"Today, the liberal echo chamber in Ohio suddenly got louder"

Hotline's "On the Download":

A new Web site, ProgressOhio, is launching with a massive e-mail list and an ambitious goal. It aims to be a hub for grassroots liberal bloggers, a clearinghouse for local causes and information, and a link between opinion drivers in the state and an army of activists.

More broadly, ProgressOhio wants to direct the energy of the liberal blogosphere, already a potent force in Ohio politics, to concrete political and legislative tasks.
Yes, it's just another liberal Web site.

But ProgressOhio, set up as a 501(c) 4 organization under the tax code, is the first affiliate of a wildly successful experiment in Colorado, ProgressNow.

When gubernatorial candidate Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-CO) mistakenly implied that the abortion rate among African Americans was 70 percent, Progress Now pounced and within hours of that statement having been published, had sent an e-mail alert to about 100K activists in the state and to dozens of reporters who monitor the site. ProgressNow hammered Beauprez's running mate for sketchy comments about bestiality, driving coverage of that story. It set up BothWaysBob.com, which prompted Beauprez's campaign manager to dismiss the group as a bunch of "bed-wetting liberals."

There are dozens of successful liberals blogs in Ohio but little communication or coordination among them. Liberal net strategists have pondered for a few years about how to strengthen bonds between blogs, and a few successful ventures, like an advertising cooperative, have taken off.

That's the niche Progress Now, founded by Mike Huttner, a former Clinton administration lawyer, aims to fill, nationally.

"Our goal is to be an organizer of the blogs," Huttner said. And if ProgressOhio makes a difference, he hopes to expand the model to other states.

ProgressOhio will be run by Brian Rothenberg, a former communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party. Over the past few months, he's collected more than 170,000 e-mail addresses. At its core, the site will link neighborhood groups to blogs and grassroots activists to like-minded folks in the same area.

The site contains several tools that mimic the organizing model used by the national Republican party. Within a few weeks, users will be able to create their own groups by geography and political concern. Gay rights activists in Akron, for example, can easily draw up a webpage, as can progressives worried about health care in Canton. Users can tag themselves with keywords and will be able to join as many groups as they want.

That way, says Huntner, "organizing goes from a one-to-many model to a many-to-many model."

Within a week and a half, members will be able to track political donations to candidates by geography.

Rothenberg already has one notch on his belt. On Friday, he distributed a web feature featuring a clip of an aide Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) appearing to dismiss complaints about the new Medicare plan's "donut hole." Rothenberg said he sent the clip to 35K Ohioans in Pryce's district around Columbus, and by the weekend, had enticed 1,200 activists to view it.

Huttner says he will judge ProgressOhio a success if it grows beyond its birth size and by the number of groups its members form. In the long-term, he hopes the endeavor will be financially self-sufficient. Collectively, ProgressOhio will cost Huttner about $500,000, about half of which has been raised from out of state donors. At full strength, it will have a staff of four. BlueStateDigital, the liberal internet behemoth, wrote the software.

Because of its tax status, the site can't endorse candidates That doesn't bother Rothenberg.

"We're issue oriented and we're going after issues that are of interest to progressives, and sometimes, there will be occasions when we're aligned with different [non-Democratic] candidates."

In October, Rothenberg said he expects to spend a lot of time on the site monitoring efforts to make sure voters are able to cast their ballots without interference or confusion.