Politicians Leapfrogging Media With Blogs

The Salt Lake Tribune caught our Washington presentation on legislative blogging and published a story entitled "Politicians leapfrogging media with blogs." Their story interestingly starts off with,

"Beat the reporters to the scoop, pre-empt bad news and deal directly with constituents: Blog it! More and more politicians are bypassing the mainstream news media and turning to blogs, or Web logs, to post information and interact with constituents."

Interaction and greater communication is certainly the idea the Utah Senate had when it started the Utah state Senate's blog. It was started as the unofficial journal of the state Senate Republican majority. Did you hear that Texas? Yes sir, you heard that right - blogging Republicans.

Utah Senate aide, Ric Cantrell, who helped set up the senate site and was one of the co-presenters informed us that the site has seen 386,000 hits, and all for the cost of about $150, plus staff time.

I was introduced at the event as "the Steve Urquhart of Texas," a real compliment, comparing me to the blogging trailbazer from Utah who happens to be the Utah House majority whip. Lawmakers lists Urquhart as having started his blog in November 2004 making him the third elected official in the U.S. with a blog. Steve from what I learned at the conference, your trailblazing has paid off as we now see Republicans and Democrats in your state both participating on the senate group blog. Hopefully we can pass it on to other states.

Rich Hanley, graduate program director and assistant professor of communications at Quinnipiac University is quoted in the Tribune story saying, "Politicians have been over time adopting blogs and other forms to reach their constituents and outflank traditional media," said "It gives them an unfiltered avenue."

"Though around since 1995, blogs have hit it big time in the past few years, with some 8 million Americans blogging by the end of 2004, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Some 27 percent of Internet users now read blogs, researchers said in a 2005 report. It's unclear how many lawmakers are blogging, but the numbers are rising. The National Conference of State Legislatures lists 48 different blogs from 26 states on its Web site."

As the New York Times notes, the internet is changing politics and I was so glad to see the many elected official converts in attendance at the conference. Ric said it right, it's best to catch the wave rather than watching it pass you by.