Blogs like RaisingKaine, BlueJersey, Square State, My Left Nutmeg, Soapblox Chicago, Washblog...and develped regional "blog clusters" like those in New Hampshire and Minnesota are where the next phase of this develpment is happening.

To talk about Paul Hodes in NH-02 is one thing.  To use Paul Hodes to turn people out for the other New Hampshire races and build a grassroots/netroots infrastructure that will survive this election is another.

Already, local Dean-inspired activists have transformed local Democratic party committees in states all over the country.  This election should create another surge of netroots-inspired folks running for those positions.

Netroots is about more than what the national media sees...it has to be about the roots as well.

It's worth paying attention to even the smallest local blogs...and nurturing them.  They are part of the 50 state strategy too.

I like the idea you brought to my thinking about "transformational candidates" about how to coordinate and make use of these campaigns.  It isn't just about them, not that it ever was.  The netroots, both local and national, help identify and promote them.  And then their campaigns create the opportunity for building buzz down-ticket and across ticket.  Nice to think we are really beginning to think strategically.

In Washington State, for example, Darcy Burner attended a Bloggers Conference we had in January and won our hearts.  She had come to Drinking Liberally in Seattle a couple times and maintains contact with us.  We write about her. She is clearly a transformational candidate.

Then, when Peter Goldmark showed up in the 5th District across the state, we mentored bloggers and commenters over there in a far less Internet-savvy part of the state.  We write about Peter and point people to his recent DailyKos diaries.  He too is transformational.  We also send a few licks out to Larry Grant in Idaho's 1st CD, whom we think is in this same category.  

But it is because we are working in connection with each other and with the campaigns and are read by the traditional media that we can make a difference.  

It also allows us to assist the last Democratic Congressional candidate trying to unseat "Doc" Hastings in WA-04, Richard Wright.  Richard does not present as transformational but he is good and would be an enormous improvement over Hastings.  And, if he won, it would mean that Darcy and Peter also won, giving Democrats all 9 Congressional seats.  

The next step will be using your idea of "node candidates" down-ticket.  I think Darcy is doing some of this with the Democratic candidates in her district but we are not yet helping connect the dots.  Still time.

Thanks for the shout-out.

It was a really strong piece.

And thanks for bringing up the line about "it's not about them."  That's critical.

Colorado has an excellent "shared struggle" vibe going right now.

K/O,

I think we forget that at our peril. I remember going to a regular district meeting with Congressman Pete Stark when I lived in Alameda about three years ago.  He looked so tired.  At first I thought that he was just too old and needed to retire.  That may be true.  

But he began life as a transformational candidate in the Bay Area during the Vietnam War era. I realized he just hadn't had the support locally or nationally to continue to fight in any serious way through the emerging Republican take-over of our country. No wonder he looked just wrung out.

This need for staying the course will be very important after we do the first step of taking back our country.  We the people will have to stay vigilant and involved.  It's not about them.  They are our vehicles.  And bless them for doing it on our behalf.  

This is great insight. Thanks to you both. I was over at WashBlog this morning and noted this interesting, shall we say disagreement, discussion going on over Matt Stoller's interpretation of Darcy's ad. What I gleaned out of it was everyone has this huge interest and for most a commitment, to getting local candidates in. And the perception is that local races need to be configured to reflect local needs rather than a one-size-fits all campaign strategy for all candidates that is cooked up back east. There was a fair amount of steam coming out of everyone's ears during the back and forth.

What I hope these tranformational candidates can encourage is not only to act as better role models to represent their constituents but (this is becoming my mantra) ones that nurture groudswell support/or create an environment where interaction of their consituents isn't just a phone call here, a fax or email there or a hit and miss town hall meeting. We bloggers represent people who are jumping up and down to be heard, and that's alot of America as well.

If these candidates can personalize the bigger issues: again the way Peter G. translated the funding of Iraq into how many college educations could have been paid for, that's how I see candidates getting Americans off their couches and into the voting polls.

This is really a great concept.  in 2004, Barack Obama sent his volunteers into the Chicago suburbs and pulled Melissa Bean into the Congress.  In another way, these candidates are pulling voters and volunteers into the process and creating a series of "Melissa Beans" (yeah, maybe these will be better on a voting basis than Bean).

The whole Republican conservative movement was set off by Barry Goldwater, a terrible candidate who was trounced.  If we win, the benefits are at least partially immediate but even a badly losing race can be profoundly transformational.

Is it possible to identify areas in which the Dem infrastructure is notably lacking and/or notably packed with left-leaning bloggers NOW and start targetting those areas from the ground up for 2008 starting in December?

It seems to me that, while I may be an election early on this, we can start picking districts (perhaps state senate districts, maybe bigger) where we build the infrastructure on our own backs.  Of course we want to be tied to the party and existing grassroots apparatus that might exist, but if we start putting the DIY strategies on the ground ourselves, it could be pretty cool.

One example is what I've recommended a couple times recently- if we're going to be critiquing all these ads, I'm sure we could find candidates willing to let a few MyDDers and Kossacks throw an ad together and put it on YouTube.  In doing this, we aren't just picking apart what other people do, we're actually DOING it.  We're creating the model.  I think we can do this on a bigger scale.  Plus, the sooner we get involved in districts, the more effective we can be since the beauty of blogs is the slow burn- the tentacles of information that reach from authors to readers to the mass email list of readers to friends of friends of friends etc...but it takes time.  Of course the focus of the messaging changes throughout the process, but the sooner you start, the more opportunity you have to reach everyone.