Why are they so interested?

Why do government workers and elected officials keep such a close eye on bloggers? Just to show you what I mean, somebody from Woods Cross City Hall has accessed my blog at least once every business day for the past 7 days.
Are political bloggers really that interesting, or could it be that government types know how to get their way with the mainstream media, but not bloggers? Mainstream media (the Davis County Clipper, in particular) always seem to make time to contact the government workers and elected officials to get their side of the story. When I was an elected official, it was kind of a known thing that the Clipper reporter wouldn't make the City Administrator upset. If the reporter did, it could make getting information later on harder for them. Bloggers don't need to worry about making a government worker or elected official upset, because, bloggers tend to get the majority of their information from the regular Joe citizen.