Blogs take on larger role as election approaches

JEFFERSON CITY — The negative TV ads have yet to begin, most of the yard signs have yet to go up, and candidates have yet to start knocking on doors.

The traditional indicators may be missing, but Missouri’s political season already is raging on the Internet, causing allergic reactions in those sensitive to its harsh rhetorical winds.

Internet blogs are emerging as an influential force in the 2006 elections — posting politically slanted articles that already have led to the resignation of a Democratic staffer, elicited angry responses from the Republican governor’s office and provided tips for larger stories in the mainstream media.

In the 2003-04 election cycle, Democrat Howard Dean used the Internet to raise tens of millions of dollars for his presidential campaign. Now, partisan activists throughout the state are demonstrating the Internet can be used to sway political discourse.

One impact of political blogs is their ability to highlight stories that aren’t being covered by the mainstream media, said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study for Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

But given their partisan nature, blogs often focus on the most acrimonious issues, he said. And bloggers don’t hesitate to get personal if it helps push the spin.

In close Senate races in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Minnesota, blogs have the potential to jolt races that are already highly contested, he said.

Missouri Democrats, for example, suffered some mild embarrassment earlier this month when the Republican-run blog “The Source” revealed that a young Democratic Party employee had posted some crude comments on a popular social networking Web site. The employee immediately resigned.

But that was just one example in which Missouri’s political bloggers have scanned the World Wide Web to glean potentially scandalous information and pictures about political staff members and interns.

Jeff Roe, a former chief of staff to Republican Rep. Sam Graves who started “The Source” on May 30, said his postings about the Democratic staffer dubbed “T-Lovin It” drew 7,100 hits to his Web site that day — a high he surpassed Friday.

Roe started the blog after several other Republican blogs failed to match wits against the popular Democratic blog “Fired Up! Missouri,” which has been jabbing Gov. Matt Blunt and other Republicans since spring 2005.

“Fired Up!” founder Roy Temple was a chief of staff to former Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan and a longtime aide to her late husband, Gov. Mel Carnahan. He says Missouri’s competitive political blogs, which are independently run by partisan operatives, not by political parties or candidates, put the state near the forefront of a national trend.

“The thing about blogging that makes it unique is that it cuts across what you would consider the traditional divisions of campaigns,” Temple said. “Blogging impacts your relationships with your activists, which impacts field work. It impacts your relationship with the press, and it also does reach a broader audience.”

What political blogging doesn’t do — at least yet — is change the votes of many of its readers. That’s because most of the blog viewers possess strong political convictions, said David Webber, a political scientist at the MU who occasionally scans the political blogs.

“It’s part of the inside game, as opposed to mass consumption as radio or TV or conventional newspapers would be,” Webber said.

Yet the influence of blogs on political insiders is undeniable.

Spence Jackson,a spokesman for Gov. Matt Blunt, has angrily denounced the work of “Fired Up! Missouri.” Less than two weeks ago, Jackson barred Temple and several others from attending a bill signing ceremony and news conference in the governor’s office. Jackson claimed Temple was a security threat — an accusation that ended up drawing even more attention to Temple’s blog.

Based on the early results, 2006 figures to be a high-scoring political season.