On political blogging, selecting a candidate and opening up Congress

(NOTE: From time to time I will try to share ideas/issues/news/information that I have recently come across the past week or so. — LP)

• Great story on PBS's NOW with David Brancaccio, Saturday, Sept. 16, about political blogging. The focus is on Montana and how political bloggers may (or may not) have affected the Senate race there.

• The Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) website features a "Select a Candidate" survey. It poses a number of issue-related questions to help voters to determine who their preferences would be for U.S. Senator, Governor and 6th District Representative. It's designed to help voters choose whom to vote for based on how well the candidates' positions match that of the survey taker.

The telling result so far is that in two of the three races, voters' concerns line up most squarely with the Independence Party candidates. For Senate, Robert Fitzgerald leads with 48%, Amy Klobuchar is second with 42%, and Mark Kennedy is far behind at 10%.

For Governor, most voters' issue preferences match up with Peter Hutchinson (56%), while both Mike Hatch (26%) and Tim Pawlenty (18%) trail far behind.

In the 6th CD contest, 65% align themseves with Patty Wetterling's positions, 25% with John Binkowski's, and only 10% with Michele Bachmann's.

Suffice it to say, that if Minnesota had instant runoff voting (IRV) the political landscape in the North Star state might be quite different. For more on IRV, see FairVote.org, InstantRunOff.com, and FairVote Minnesota, among many other sources.

• On Sept. 14, Future Tense from American Public Radio featured a story about the Sunlight Netword, which "is focused on enabling communities of people to come together offline and online and use their creativity and collective power to achieve greater openness from Congress." One of its current projects is called the Punch Clock Campaign. The campaign offers "members of the public a 'goodwill bounty,' or fee, of $1,000 for each Member of Congress, and $250 for each candidate, that they persuade to sign the Punch Clock Agreement, an agreement to put their daily schedules on the Internet."

A quick way to instant riches? Don't bet on it!

— LP