blog.electromneyin2008.com (+)	americansformitt.com (+)	www.romneyreport.com (+)	groups.yahoo.com/group/Mitt_ Romney_For_President_2008
lawstudentsforromney. blogspot.com (+)	www.evangelicalsformitt.org (+)	www.runmittrun.org (+) (Aug. 29, 2006 grab)
coloradansforromney.blogspot. com	delawareansformitt.blogspot.com (+)	floridiansforromney.blogspot.com	illinoisans4mitt.blogspot.com
illinisans-4-mitt-romney. blogspot.com	iowansforromney.blogspot.com (+)	massformitt.com (+)	missformitt.blogspot.com (+)
www.ohioansformitt.com (+)	www.oregoniansformitt.com	tnformitt.blogspot.com (+)	www.utahnsformitt.com (+)
washingtoniansformitt.blogspot. com		www.newhampshireforromney. com  (+) (Aug. 29, 2006 grab)

Active Romneyosphere
(Aug. 29, 2006, E.M. Appleman)-The possible candidacy of Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) has inspired more activity on the Internet than any potential 2008 candidate with the possible exception of Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI).

At the center of this activity was Ann Marie Curling, who started blogging about Romney in June 2005 at blog.electromneyin2008.com.  Born July 2, 1974 in Detroit, she grew up in Michigan, attended school in Indiana, lived for ten years in Florida, and now resides in Cadiz, KY where she is co-owner of the technology solutions company Blodgettech.  Curling notes that she has been active in politics since she was a teenager.  She supported Sen. John McCain in 2000, but, citing the issue of campaign finance reform, she writes that "this time around I do not believe he's the person for the job."  In mid-2006 Curling started to significantly broaden her efforts, building a team of contributors for the blog, and in July/August 2006 helping to start a number of affiliated state sites, a Women for Romney site, and a Spanish language site (Elija Romney en 2008).

A second early Romney supporter is Nathan Burd of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.  Burd, who has worked as a legislative staffer, saw Romney on C-SPAN's "Road to the White House" and found him "articulate, smart, funny, likeable, and, much to my surprise, conservative."  Burd started Ohioans for Mitt in late 2005 and then launched Americans for Mitt, "a grassroots online organization."

During the first eight months of 2006 many state specific and themed sites sprang up.  Writer Nancy French of Columbia, Tennessee started TN for Mitt on January 16.  The Law Students for Romney site went up on February 23.  "We hope to explore the history and career of Mitt Romney and his chances of winning the Republican nomination and the White House," David Kennedy wrote. Pete James, a young professional in Boston, launched the Romney Report on March 13, 2006.  He wrote, "I am very impressed with Mitt's speaking ability and resume, and am thinking of supporting him.  As such, I thought it would be great to keep tabs on him for myself and others, as he runs for the presidency."  A Catholics for Romney site went up in March, but was not found in July.  Nancy French and several others put together an Evangelicals for Mitt site which debuted in July.  Filmmaker Mitch Davis started RunMittRun.org which seeks to combat the ignorance about Mormanism and help get Romney elected to the White House.

Aug. 29, 2006 Quick Check of Romney Blogging Activity

Site	Founding Author	Started	Most Recent Posting
blog.electromneyin2008.com	Ann Marie Curling	June 22, 2005	Aug. 29, 2006   "FRC Action Values Voter Summit"
americansformitt.com	Nathan Burd		generally static
www.romneyreport.com	Pete James	Mar. 13, 2006	August 19, 2006   "Hiatus  Hey Readers, I will be on vacation for 10 days in Italy..."
lawstudentsforromney.blogspot.com	Allan M. Bailey, David Kennedy	Feb. 23, 2006	July 26, 2006   "July News Roundup"
www.evangelicalsformitt.org	Nancy French et al.	June 25, 2006	Aug. 29, 2006   "Rudy!" [YouTubeTM clip "Rudy Giuliani in Drag Smooching Donald Trump"]
State Specific
alabamaforromney.blogspot.com	Karl Basham	Aug. 27, 2006	Aug. 28, 2006   "Romney's Judicial Appointments and Philosophy: Jeff Fuller at..."
coloradansforromney.blogspot.com	Paul Schoeny	June 28, 2006	Aug. 4, 2006   "Mitt's Innovation Transcends the Political"
delawareansformitt.blogspot.com	Dave Burris	March 22, 2006	July 17, 2006   "UPDATE: As of July 17, I will be taking up permanent residence at the Elect Romney in 2008 blog..."
floridiansforromney.blogspot.com	Thomas Alan	June 24, 2006	Aug. 21, 2006   "Early Voting Begins"
illinoisans4mitt.blogspot.com	Jason (Chicago area)	May 23, 2006	Aug. 29, 2006   "Health Care Plan Already Seeing Divedends"
illinisans-4-mitt-romney.blogspot.com	Mike Laub (myclob)	April 15, 2006	Aug. 28, 2006   "Governor George Romney of Michigan  Veteran's Memorial Building – Detroit  November 18, 1967 11 a.m. EST"
iowansforromney.blogspot.com	Jeff Fuller	May 5, 2006	Aug. 29, 2006   "Alabama for Romney Up & "Tar Baby" Still Stickin (in people's minds)"
massformitt.com	Christine Yantis Hargrove	Jan. 16, 2006	July 21, 2006   "A *Positive* Boston Globe Article About Mitt"
missformitt.blogspot.com	Karl Basham Maggie MacCallan	Aug. 17, 2006 Mar. 15, 2006	Aug. 28, 2006   "Jeff Fuller at Iowans for Romney has a great post discussing Gov Romney's record of state and distric judicial appointees..."
www.ohioansformitt.com	Nathan Burd	late 2005	site is static and not updated
www.oregoniansformitt.com	Steve Bradford	?	Aug. 15, 2006 blog posting   "Vote for Mitt Romney"
tnformitt.blogspot.com	Nancy French	Jan. 16, 2006	Aug. 27, ,2006   "Looking Good! David talks politics with The American Spectator Online, in their cover story called, 'Mitt's Evangelical Breakthrough.'"
texansformitt.blogspot.com	Kevin Davis	July 4, 2006	Aug. 29, 2006 blog posting   "FRC Action Values Voter Summit"
www.utahnsformitt.com	James Phillips	?Mar. 26, 2006	May 9, 2006 blog posting   "Governor Romney's Faith"
washingtoniansformitt.blogspot.com	Casey (We Three)	April 6, 2006	Aug. 28, 2006  "go after the opponent's strengths"
Elect Romney in 2008 Affiliated Sites	w/Ann Marie Curling
www.californiansforromney.com	Geoffrey Baum, Paul Miller	July 17, 2006	Aug. 25, 2006   "Romney on a roll"
www.kentuckiansforromney.com	--	Aug. 7, 2006	Aug. 7, 2006  "Governor Romney at the National Governors Association"
www.michigandersforromney.com	Alex Prasad, Steve Schaefer, Tim Campaigne	July 19, 2006	Aug. 22, 2006   "Good news!  'Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s (R) chief of staff, Beth Myers...'"
www.newhampshireforromney.com	Matthew Cahoon	Aug. 7, 2006	Aug. 21, 2006   "NH Democrats Seeing Red"
www.scforromney.com	Andru, Rob, Jason	Aug. 1, 2006	Aug. 29, 2006   "Romney in 2nd place in Free Republic Opinion Poll"
www.womenforromney.org	Heather Johnson	July 17, 2006	Aug. 19, 2006   "Romney visits Miss.; mum on ‘08 plans"
blog.electromneyin2008.com/es	José D. Pietri	July 26, 2006	Aug. 19, 2006   "Receta del éxito"

 

Copyright © 2006  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action