State Blog Roundup: Movement Building

Some of you might remember that BlogPAC began selecting community state-based blogs earlier this year to receive a grant and billing as the state's "official" progressive blog. The idea was to build a network of progressive community blogs across all 50 states, and in the interest of getting more people talking to each other, a few of us have been kicking around the idea of doing a weekly post highlighting the best of the state-level blogosphere.

Last week West Virginia Blue set the ball rolling, and My Left Nutmeg is host to the 2nd week of this experiment. You can expect to see a post each Friday or Saturday somewhere on the tubes, hopefully crossposted here.

Since there's no real set rules as to how this works yet, I'm going to pick – as a theme – stories about progressive institutions and movement-building that give me some ideas about what could be done in my own state – over the fold.

Grassroots Policy Development

• Bleeding Heartland shares news from 1000 Friends of Iowa about a new Farm-to-School program passed at the end of the legislative session.

  There seem to be a network of "1000 Friends" groups in a number of states, most of which don't look blog-savvy, but the work they do (organizing around smart growth policies and sustainable urban and rural communities) pops up on the radar occasionally.

• Uppity Wisconsin tells of a citizen's policy panel that got the state to begin using locally-generated wind power – and how a legislative committee snuck a provision into the budget to undo their work.
• After their Republican governor overturned several bills passed by the Democratic legislature, Minnesota Campaign Report offers a critique of the various progressive organizations who failed to maintain the momentum behind their policy priorities.
• Blue Mass Group highlights a community event on combat PTSD – for better or worse, the fact that American soldiers return to their postwar lives with substandard medical, educational, and economic situations has historically been one of the only conditions where highlighting and combatting inequality is attractive across the ideological spectrum. Community organizing to ensure that those returning from Iraq find their unique needs met will pay real dividends across our society, and I'd love to hear what grassroots approaches the event attendees came up with.
• Scott Cobb at Texas Kaos identifies a State Legislative leader for universal healthcare, and mentions a large rally in Austin in support of universal coverage. These rallies have been happening in a lot of states – if they aren't already, organizers would do well to trade notes and contact information, because there's a real opportunity for a national movement to grow out of these events.
• There's a lot of education policy on the state blogs this week, with Fired Up! Missouri combatting an "academic freedom" bill that includes, among other things, a charming provision recognizing the inerrancy of the Bible. Also, WasatchWatcher exposes the astroturf effort behind the most recent push for school vouchers, As Ohio Goes notes the new "endvouchers.org" site and Governor Strickland's promise to redirect voucher funding to measures that actually improve education, and MichiganLiberal documents an awesome youth protest that spooked a GOP legislator.

  MichiganLiberal is also running a series called Better Know an Obstructionist that's a model for how blogs can help define GOP legislators (in just the first few days, 4 of 5 targets made the top 10 Google results with their "Obstructionist" post).

State of the State Parties

• Via Rhode Island's Future, the RI State Democratic Chairman is taking a high-profile stab at bringing down Governor Carcieri's anti-union privatization scheme – making a mockery of the right-wing talking point that the "private sector is always cheaper and more efficient."
• While this information is traditionally held close to the chest, a lot of blogs have been putting their analyses of electoral opportunities for state races online. Two that stand out this week are The Daily Kingfish's series on Louisiana districts, and MikeCT's look at Connecticut legislative seats on My Left Nutmeg.
• At Washblog, Noemie Maxwell measures the merits of a primary in WA-08 (where Darcy Burner lost in '06): the breakdown includes a lot of data, consideration of relationships in the party, the needs of local activists, and careful consideration of Burner herself, and it's a worthwhile piece for anyone thinking about the 2008 primary season.
• Wegerje at Prairie State Blue (IL) notes how few of the new dollars rolling into Democratic institutions are funding grassroots-directed groups like DFAs and blogs who are doing political work at the community level.
• When I saw this post from Suz at New Mexico FBIHOP, it struck me how blogging official party meetings, even at the extremely local level, provide an (often unexploited) opportunity to keep activists engaged in the process (even if they couldn't attend), bring party officials into closer contact with state blogs, and provide a window into the activities of the party leadership.
• Also in Blog-Party relations, Florida's Democratic Party is setting up a productive and healthy relationship with the local blogosphere, inviting FLA Politics and other blog communities in the state to a "Jefferson-Jackson Blogger/Netroots Luncheon." Also, via Liza Sabater and Bouldin from the Daily Gotham, the New York State party is reaching out too.

Street-Level Alliances

• Also in New York, via the Albany Project, Amy Traub from the Drum Major Institute points out that despite being subjected to an alarming increase in racially-motivated violence, Hispanics on Long Island are playing an increasingly important role in the local economy.
• Todd at Calitics writes about an alliance between the Catholic church and a dozen evangelical churches to provide sanctuary to immigrants in Los Angeles. (Todd was also out in CT for election weekend in Nov '06 – word, man.)
• Square State (Colorado) follows the Abramoff scandal back into the executive branch -- Gale Norton took a job with Shell right after giving them a chunk of Colorado public land, so ProgressNow is pushing to get her deal-making procedures added to the long list of Congressional investigations.
• West Virginia Blue brings the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act home – and shows that when the media isn't covering the mines, the mine owners are still undercutting workers in the state.

Election Reform and Voter Reg

• Matt Singer from Left in the West highlights the failed attempt to relax term limits in Montana, and the negative impact of term limits on state government. While progressives saw gains nationwide in 2006, overcoming the deep resentment towards our government – instilled in voters by a divisive conservative movement – is a long-term project, with a great deal left to do.
• Are we prepared to register voters for the 2008 election? Tondee's Tavern is laying the groundwork for a successful 08 registration drive, and reminds us that the time to build coalitions (between local/state parties, issue groups, and community organizers) and a knowledge base (election law, geographic targets) is now.
• Also looking ahead to 2008, Blue NC is tracking state election law – specifically, a same-day voter registration bill that will make it easier to register near election-time, and help increase turnout among Democratic voting groups.


• On top of thorough coverage of the Vermont impeachment measure, Green Mountain Daily brings word that instant runoff voting passed the VT State Senate

Expanding Blogs' Reach

• Looking to establish a toehold in the State Capitol, Blue Jersey starts a fundraising drive to fund internet connectivity for the media and bloggers in the legislative building.
• Several steps ahead of most other sites in making their blog into a well-rounded political institution in its own right, Raising Kaine is hosting a debate between two State Senate candidates as a part of their community-driven endorsement process.
• Blue Indiana schedules a weekly radio program at Blog Talk Radio, offering the week's news, panel discussions, and interviews with electeds. Apart from streaming and call-ins, the show will also be hosted for free through iTunes.
• Kyle from the New Nebraska Network gives a great speech to the Nebraska AP Broadcaster's Association awards dinner with a realistic assessment of the impact blogs can have in government and in the media landscape.