Kos posted a round-up of candidates generating buzz today on DailyKos, and he opens with Washington State…

Darcy Burner is taking on freshman Republican Dave Reichert in WA-08. She will report numbers of over $300K for Q1, which is impressive. But more so than that, the Washington state blogosphere helped her raise over $90K online in the closing hours of the fundraising quarter without any national buzz. That’s not Daily Kos or Atrios, that’s the local bloggers, and $90K is more than what we “big boys” can usually raise. If that’s not a sign of the growing power and influence of the local blogs, I’m not sure what is.

Meanwhile, it was quite shocking to see just how much local activists hate Sen. Maria Cantwell. It isn’t that they’re disappointed in her positions on issues like Iraq in an effort to appear “moderate” or “centrist,” it’s that she won’t even talk to them about those issues. The dislike was near universal and truly based on that lack of communication.