Tim Johnson Adds Campaign Blog

Last month when I reviewed the campaign blogs of some of our statewide candidates, I noted the absence of a Tim Johnson campaign blog. Well, Senator Johnson has apparently decided that paying someone to blog all of his press releases isn't enough: the Senator has joined the fray with some original blogging of his own. Yes, the Tim Johnson campaign blog is up and running at DemocratSenators.org.

Johnson's blog has just five posts as of this morning, but that's five posts in one week since the first post on August 12. Compare that to the relatively paltry offerings from the other campaign blogs over the past four weeks—1.5/week from his opponent Joel Dykstra, 2.5/week from Herseth Sandlin's three staffers, and 2.3/week from Chris Lien and the trusty "Campaign Mike." Johnson may not be up for a live debate, but given his fast start out of the blog gate, maybe an extended online debate between Johnson and Dykstra would work....

Johnson gets the same stamp of approval for authenticity that I give Dykstra's blog. All of Johnson's posts are first-person accounts of his campaign travels around the state. Johnson soft-pedals the issues and avoids mentioning his opponent, couching any nods to specific policy topics in gentle, folksy language about how nice it is to be in Lincoln County/Brown County/the Black Hills again. Compare that typical front-runner language with the more issue-oriented, confrontational posts of challenger Dykstra. The challenger has to keep throwing punches, while the incumbent just needs to stay out of reach and on his feet until the final bell to win on points.

Like the other big campaign blogs, Johnson's allows comments. You have to sign up for an account, and the comments are moderated, but it's still better than nothing. (Just think: some campaign websites don't incorporate any citizen input. Talk about living in the 1990s!)

Now in my dream world, all the campaign blogs take off. Candidates use blogs and other online tools to maintain regular communication and interaction with voters, and those of us who are interested can aggregate their RSS feeds into fun and informative streaming campaign updates. The more information and direct contact citizens have with their candidates, the better.

But the real boost for democracy will be when the winners of the election continue their blogs after they are sworn in. Blogging from the campaign trail is fine, but I want to read Tim (and John, too—Jon, tell your boss!) blogging live (and taking unmoderated comments) from the Senate floor. Now that would be cool!