From the Washington Post's "The Fix":
Posted at 04:04 PM ET, 03/30/2006
Crying Foul, Netroots Note Some Big Wins
In a post yesterday, The Fix wrote about Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb's (D) potential to be the first candidate backed by the Democratic "netroots" to win an election. The word "first" prompted several of the most prominent members of the liberal blogosphere to take issue with me.
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of the influential Daily Kos blog, said the netroots played a major role in the special election victories of Reps. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.) and Stephanie Herseth (D-S.D.) in 2004 and were also prominent (and early) backers of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) during his 2004 campaign.
Kos said the progressive online community raised $80,000 for Chandler in the final week of his campaign and $100,000 for Herseth. As evidence of the impact the netroots had on the two campaigns, Moulitsas points to a Wired magazine story on the Chandler race and an attempt by the South Dakota Republican Party to make an issue of the role the liberal blogosphere played in that state's special election.
The folks at Swing State Project made many of the same points as Daily Kos.
The Fix reached out to the offices of both Herseth and Chandler for comment on just how large a role the netroots played in their victories.
Russ Levsen, communications director for Herseth, confirmed that the netroots played a major part in her special election victory. We definitely benefited from the activism, the support online ... and a lot of people coming out to South Dakota because they believed in Stephanie's campaign," Levsen said.
Jennifer Spalding, a Chandler spokeswoman, said the Democratic netroots played a "critical role" in her boss's special election victory.
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