(yeah, I know I spelled his name wrong, but it is just easier this way to keep all that good Carl traffic headed my way)
Ken Camp has a good idea about a state party blog, and chairman Pelz responds saying that he would be afraid of what people would use it for. Comments and all.
Here are a few notes on why Mr. Pelz is probably wrong.
1. Of course, we know that all three major national Democratic institutions (the DNC, DCCC and DSCC) all have blogs in the traditional sense. They order posts from most recent to least, trackbacks and allow comments.
2. In the last few days, the King County Dems recently revamped their blog to put it front and center on their website and to also allow comments, trackbacks and all that good bloggy stuff. Apparently, neither the DNC, DCCC, DSCC or the King County Democratic Party think along the same lines as Mr. Pelz, that “(i)nvariably some comment will be posted there, and then attributed by someone as being from “an official State Party publication”. A scandal is then born.”
3. Also, in Colorado, the state party’s first vice-chair Dan Slater writes a blog. It isn’t just a personal blog that he sometimes adds stuff in about what he does with the party, but rather it is a blog about being the party’s first vice-chair. It’s pretty humanizing for a state party official to put down his thoughts without sounding polished or PR-ish, and to encourage conversation. It is also pretty cool that Colorado state chair Pat Waak has been blogging at Dan’s site as well (here, here and here).
4. Here in Thurston County, our county party treasurer Jane Johnson also maintains a couple of blogs. Her major work, SeaJane, isn’t about being the county party treasurer, but is about politics in general. And, I’m almost sure if you had a local question, she would respond there. Jane also maintains a blog for heprecinctct, Bigelow 107. PCO blogs are just a good idea.
I guess my point is that not only are blogs a good idea for Democratic Party organizations, but they alreadexistst in many places. The fear of someone saying something uncouth or non-PR like is something people are already used to, and when you think about it, the point of blogs anyway.
I’m also checking to see which prominent politicians have blogs. I know in Washington state that Representative Deb Wallace blogs. I also just learned that Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti has an official blog on his city website.