In the fried-chicken heartland of conservative America, the blogs have found an open ear. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that at a recent convention for political bloggers in Kentucky, a number of hopeful attendees had to be turned away due to lack of space. The paper goes on to remind us that the number of hits a blog gets is not necessarily the most important measure of how effective it is. Large sites like bluegrassreport.org act as more of a news website in that they attract mostly passive visitors rather than ones that actively engage with the blog’s content. Smaller, more localized blogs seem to encourage participation and while they might not do a great deal to alter federal elections, their potential for influencing the outcome of a local election is apparent.