In politics we often hear about the year of this or that.  Most famously, a wave of female candidates ran for office in the wake of the Clarence Thomas/Antia Hill debacle. It became known as the Year of the Woman.  By that standard, early signs are -- that for many reasons not limited to candidates --  2006 will be known as The Year of the Blogger.  

Certainly blogs are already playing a major role in American political life, and the Yearly Kos portends a major shift in American media and political culture as Democratic Party leaders scramble to be a part of it. But even as the Inside the Beltway crowd seeks to move in on this emerging phenomenon -- the blogosphere itself has begun to produce candidates. I know of three, and am taking this opportunity to highlight a major regional news article about one of them.

Brian Keeler of Political Cortex -- aka around the blogosphere as NYBri -- is running for State Senate in New York.

Chris Bowers of MyDD, has just announced that he is running for Democratic State Committee in Pennsylvania.

Margie Ware of MargeBlog is running in the Democratic primary for an open State Senate seat in western Massachusetts -- and she is running with the support of a statewide network of progressive Democratic bloggers that has been in steady formation over the past two years.

The Valley Advocate, a major weekly paper here on the left side of the state, has a profile of Margie Ware this week:

Asked about how being a blogger is perceived by the elected officials she meets, Ware said, "Most of them have no idea I have a blog. The national parties don't get it." But Ware hopes her experience as a blogger will help her out. "People who are bloggers have the courage of convictions and are willing to put it out there," she said. "It's not very New England, actually. New England is: "keep it in.' It's an open forum, but instead of gathering in the town square, we're gathering in the virtual town square."

The whole story is worth a read -- and it could very well auger The Year of the Blogger!