One of the 50 political blogs I visit daily is Calitics, a progressive blog that deals with California politics and their intersection with national politics. I particularly enjoy the work of David Dayen, a fine writer, reporter and analyst who also posts at Daily Kos and digby's Hullabaloo as dday. He also has his own blog. Not just good but prolific. Other regulars include Brian Leubitz, Lucas O'Connor, Robert in Monterey, and Bob Brigham.
I can always count on getting good coverage of our governor, now apparently angling for an Obama Cabinet post, and a state perspective on issues like FISA:
As bad a week as it's been for John McCain, it's been a TERRIBLE week for Dianne Feinstein. She watched in the Senate Judiciary Committee as Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who she voted to confirm, put on as bad a performance as Alberto Gonzales ever did, covering for the Administration's criminal actions, from torture to politicization of the Justice Department. Then, of course, there was the FISA vote, where she bowed to President Bush and voted to participate in a coverup.
There are 36 million of us Californians, spread over an area just slightly smaller than Iraq, so, of course, there's no way any single political blog (or even a dozen of them can cover everything), but Calitix fills an important niche. Coverage is just like that on every blog - whatever the posters find interesting, important, fun or worthwhile. I also read a handful of other statewide blogs, particularly the excellent California Progress Report and Bayne of Blog: California Notes.
In addition, because I spent half my life in Colorado, I read Colorado Confidential at The Colorado Independent and Squarestate.net, where I can learn about the actions of politicians whose hometowns I recognize, even if I've been gone too long to know the fellows in all their tarnish or glory. And I can find out, for instance, that Senator Salazar could be vulnerable in 2010.
Another place I poke my head into is Blue Hampshire because the writing is good, because I wanted to pick one of the few states I've never even visited, and because my Daily Kos colleague MissLaura is one of the principals there.
Most people aren't as insanely obsessive about politics as I am, and definitely not as insane about checking out blogs. But every progressive benefits, in my view, from finding a blog that regularly looks at the local and/or state political scene. There's at least one in every state, yes, even in the reddest states. (See, for instance, Left in Alabama and Full Metal Democrat in Idaho.)
Kid Oakland, wearing his community-organizer hat and employing that term as broadly as possible, quite possibly has read more local progressive blogs than anybody, and, more impressively, has encouraged many such bloggers to keep going, make connections and help build the progressive movement (election- and issue-oriented) so badly needed to transform U.S. politics. I'd guess he's poked his head in at a few hundred such blogs. I, however, have barely scratched the surface.
What about you? Do you read one or more local or state blogs? Got some links? What makes them good? Do you know of some that should be avoided? Do you yourself run a local blog? Have you thought about doing so?