Voter Use of Blog Posts

The chaotic ad campaigns late in the election process and their alarming effectiveness often leave me discouraged about the relative ease with which clever pr people can sway the electorate. If all it takes to win is enough money to hire the Campaign Group then why bother with townhall meetings, debates, policy statements, etc., just hand over the keys to DC and Harrisburg to the few monied individuals who can part with a million or so dollars funneled through the right 527's or what have you.

But then, every election, this one included, I check sitemeter stats and my faith is restored. Blog usage doubled today with people searching for information on candidates and issues. For example, there were a lot of people searching for information on the education policies of the gubernatorial candidates. Yes, that's right, people wanted to know where the men running for governor stood on education issues. Education was far and away the most popular issue, though there were some searches for campaign finance information, organizational endorsements, and so on. (I don't usually post info on endorsements, maybe I should revisit that.) The senate race was another popular topic.

It isn't that people are coming here, though that is always nice, it's that they are looking for solid information before voting, or at least that is how I interpret these search patterns.