Utah’s state Senate this year became the first legislative body to make online "blogging" a vital tool in lawmaking.

"A politician who ignores this and doesn’t have a blog presence is doing it at his or her own peril."

A semi-official Web site launched this year by the Senate Republican majority gave pols and citizens alike a computer screen-size soapbox to rant, rave and wrangle over the session’s hottest topic: how to spend a record $1 billion surplus.

Joining the nation’s growing proliferation of political Web logs, or blogs, the Utah site was the first of its kind to strike up a digital dialogue that included entries not just from state Senate Republicans but also from minority Democrats and lawmakers in the opposite chamber. Unfolding comment by comment, the unofficial daily log often paralleled official debate taking place under the dome — with the added bonus of anonymity.

By Kavan Peterson, Stateline.org Staff Writer

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