Bloggers and press credentials for state legislatures can mix, with caveats

The Thicket at State Legislatures is an excellent blog if you want to keep a canvas on what's happening around the country, both on an individual state level but also at a more holistic level: what new issues are being raised, where, which issues are dying out, and which ones won't go away. Today, The Thicket reports on its poll about whether bloggers should be given press credentials for state legislatures: Our poll on whether bloggers should be given press credentials was up for nearly three weeks and drew lots more votes than any of the previous ones. Thirty-two respondents (18%) said that legislatures should give press credentials to bloggers, only six (3%) said that they should not, and 133 (77%) said that bloggers should be given credentials only if they meet certain specified criteria. (Was somebody stuffing the ballot box? We didn't set up the poll to block repeat voters. In future polls, we will do so.) What does your state do? Is anyone lobbying for blogger access? Ohio has a few charitable listeners on this front in the statehouse, but mostly, I don't think anything is going to happen unless the legislators feel they can control the situation. And when bloggers are involved, well - I'm thinking, nuh uh.