don't know as much about that race as you can find out on Lamontblog. If there's a blog as good as Lamontblog in every state and district, all of a sudden we've got a really great intelligence network for the netroots that is leaps and bounds better than anything anyone in DC can put together.
Over the next few weeks, we're going to add a bunch of candidates to the list, so please keep agitating for your favorites. We've asked, over at Swing State Project, MyDD, and Daily Kos, who you want to see added. The resulting discussions have been phenomenal. Now it's time to take the next step and endorse a candidate who has embraced the netroots from the very beginning. The bloggers in this area have vetted her, and have advocated for her to be added to the page, and there's nothing like local coverage to know whether a campaign is worth supporting.
The next netroots candidate is Darcy Burner in Washington's eighth Congressional district. The district is trending blue, and Burner is incredibly smart and a natural camapigner going against vulnerable incumbent David Reichert. She is also young (35) and web-savvy, having worked at Microsoft, and these traits will serve her well in a House that is desperately in need of new blood. She has promised, for instance, to post on her Congressional web site a list of all meetings with lobbyists by her or any staff member, which is a fundamentally new approach to governance.
The Washington State blog community is one of the more mature blogging communities out there. They don't fall lightly for a candidate, so seeing this kind of note on the exceptional Horse's Ass is quite meaningful.
I personally have known Burner for nearly a year, yet I didn't start actively promoting her campaign until February, after I became absolutely convinced that she was not only a candidate who could win, but who would well serve the interests of the 8th district and the citizens of WA state. During that time I've watched her grow from just another passionate Camp Wellstone classmate, into a compelling campaigner and a formidable fundraiser. And the more I learned about her personal story, the more I became convinced that she was the perfect candidate to represent the demographically diverse 8th district.
Burner regularly attends Drinking Liberally, and was at the Pacific NW Progressive Bloggers Conference. Her diaries at Kos are here. She's got a good shot to win this district, and she is part of a new wave of internet candidates who know what it takes to win and know what democracy really can mean.
Welcome, Darcy, to the Actblue netroots page.
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