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Last week, in researching my Seven Days piece on Senator Leahy's fabulous FOIA bills (I advise clicking through just to see the classic photo of the senator at Mardi Gras), I talked with Jerome Armstrong of MyDD.com. Jerome lives in Burlington; he's been here since he moved to work for the Dean campaign in 2003. He's currently a politico/techno consultant who works with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos. You might remember him from such accomplishments as introducing Joe Trippi to Meetup.com. In other words, Armstrong is Vermont's most prominent blogger.

I didn't get to use Armstrong's quote in my FOIA piece, but I did find out that he's been asked by LA mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa to be a regular guest poster on Villaraigosa's blog (he'll be following the race from Burlington).

Armstrong, an LA native, says he's doing the work pro-bono. After the "Dean paid bloggers" dust-up, I guess that's relevant. Armstrong addressed the issue in an update to a post on MyDD: "No compensation or clients involved," he writes, "just doing my part to elect the right hometown mayor." He'll also continue to post on the race for MyDD. A post from Armstrong on MyDD yesterday bears the title Villaraigosa Walking Away in L.A..

Villaraigosa is obviously a net-savvy candidate — he has advertised on Armstrong's blog in the past, though there don't appear to be any ads there now. Wonder if any of Burlington's newly announced mayoral candidates are studying this strategy?