* Candidates Enter the Blogosphere

By LORRAINE SWANSON - Pioneer News Star Staff Writer

Not since the first atom was split on a squash field at the University of Chicago in 1942, has there been a phenomenon quite like the Chicago blogosphere, and it just may be having an impact on some of the city's political races. "Blogs are the modern incarnation of making local political races really local in a very different kind of way," said Alan Gitelson, a political science professor at Loyola University.

Gitelson said the neighborhood blogs are adding another realm to the "friends and neighbors" political behavior, a research theory that dates back to the 1940s. Blogs are creating virtual backyards or other community gathering places much in the same way neighbors discuss local politics over the back fence or at the corner pub, shaping each other's civic lives.

"It's an enhancement of local machine politics in Chicago, where precinct captains would visit neighbors' homes and provide services. Blogs have the potential of getting residents in one place at one time, and involving them in local discussions," Gitelson added.

According to a recent survey by the Pew Internet Research Group, more than 12 million Americans actively maintain blogs, and another 14 million said they used blogs as a primary source for political information.

Like the mimeographed underground newspapers passed out in the streets during the 1960s, more local residents are taking on the role of "citizen journalists," by creating their own unfiltered news feeds, where they exchange information about neighborhood issues and concerns that otherwise get overlooked by the major daily newspapers or the 6 o'clock news.

"I think the blogs are trying to act in a way that informs the community," said Chris Adams, a 49th ward aldermanic candidate and former newspaper executive, "If Rogers Park, which has roughly 65,000 residents, were a hundred miles to the west, we'd have our own daily newspaper, TV and radio station. Bloggers fill that void," Adams added.

At a recent aldermanic forum, one moderator made the point of mentioning three times that the organization sponsoring the forum was not endorsing any of the candidates for "all the bloggers out there."

"(The blogs) have become a tool that all the candidates and their handlers read daily," said Craig Gernhardt, a Rogers Park blogger who writes "The Broken Heart of Rogers Park," which chronicles safety and development issues on Morse Avenue.

Gernhardt, who is closely following the 49th Ward aldermanic race, including posting clips from the aldermanic forums on YouTube, said he averages 600 hits a day, more if his blog is linked to another news blogs, like the Chicagoist or The Reader's 'Clout City' political blog.

"At least 500 of them have to be neighbors. That's a bigger room than most of these community meetings," Gernhardt added.

So far, Rogers Park, on both sides of the 49th and 50th Ward border, seems to have the largest number of citizen political blogs, about a dozen in total. While some have drawn criticism for their negativity, Rogers Park blogger Toni Duncan, whose "24/7 North of Howard Watchers" covers housing and community issues in the North of Howard neighborhood, views her blog as a historical document of a place.

"It's an ongoing chronology, past and present. I'm waiting to see what the camera sees in the future," Duncan said.

Always interesting, always opinionated, and at times, more rancorous than a middle-school lunchroom, neighborhood blogs are beginning to draw the attention of local candidates interested in knowing what residents have to say.

"It's not to your advantage to ignore them. I have folks who keep an eye on what people are saying and stay on it in a respectful way," Adams said.

"Someone challenged one of the things I had written, then apologized for challenging me so aggressively. I appreciate that. I'm not offering the end of the discussion on a Web site, I'm offering a place to start a discussion, or be included," Adams noted.

Some local campaigns are taking a proactive approach to cultivating bloggers and controlling neighborhood buzz about the candidates. Bridget Dooley, field director for 50th Ward aldermanic candidate Greg Brewer, said that Brewer's campaign recently hosted a "bloggers' breakfast."

"(Blogging) has become standard operating procedure for all campaigns on all levels," said Dooley, a political consultant whose worked on state and local campaigns throughout the Midwest.

"We invited all the bloggers we could think of in the Chicago-metro area. We gave out press kits and had them meet Greg to see what he's about. It helped in establishing a decent relationship with the bloggers from the beginning. People are writing, whether or not it's legitimate or good. It's still out there and needs to be treated seriously. Some of the neighborhood blogs can be pretty venomous," Dooley added.

Naisy Dolar, another 50th Ward candidate, is using MySpace and Facebook to reach potential voters. Dolar's campaign also posts clips from Dolar's TV news coverage and press conferences on YouTube.

"It's a good way to grab new volunteers, especially young people," Graciosa said.

Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who now heads the political science department at University of Illinois at Chicago, doesn't think the hyperlocal citizen political blogs will have much of an effect on the upcoming city election. Not yet anway.

"A few dozen or a few hundred (viewers) will see (the blogs) but they have to show up and vote. The number that do is very small from a campaign point of view, but if you just dislike a candidate, the blogs will have very little effect. But in four or 10 years from now, it may be different," Simpson said.