Jim Hoeft and Brian Kirwin over at Bearing Drift posted a joint piece on their take on the relevance of the blogosphere. Now that I’ve had time to rest after last week’s elections, I re-read the post and was about to post a response over there but decided it was just too long.
While there are parts of the post that I agree with, there is something missing: the 2007 elections were far different from the 2006 ones.
Think about it. In 2006, we had a single Senate race, and while all 11 Congressional seats were up for re-election, only 2 or 3 were competitive. As the result, most of the blogs were much more focused on just a few races, plus the Marshall-Newman amendment. (Heck, even the national blogs and MSM were focusing on Virginia towards the end.) That concentration made the blogosphere much more powerful as a medium for getting information out.
By comparison, by my count we had 45 contested General Assembly races this year, and probably 30 of those were competitive. On top of that, there were numerous local races. (According to the SBE (pdf) there were 2,510 candidates on the ballots this year!) That means the blogs were much more dispersed in their coverage. Rather than focusing on one or two candidates, we all had many more to cover.
So I don’t think you can really compare 2007 to 2006. Different circumstances, different results. I will say, though, that if my blog stats are any indication, more people used the internet to search for candidate information this year than last. I suspect other blogs have experienced the same thing. So blogs continue to serve a purpose, and remain a relevant part of the political discussion.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Alright, while I am loathe to come to Brian Kirwin’s defense:
1. It’s not entirely his fault that Marty Williams lost. Regular republican primary voters have always been to right of the majority of this district. I doubt they learned their lesson this year, too.
2. The 21st House of Delegates District is a quintessential democratic district–I would swear they’d intentionally drawn it that way after the 2000 census, except I know they thought they had a lock on the suburbs. I don’t believe Brian Kirwin or John Welch actually knew enough about the district to realize that was true, but that’s Welch’s fault for not being able to keep up with the changes in his district. It’s not Brian’s fault he lost a race he was supposed to lose.
1-Marty Williams had 12-year incumbency and 1/2 Million in cash in the bank. Kirwin misplaced over $100-thousand in the last month of the campaign. It was a shoddy, poorly run campaign. It was nothing but a nasty smear, attack campaign that alienated the people of the 1st District. “to the right of the majority?” That’s why they elected Miller, huh? There is no defending Kirwin on this one.
2-21st House District is Conservative, not Democrat. Welch was an idiot and went out of his way to offend, and alienate. But his campaign was laughable. Nothing but a nasty attack campaign.
There is not defending the guy on this one either.
Let me repeat, “The reason for the weight of my message is because for many years on other blogs, Kirwin would be quick to condemn, and tell other people how stupid and wrong they were. Comes back to bite, doesn’t it?” Brian, or anonymous?
Kirwin dug his own hole, now let him bask in the glory that he so desperately wanted!