Arguably the three most veteran and well-read political blogs in the state are Left in the West, which focused largely on state politics; 4&20 Blackbirds, which emphasizes Missoula news; and Electric City Weblog, a conservative blog that touches on state, national and local issues, said Steve Dogiakos, a multimedia-savvy young local Republican. So the loss of Left in the West, at least to the blogging community, is significant.

Left in the West reached its readership height several days prior to the 2006 general election when the site received between 3,000 and 4,000 page views, Singer said.

"Any time anyone stops talking about politics it affects us all," said Dogiakos, who read Left in the West to "get a pulse of what's going on in Montana and progressive Montana."

Dogiakos added, "Matt and I feel the same about getting people involved in politics regardless of what we believe ideologically and politically, our fundamental goal is getting people involved."

That's exactly what Singer hopes to accomplish through the new national organization.