As a diarist, have you ever resisted writing a diary because you wondered if few people would care about a diary about your local issue or person.
I believe that local stories in Daily Kos to be very important. Many will not strike a nerve that other national level stories get. Many times local stories will only get a few if any recommendations.
Here is a list of why local stories are important to me: Afterwards, I will illustrate this with a story as to how my Daily Kos story helped (a little bit) to turn control of a state legislature.
1. It exposes the whacked, crazy in the GOP.
2. Daily Kos stories get indexed in search engines like Google. Therefore, if a potential voter does a look up on a a candidate, your DK story may be one of the first they may find on that lookup.
3. It can highlight the good. It can bring to light the tactics, strategy and candidates that are making a positive difference. These tactics can be copied in other areas.
4. It can positively highlight up and coming candidates or elected officials.
5. It provides a record for a candidate or elected official
6. This record you create of a candidate or public official can be searched on this site for a campaign people to use.
7. Sometimes you get sick of national stories and want to bring a perspective from the local level.
8. Gaining Democratic Party victories at the local level should be part of the national strategy.
9. Many local political officials or candidates go unchallenged by the local media.
10.State Party officials should work closer to activists on social media. That includes working with Daily Kos diarists.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a little diary about a local Republican candidate for State Rep. in Minnesota. The district leaned 6 out of 10 for Republicans. She was expected to win and had lawn signs plastered all around town. The GOP controlled the State House and Senate for the first time.
The candidate had spoken some words on video about the Mark Dayton, Governor of Minnesota at the time. She had used his admission of suffering depressing and used this to tell a group of GOP delegates how she new the governor was "Crazy".
My story got picked up by a couple local blogs and by an independent newspaper called the City Pages. A local news station made mention of the story.
With this publicity, the Democratic Party Chair held a press conference denouncing the GOP candidate. This made more news.
The local DFL (Democratic) candidate, who up until then had been virtually ignored in the race for State Rep then started receiving that week State Party funds and personal to help make the race more competitive. The State DFL Party and local unions poured more and more resources into the race.
The State GOP, struggling with party debt, was forced to divert money away from other races to save what was thought to be a "safe" district.
On election night, the DFL Candidate won by 191 votes. Toss up districts all near that district also went Democratic. The House and Senate were flipped to all Democratic.
With a Democratic Majority and Governor, they were able to pass free all day Kindergarten, A minimum wage increase, and a budget taxing the wealthy that has left Minnesota with tremendous economic growth and a billion dollar surplus.
I don't pretend that my little Daily Kos story was the reason the legislature flipped to Democratic. There was a lot of hard work, doorknocking, phone calling, lit dropping, and other reasons. My contribution was just a little one.
Please my friends at Daily Kos, keep writing local stories. Make sure, you stop and read some of these local stories, even if they are from another part of the country.
And please recommend local stories if they are deemed worthy in your eyes.
Thanks for your time reading this and your contributions. This is my first ever Meta Diary. Please be kind.