So, as most everybody knows, the immigration bill reared it's head in the Senate yet again this week. Personally, I think this a great legislative debate, as you have President Bush and Ted Kennedy on the same side of an issue. That doesn't happen very often, or does it...

Anyways, I found this interesting piece on YouTube, and thought I'd share. It's simple, almost boring, yet has a powerful message. So far, the video has over 9,400 views, which isn't bad considering it was posted yesterday.

I'm particularly interested in the interplay between policy and elections.

So, here are a few questions, I asked myself and thought i would pose to our readers.

Can an internet video focused on a specific policy issue, negatively influence donations/support to a candidate/campaign committee?

If so, is this a tactic our candidates should employ?

Can the strategy work in reverse?

What do you think...

Gary Officer is a project director with Political Media, Inc. a political advertising firm in Washington, D.C.

Governor Freudenthal picked state Sen. John Barasso to fill Wyoming's vacant Senate seat.

Get the story here.

What a busy afternoon, seems like things are picking up a bit. As I was scanning The Politco one last time for today, I came across this post by Patrick O'Connor.

The Republican campaign arm in the Senate launched a new website Thursday to attack Democrats for indirectly raising taxes on American families.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee's new website, the Cost of Democrats.com, allows readers to click on a map of the United States that highlights the projected tax burden on each state if Congress adheres to the Democrats' five-year budget blueprint.

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who faces reelection next year, headlines the new site.

With the NRCC's new rollout, the RNC's pickup of Cyrus Krohn and this new website, I feel like, maybe, just maybe, the drumbeat is starting to echo in people's ears. Time will tell.

So I was scanning the Hotline and found these two interesting tidbits:

First, it looks like Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) is just a little pissed that Sen. Lieberman is helping his opponent Sen. Collins raise money for her re-election. So to counter the Joementum, he's holding an all day virtual fundraiser. Not a bad idea, I'm sure our candidates will do the same thing when Clinton/Reid/Kennedy swing through their states in the future.

Also, our good friends at Daily Kos put up a poll, asking which GOPer they'd most like to see go down in flames in 2008. The winners were... Sen. Minority Leader McConnell, Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Norm Coleman. It's nice to know that the left is using the Internet in such a productive manner.

Yesterday, Senator Craig Thomas passed away from leukemia at age 74. He was diagnosed with the disease last year, while running for re-election. Senator Thomas was a former member of the House of Rep's, Wyoming legislature and a Marine.

The Hill outlines Wyoming's unique process for filling the seat:

Thomas will be replaced by a Republican. But the process is unusual.

The state’s governor, Democrat Dave Freudenthal, is formally notified of the vacancy, he will contact the state central committee of the outgoing incumbent’s party — in Thomas’s case, the Republicans.

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Nathan Gonzales, a close friend and astute journalist, just wrote an interesting piece on the evolution of net strategies at the campaign committees. It details who's in each shop, how new media affected some of the key senate/congressional races last cycle and which online technology each committee is currently using or plans on utilizing in the future.

Check it out

Understanding the need to engage the blogsphere, Senator Lamar Alexander took some time out of his busy schedule yesterday and spoke with myself and a few other bloggers about his new American Citizenship Agenda.

Immigration reform is an issue of particular importance to Sen. Alexander and one in which he has had success, with the Senate adopting two of his proposals last year:

1. To provide $500 grants to help prospective citizens learn basic English.
2. To allow someone who becomes fluent in English to become a citizen after four years instead of five.

In addtion to our call, he posted a video on YouTube detailing the proposal.

With most of the spotlight focused on the presidential campaigns and their online fundraising, YouTube videos or number of MySpace friends, I thought it would be nice to change it up and take a quick glance at the 2008 Senate races. Now, I know we are quite a ways away from Election Day and Senate campaigns don’t usually ramp up until the beginning of Election year. However, with the current political climate as it is, Republicans can’t afford to look the other way and be passive implementing new media.