Although the 2007 elections are barely behind us, the buzz surrounding the 2008 campaign season is already palpable.

In fact, it's been that way for a while, even prior to this year's Election Day.

A big reason 2008 seems to have generated so much interest is the battle for the presidency.

We probably have never seen such intense campaigning and media coverage of a race for president. Perhaps it's because the race features plenty of high-profile candidates. Maybe it's because the previous two presidential contests have been so close. Then there's the explosion of interactive Internet coverage, from bloggers to YouTubers to news media forums and guestbooks.

It's likely that all of these factors and more are fueling this fire.

To this point, The Citizen's content on the presidential race has been rather minimal. We've printed campaign-related stories from time to time, but Web content has been noticeably absent.

That's all changed starting this week.

At www.auburnpub.com, we've launched an Elections 2008 section that will provide fresh content on a daily basis and evolve as the months, weeks and days count down to next November.

The Elections 2008 section can be accessed via a button on our home page just below the local news section or by surfing directly to www.auburnpub.com/elections2008. It currently features a broad range of content on the presidential race. It has the basics, such as daily news stories, photos and videos. It also has candidates' profiles, blogs and interactive quizzes.

If you have any interest in this race, it's definitely a daily destination.

Where does all of the content come from? For the presidential races, it's being produced by the newspapers owned by The Citizen's parent company, Lee Enterprises. And many of the newspapers are based in the Midwest, including a bunch in Iowa - an obvious hot spot for presidential campaigning. When the campaigns swing into New York, we'll be supplying our coverage to this unique platform.

This access to on-the-ground local journalists in the places where the candidates are spending time provides a unique perspective that you won't get from the national news media covering this race. It's quite interesting, for example, to see the perspectives Iowa newspapers have on New Yorkers Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.

At this point the Elections 2008 section is focused on the presidential race, but as time goes on, we'll be populating it with local campaign content, too. With seats in Congress and the state Legislature up for grabs, it's sure to be an exciting year for politics.

Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net