The Influence of the Laptop Agenda

The Wall Street Journal has a front page article, today, about the influence of "amateur bloggers" in the major Democratic primary states. In "Self-Appointed Bloggers Get Candidate Face Time," New Hampshire high school Latin teacher Dean Barker, who blogs at "Blue Hampshire," says:

"'It's weird,' he says. 'One minute I'm in the teachers' lounge making copies and the next I'm spending 30 minutes on the phone with Bill Richardson,' he says, referring to New Mexico's governor, one of eight Democrats running for president."

Further in the story:

"The Blue Hamsters, as the three bloggers sometimes call themselves and their readers, represent a new class of political amateurs who are changing the way information flows to activists. In Iowa, there's "Bleeding Heartland," a Democratic site founded by a college student. In Florida, Democratic bloggers recently formed the "Blog Florida Blue" coalition. Republicans are getting into the act, too, with sites like South Carolina's "Palmetto Scoop," which serves up bits of news."

The story also notes that the readership of these blogs is small, about 800 readers a day for the New Hampshire blog, but highly influential because the blogs are read by party leadership and activists.

That 800 number tracks with what Politics In Minnesota has learned about the most influential state political blogs. The readership is small. In our informal survey of Minnesota blogs, we determined that, on average, most of the good ones get somewhere between 500-1000 unique visitors a day. But despite the small readership, their influence is huge.

Witness Michael Brodkorb, who writes at "Minnesota Democrats Exposed." Just this week, Brodkorp broke the story about potential shenanigans on the part of DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and his (or his staff) using email addresses acquired on state biz time for campaign purposes.

[One of the most popular features of our Politics In Minnesota Morning Reports is the section we call "Big Brain Blogs and Think Tank Thoughts." PIM staff carefully comb the Minnesota blogs to bring readers the daily highlights from the blogosphere. We frequently link to Minnesota Democrats Exposed.]