Take a peek inside the House

Hinshaw, Ward hope blog from Legislature instructive, not boring

MONTGOMERY - Figuring the best way to reach young constituents is through the Internet, two members of the Alabama House, including one from Madison County, volunteered to blog on the site "Doc's Political Parlor."

Reps. Randy Hinshaw, D-Merdianville, and Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, are sharing their daily legislative experiences, writing about subjects ranging from the mundane to the serious to the humorous.

"They wanted one person from each party to be on the blog," Ward said. "They wanted a balanced approach to it."

Ward said he believes that he and Hinshaw were selected because both are "pretty active legislatively."

"If you look at the number of bills introduced and carried, I think we both traditionally, for our caucuses' sake, carry a higher number of bills," he said.

A third House member from Madison County, Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, is a guest blogger on another site, "Between the Links."

In his first post on Thursday, Ball addressed the bill banning PAC-to-PAC transfers that passed the House. Ball said of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Jeff McLaughlin, D-Guntersville:

"There were attempts to amend the bill and to tighten it up, but to no avail. If it passes, it will plug one hole, which is a small step in the right direction. I think Bear Bryant once said that a tie is a lot like kissing your sister. That probably is descriptive of this bill."

Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, later introduced a bill that would close the loophole to which Ball referred. Orr's bill would ban money transfers between principal campaign committees.

In his blogs, Hinshaw said he keeps it strictly impersonal.

"We never attack individuals by name," he said. "Cam and I disagree on some things. Cam and I actually probably agree on more things than we disagree on, but most of those things are party-driven."

Ward said he tries to use the blog primarily to report on the day-to-day issues of the Legislature.

"I did one last week on where 'This is what it's like for a legislator to start on day one and end on day seven of the week,' " he said. "Mine is more or less saying, 'Just peek inside my head a little bit to see what we think and do down here.' "

Hinshaw said he tries to be informative in his blogging but "not too serious, either."

"I don't make it so dry as to be boring," he said.

Ward said he does most of his postings late at night, while Hinshaw said he writes a preview of the coming week on Sunday night, then files updates during the week.

Some posters left commentary attacking Hinshaw, but they were removed by the site's owner.

"I told him it didn't matter to me. It was his site, and he could do whatever he wanted to," Hinshaw said. "I've doing this awhile. I've been called every name in the book."

"Doc's Political Parlor" is operated by veteran blogger Jeff Vreeland of Pelham.

Hinshaw and Ward have their own Web sites.

"We have a lot of younger voters coming in," Ward said. "They expect to see it. They expect to see your presence on the Internet. And a lot of times, that's where they're getting more and more of their news from."

Ward predicted that the day soon will arrive when a legislator or a candidate will "be at a disadvantage" if he or she doesn't have a Web site.

Hinshaw and Ward say they both receive more feedback from their constituents by e-mail than from calls or letters. "The beauty of that is we're out here on the House floor, and you can respond to your constituents, and it's real-time communications," Ward said.

Hinshaw recently converted his Web site from a re-election campaign site to an informational site that carries his biography, contact information, legislation that he's passed and supported, links to state agencies and comment boxes.

Ward noted that all major presidential candidates have hired multiple bloggers for their campaign staffs.

"It's just a fact of life now just as much a fact as it was in the '70s and '80s when you hired a media consultant," he said. "In this day and age, you have a media consultant and a blog and a Web consultant."

Hinshaw said the Web is critical for a candidate or a lawmaker to get his or her message out.