The "Rightroots" - an ugly name to describe the Republican counterpart of the progressive Netroots - appears to be making a real impact on the up-coming MA-5 special congressional election. In what should be a safe Democratic seat, the Rightroots bloggers have rallied behind Republican candidate Jim Ogonowski and a big fundraising effort has helped him raise a lot of cash. He's running against Niki Tsongas, the widow of senator Paul Tsongas.
Patrick Ruffini, the most intelligent of the Republican bloggers, has been pushing the Ogonowski campaign, and scents victory. He quotes Matt Stoller of the pro-Democrat OpenLeft blog as saying: "There is real concern here." Is MA-5 shaping up as the first real Battle of the Blogs?