Journalists Create PAC to Recruit Liberal Candidates

A group of online journalists say they are teaming up with organized labor and MoveOn.org to form a political action committee that will seek to push the Democratic Party further to the left. Soliciting donations from their readers, the bloggers say they are planning to recruit candidates to challenge the more centrist Democrats now in Congress, known as "blue dogs." The formation of the group is another step in the evolution of the blogosphere, which has proven effective at motivating party activists to give money and time to political campaigns, especially in local races. The new organization is in many ways the liberal equivalent of the Club for Growth, a conservative group that has financed primary challenges against Republicans it deems insufficiently dedicated to tax cuts and small government. Organizers of the new group, called Accountability Now, bristle at the comparison, saying they will not provide an issues-based litmus test for candidates. They say they will mainly support primary challenges when there is clear evidence that a lawmaker is out of step with his constituents.