There's a fascinating story out of New Hamsphire today about what some savvy targeting of Facebook ads can accomplish in a local political race. A Dartmouth junior dropped just $51 -- less than the cost of a text book -- on Facebook ads. Through Facebook's ad targeting program, the ads only popped up for her Dartmouth classmates and students at Plymouth State University. Vanessa Sievers, class of 2010, ended by winning her race for Grafton County Treasurer by a 600 vote margin.

Our democracy is most effective when we have an informed citizenry. This does not just pertain to federal elections, but elections at all levels. Often, the local elections are the most important. The judges that you elect to superior court might be nominated for Supreme Court a few years from now. The people you send to state legislature may be running for federal office in no time. Who you help get experience at the local level shapes what happens at the federal level in all sorts of direct and indirect ways. Furthermore, it affects your life directly.

Wading through information on local elections is undoubtedly a pain in the ass. Sure, you're about to be inundated with pamphlets telling you which way to vote and if your local newspaper is still functioning, they will inevitably list who they want you to vote for. But is this really what it means to be informed? I think not. Rather than waiting to be told what to do, I vote that each and every one of you hosts a party where you leverage the collective intelligence of those around you.

Kentucky bloggers are taking back their state's Democratic Party, one wiki entry at a time.  This week Ben Carter and Joe Sonka, proprietors of the progressive Kentucky blog BlueGrassRoots, announced the creation of BlueGrassWiki.  The project aims to organize information about Kentucky's 120 county parties in order to "infiltrate" local leadership in upcoming party precinct elections.

Friends, it’s Friday again and time for you to indulge in a little political web video action. This week, watch as PoliticsTV recaps some of the top moments from the primary/caucus races, Mitt lets the dogs out, the candidates join David Bowie in a call for change, Bill gets sleepy, Hillary and Barack go at each other, and more.

Also, YouTube YouChoose ‘08 is asking for your political opinions, analysis, commercials, or campaign trail footage in the run-up to Super Tuesday, so send in your stuff!

Increasingly, new tools are empowering local "amateur" campaign staffers to produce quality content centered around local people.

How much should lower-level political candidates try to adopt the multi-faceted internet strategies of the presidential campaigns?