Politicians are figuring out what social media technologies like blogs, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have to offer: direct access to voters. More than ever before, they can bypass the professional press and deliver an uncensored, unfiltered -- and unchecked -- message.

"[Social media] allows me to gives my thoughts on the events of the day and the complete text of my comments from speeches and stuff that I give that the mainstream media might not normally cover," said Francis Slay, the mayor of St. Louis, in a phone interview.

Slay, who was recently elected to his third term, has been blogging and using social media such as Twitter for years. Tony Messenger, Missouri state Capital political reporter and columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wrote in a recent email that Slay is a "consistent user, he gets his message out, and he also has fun with it. He doesn't just regurgitate talking points or news releases. Mostly, he uses the social media how it was intended, as interaction."

Slay says new media technologies made it possible to publish his policy positi