MyDD :: Elected Blogs, The BRCA, and A Nuance

Elected Blogs, The BRCA, and A Nuance

by fng, Thu Mar 10, 2005 at 05:02:16 PM EST

Since we've seen our first Senator at MyDD today it certainly caught my attention to read in the SF Chronicle that City Supervisor Chris Daly has created his own blog that is hosted by the Board of Supervisors' web site.

Kudos to Supervisor Daly for, as the Chronicle reports being "the first of the city's elected officials to create a blog."

The Chronicle later notes that, "Daly, an outspoken supervisor who got his start as a housing activist, has so far used his blog to discuss the city's budget crisis, the Giants' request for a large property tax reduction and to criticize The Chronicle's news coverage."

Interesting debate created by the article as it explores Daly's interaction with the City Attorney to determine what the 'rules' should be for an elected official's use of publicly financed internet sites for blogging.

Daly says, "The purpose of the Web site is to communicate my thoughts and ideas on issues clearly to the public without the interference of media bias."

The crux of the story for me came when I read that the City Attorney's office, after a request from Daly for clarification, said that the Supervisor "must abide by city laws that prohibit the use of public resources for campaign or personal activities."

More after the jump...

It's adds a new twist to the MyDD threads that I believe started with Chris and then was continued and expanded by Jerome here and here, Annatopia, and the Senator on BCRA and the worries forming in the blogosphere regarding the FEC and regulation of political speech on the web.

I agree in principle with Chris that "there must be no regulation whatsoever that would prevent or restrict any form of coordination between bloggers and campaigns. To create barriers to such coordination would effectively destroy online, networked, grassroots political action on behalf of political candidates, parties, and committees."

I say in principle because the Chronicle raises a valid question that needs to be fleshed out by the blogosphere as the use of blogs not just for campaigns, but by elected officials, continues to grow.

What type of online interaction between an elected official, that officials election or reelection campaign, and campaign supporters is legal? Doesn't matter for BRCA here because he's a local elected. But consider if Senator Fiengold created a blog on his official Senate site and then began campaigning for President and created a campaign blog as a communications tool.

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that's actually easy, I think (none / 0)

You can't use Congressional resources for campaign activities -- not the senate.gov website, not the computer, not the phone. Go across the street to the DNC offices and do it from there on a separate server.

Any senate.gov blog would have to steer wholly clear of campaign-related speech. It's not an awful line to draw; it's pretty clear.

by Adam B on Thu Mar 10, 2005 at 05:35:44 PM EST

The purpose of BCRA (none / 0)

It is increasingly clear that the purpose of BCRA is to control speech and grarss/netroots organization and participation in the political process.

There is absolutely no way to draft legislation that will fix the problem, because there isn't a problem. Whatever the intentions of the sponsors, the end result will be an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of speech and freedom of association.

The power to tax is the power to destroy.

The power to regulate is the power to destroy.

Nothing good can come from this legislation as it relates to the internet.

by Gary Boatwright on Thu Mar 10, 2005 at 07:55:41 PM EST

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