It's never a good idea to give away too much, but I'm going to present the basic outlines of a blog strategy for an underfunded challenger (running against an incumbent) over the next few posts. The premise is simple - the gerrymandering of the districts, like in my home state of Missouri, creates landslide elections for House members of over 60%. When you're a challenger, you get no hope of money from the national party if you're not in striking distance, and the internet is pretty much your only hope of leveling the playing field.
Your Blog Strategy will consist of three blogs, started 18 months before the election, with specific purposes for each.
Blog #1: The candidate's thoughts.
This is a series of well-written posts laying out the candidates positions on topics of the day. While in most campaigns, the goal is to manage the message and keep it simple, a challenger doesn't have that luxury. The internet gives you a chance to cheaply publish your thoughts and if you are intelligent, well-reasoned, and honest, the writing on your blog will build a base of support among the technically literate.
That base of support will give you the ear of the people, a platform to proactively and reactively handle questions about your campaign, and most important provides an easily readable and SEO friendly cache of information for reporters and citizen bloggers
Advantages: The best way to generate press is to be involved in issues that people care about. Writing an issues blog is still new, and it allows you to better understand what your base actually looks for. Writing a blog also sharpens your fact retention and debating skills. Writing forces you to consider issues from other angles, and that counts as practice for writing speeches and answering questions.
Your opponent will not write a blog. Incumbents don't write blogs - at least not real ones. One, they are too busy, and two, the danger of writing is greater when you already have a position. It's also harder for the press to ignore you when you are generating buzz from your blog. If getting interviews from the local media is like pulling teeth, a well-written blog will help you publish your message, and get you noticed.
Disadvantages: If you're a poor writer, or not very bright, this isn't going to work well. If you stumble and write things that are unclear, or worse yet, that are blatantly offensive, you can terminate your candidacy before it's done. Of course, you can do this on the campaign trail, but on the blog, it's a self-inflicted wound.
It's important to work from a blog strategy document. This is new ground, and if you don't understand blogs, you can make a lot of etiquette errors that turn your advantages into disadvantages.
Summary: The candidate issues blog is not about the incumbent, or politics. It is about specific issues and your beliefs. Writing a blog on these issues can be scary, but done right, you can learn to defend and define your core beliefs online, an advantage your opponent will fail to take fully take advantage of. Political issues are pitched as cut and dry because soundbites and video clips don't give you time to revise and extend your remarks. Your website isn't set up for active content, but a blog is tailor-made for communicating.
The biggest question is one of time. It takes time to write a blogpost, and if you can't do it regularly, you shouldn't start. But pixels are free. And used correctly, a blog has staying power, unlike television and direct mail ads. Once you write it, it continues to display your message for the duration of the campaign and beyond.
