Bloggers to gain more acceptance at DNC

By James Paton, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 30, 2008 at 8:24 p.m.
Updated July 30, 2008 at 8:24 p.m.

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Tim Hussin © The Rocky

Aaron Silverstein, who runs the blog www.squarestate.net with friend John Erhardt, is one of the bloggers who received credentials to the Democratic National Convention.

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Aaron Silverstein and John Erhardt entered the blogosphere a few years ago, eager to have their voices heard and to motivate fellow Democrats as President Bush settled into a second term.

Silverstein and Erhardt will get a platform beyond their wildest dreams when the Democratic National Convention comes to town next month.

Their liberal blog, SquareState. net, was one of 55 given credentials to sit with delegations from their state for a front-row seat to what is being billed as a historic convention.

SquareState is hardly overwhelmed with traffic, with about 17,000 unique visitors in June. But that's about to change.

"We want to be both a gateway into the convention for our readers as well as eyes inside to bring stories out," said Silverstein, who left a job at the Denver coffee shop Scooter Joe's and is now a staffer at Democrats Work, an organization that promotes community service.

This is not the first time bloggers have had access to big hitters at political conventions. In Boston four years ago, about 30 blogs were credentialed to cover the DNC.

But they are getting a new level of respect as more people seek information online.

More than 120 blogs will be credentialed through the convention, while other blogs will be credentialed by the U.S. Congressional Press Galleries. The broader list of blogs invited by the DNCC includes a number of Colorado sites: TalkLeft, The Colorado Independent, 2008 Democratic Convention Watch, Blogger News Network, Disaboom, Scholars & Rogues and Thought Theater.

"There are so many more blog readers than there were four years ago," said Jeralyn Merritt, the Denver-based defense lawyer who runs TalkLeft. "A lot of people didn't know what a blog was ... Since then blogs have had an effect on the political landscape."

Seeking donations

The Democrats have said they wanted the convention to be more inclusive. They also have seen that bloggers can motivate Democrats — and raise money. Many of the blogs have a fundraising element, though the amounts they bring in are sometimes small.

"Blogs have proven very successful in promoting Democratic candidates," said Lowell Feld, who runs the Virginia blog Raising Kaine and used the platform to attract money for Jim Webb during his successful 2006 campaign for a U.S. Senate seat. "We're also active, out there canvassing, going to events, not sitting behind our keyboards in our underwear, eating nachos."

Feld, who was briefly on the Webb payroll in 2006 and has worked for other campaigns, said he was spurred to act after Bush defeated John Kerry in 2004.

"I was very frustrated, depressed and angry," he said, "and I wanted to do something."

Kyle Michaelis, meanwhile, became interested in reporting and writing as a student at the University of Nebraska and introduced the New Nebraska Network a few years ago. Michaelis, 27, said the primary goal is to hold public officials accountable and to add context to discussions about politics, not to attract money.

"I shy away from that because of my journalistic background," he said. Still, Michaelis said his blog does have a fundraising component.

SquareState, originally part of Denver-based Web developer Paul Preston's Web site SoapBlox.net and now three years old, also has started down that path.

Erhardt, an engineer who lives in Denver, said he formed a committee, separate from the blog, to reel in contributions. So far it has drawn more than $1,000 for Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, as she runs for state Senate.

The site hopes to begin supporting a second candidate shortly.

"The idea is to help more Democrats get elected, then to start working on getting better Democrats in office, to replace those folks with ones who are more accountable to the people and have more progressive ideals," he said.

Proudly partisan

Many of the blogs do not conceal their bias.

"We don't show both sides of an issue," said Erhardt, who declined to name his employer. "We don't have to. We proudly declare we are progressive and that's where we are writing from."

Erhardt, 35, also helps organize the local chapter of Drinking Liberally, a group that meets at bars to discuss politics and includes some SquareState contributors.

One is Rafael Noboa, who fought in Iraq for a year and writes critically about the war. The Puerto Rico native said he started blogging "because I had to get things off my chest."

Noboa said he is especially interested in "national security, something Democrats have not been comfortable discussing."

Silverstein, 41, said blogs such as SquareState have become important alternatives to what he calls "large corporate media." He said he believes traditional news outlets serve a vital role, but the quality of their work has eroded as the industry has declined.

Barbara Wold, who launched the liberal blog Democracy for New Mexico after volunteering to support Howard Dean as a presidential candidate in 2004, said she relies on the "mainstream" media.

"How could we function without them?" she asked. "Personally, I'm sorry to see newspapers struggling. That's our material."

The New Mexico blog, which has raised around $5,000 for Democrats in the past couple of years, is not afraid to blast Democrats and has not been pressured by party officials, Wold said.

The Democratic committee formed the state blogger pool separately to achieve "geographic diversity" and, in granting credentials to the wider group, even sought to include voices it disagreed with, according to DNCC spokesman Damon Jones.

"If you look at the blogs, a few have been somewhat critical of various things about the party in the past," he said.

Many of the bloggers going to the convention drum up little revenue but have minimal expenses. They can have different missions, with some aiming for objectivity and others openly partisan.

But many of the state bloggers can be counted on to push a "progressive" agenda and to encourage readers to volunteer and support Democratic efforts.

"We are there to rev up the troops, to get ordinary people to believe that they can make a difference," Wold said.

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