Politics

Locally Grown

Which local political blogs to follow during the 2010 election season.

All politics is local—which unfortunately makes midterm election season hard to follow. To simplify things, Slate scoured the Web for the best local political blogs covering some of this cycle’s most contested races.

We hope these blogs will come in handy when playing Lean/Lock, Slate’s new Facebook game, which allows users to earn points for correctly predicting the outcomes of the most-watched 2010 races. Let us know in the comments section if we’ve missed a great political blog from your state that we should be following.

Arkansas
Senate: Blanche Lincoln (D) vs. John Boozman (R)
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
The Political Buzz

California
Senate: Barbara Boxer (D) vs. Carly Fiorina (R)
CA-11: Jerry McNerney (D) vs. David Harmer (R)
Top of the Ticket
San Francisco Gate politics blog
Capitol Alert
U-T Polblog
Calbuzz

Colorado
Senate: Michael Bennet (D) vs. Ken Buck (R) *
CO-4: Betsy Markey (D) vs. Cory Gardner (R)
The Spot
Colorado Springs Gazette Politics Section
ColoradoPols.com 

Connecticut
Senate: Richard Blumenthal (D) vs. Linda McMahon (R)
Red Notes From a Blue State
Connecticut News Junkie
Capitol Watch
Political Capitol
My Left Nutmeg 

Florida
Senate: Jeff Greene/Kendrick Meek (D) vs. Marco Rubio (R) vs. Charlie Crist (I)
Naked Politics
The Buzz 

Idaho
ID-1: Walt Minnick (D) vs. Raul Labrador (R)
The Statesman’s political blog
Eye on Boise

Illinois
Senate: Alexi Giannoulias (D) vs. Mark Kirk (R)
Governor: Pat Quinn (D) vs. Bill Brady (R)
Daily Herald Blog
Clout Street
Openlineblog.com

Indiana
Senate: Brad Ellsworth (D) vs. Dan Coats (R)
Blue Indiana
Howey Politics

Kentucky
Senate: Jack Conway (D) vs. Rand Paul (R)
Kentucky Politics
Bluegrass Politics   

Louisiana
Senate: Charlie Melancon (D) vs. David Vitter (R)
Times-Picayune’s Politics & Elections
The Advocate’s Capitol News Bureau

Massachusetts
Governor: Deval Patrick (D) vs. Charlie Baker (R)
Mass Politics Blog
Blue MassGroup
Political Intelligence 

Michigan
MI-1: Gary McDowell (D) vs. Dan Benishek (R)
Michigan Political Report 

Missouri
Senate: Robin Carnahan (D) vs. Roy Blunt (R)
Prime Buzz
Political Fix
Fired Up! Missouri 

Nevada
Senate: Harry Reid (D) vs. Sharron Angle (R)
NV-3: Dina Titus (D) vs. Joe Heck (R)
Las Vegas Review-Journal politics blog
Ralston’s Flash (Las Vegas Sun) 

New Hampshire
Senate: Paul W. Hodes (D) vs. Kelly Ayotte (R)
New Hampshire Political Report 

North Dakota
ND-at-large: Earl Pomeroy (D) vs. Rick Berg (R)
Inforum’s political section   

Ohio
Senate: Lee Fisher (D) vs. Rob Portman (R)
Governor: Ted Strickland (D) vs. John Kasich (R)
OH-15: Mary Jo Kilroy (D) vs. Steve Stivers (R)
Buckeye State
Third Base Politics
Open
Ohio Daily   

Pennsylvania
Senate: Joe Sestak (D) vs. Pat Toomey (R)
PA 2010
Politics PA 

South Carolina
Senate: Alvin Greene (D) vs. Jim DeMint (R)
FITSNews
S.C. Politics Today

Texas
Governor: Bill White (D) vs. Rick Perry (R)
First Reading
Trail Blazers Blog 

Virginia
VA-5: Tom Perriello (D) vs. Robert Hurt (R)
Virginia Politics Blog—Washington Post
Bearing Drift
Virginia Politics Blog—Richmond Times-Dispatch
Blue Virginia

Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

Update, Aug. 11, 2010: This list was updated to reflect Ken Buck’s victory over Jane Norton in Colorado’s Republican primary. (Return to the updated section.)