Kayne McGladrey makes the offer I wish I had the time and energy to make myself. The response, however, was disappointing.

A few weeks ago, I sent out an email to multiple Democratic candidates and their campaign managers in Washington State. In the email, I posed the following question: “Would the public read the web log of a local candidate? And would a local candidate periodically write on a community web log?” I offered to handle all the technical bits, promoting a new community site, and I’d pay for all the hosting costs and bandwidth. In turn, all the candidates had to do was write on the site and hopefully reply to comments. Volunteers would also be allowed to post entries. The idea was to establish a local Democratic echo chamber to promote these candidates, and also to make them more accessible and interesting to the public. As the replies came back, I came to realize that most campaigns are still in the 1990s when it comes to effectively using technology. Most political websites are woefully non-interactive – just some statlc pages on policy, a glossy photo and an email address. Some campaigns now have donation links, but these are the exception. This is not the compelling content that brings people into the process. None of the campaigns I contacted took me up on my offer. The common thread in the replies was that they didn’t have enough time to write. The other reason that was cited was that while people might read about John Kerry, who’d read about a local candidate? Small campaigns are often short on time and on volunteers. I can understand this line of reasoning. However, small campaigns depend heavily on targeted mass-mailings, which are a primary expense on a local campaign.Web logs are inexpensive by comparison, and can be easily updated, unlike a mail piece. The technologies are complimentary, not mutually exclusive.

The only ray of hope I can offer is the observation that several Seattle City Council members — most notably Richard Conlin and Nick Licata — write in-depth, personal, informative email newsletters… content that could just as easily be adapted to blog format (hint hint). So I think there is some precedent for small-scale elected officials (if not campaigns) to do this.