• by Wendy Davis , October 17, 2006

With mid-term elections approaching, AOL has launched a new blog section devoted to politics.

At launch, the new section, "The Stump," contains blogs by 17 political bloggers hired specifically for the venture. The bloggers represent a wide range of political ideologies; while some of them also maintain personal blogs, the content they post on AOL is exclusive to the site, said Lewis D'Vorkin, editor in chief, AOL News.

In addition, through a deal with ABC, visitors to The Stump also can ask questions of TV journalists Sam Donaldson, George Stephanopoulos, Jake Tapper and Brian Roberts. Videos of the journalists' responses will be posted each Friday beginning this week, with Donaldson.

With The Stump, AOL aims to both increase users' interaction with the site and expose more AOL users to Web logs, D'Vorkin said. "Our goal is to open up the blogging experience," he said, adding that the blogs allow for users to post unmoderated comments.

The bloggers will cover all of the key mid-term races, including Senate races and some local contests. Even after the election next month, AOL plans to continue "The Stump," although the focus will shift from the races to other political goings-on, D'Vorkin said.

The Stump, monetized with run of site ads, marks AOL's latest foray into the blogosphere. Earlier this year, it launched blogs for each of the NFL football teams.