Candidates dial into blog scene

Some of the candidates vying for municipal office this year are taking a progressive approach to winning over an evolving constituency - they're modernizing their communication methods.

The practice of blogging emerged from the "What's New" sections of various Web sites and has transformed into a major trend toward average-citizen journalism - hundreds of sites such as LiveJournal and Xanga boast easy-to-start blog hosting.

Three of the eight Chapel Hill Town Council candidates keep blogs on their campaign Web sites. One candidate each from both the Carrboro mayoral and Board of Aldermen races also maintains updated journals.

Orangepolitics.org, a local issues forum maintained by Chapel Hill resident Ruby Sinreich, also is playing an active role in this fall's municipal elections.

The blog, whose discussion threads see a bevy of responses from area politicos, is celebrating its second birthday Tuesday and has found its niche in this election through live blogging from candidate forums.

Town Council candidate and UNC sophomore Jason Baker hosted a blog prior to the election season but now is hoping it will bolster support for his campaign.

"It was nothing new to me to have a blog," he said of http://www.jasonbaker.us. "It lets a lot of folks know what's going on."

The driving force behind his blog? It attracts readership without wasting paper, Baker said.

"I think one of my goals was to cut down on the amount of paper used," he said. "I can also look at my usage statistics, at (Internet Protocol) addresses."

About 50 of Baker's recent hits have come from University dorms.

"I was surprised to find the level of student hits," he said. "I think a lot of them come from other people linking to the site on their blogs."

Carrboro Alderman Mark Chilton, who is running for mayor this year, keeps readers updated on results of his door-to-door canvassing through his blog, at http://markchilton.org/.

"I started it back in the beginning of July," he said. "It's intended for the experience of the campaign as opposed to substance."

As the season draws closer to Election Day, Chilton said he will use the blog more as a platform to tackle issues.

Baker's blog, updated about once a week, mostly focuses on campaign news and announcements.

Baker said other candidates' blogs raise the bar for having a good online representation, pointing out fellow candidate Will Raymond's blog, at http://willraymond.org/, as an example.

"Overall, I'm pretty impressed with everyone's sites," he said.

A list of candidate Web sites is available at orangepolitics.org/elections-2005. Among the bloggers: Town Council hopefuls Baker, Raymond, and incumbent Mark Kleinschmidt, at http://kleinschmidt2005.blogspot.com/; and in Carrboro, Chilton and David Marshall, at http://mentevidebor.blogspot.com/.

 

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.