How can local candidates engage the busy, low information voter ?

Mike Kondratick (D), Candidate for VA state delegate, discusses the use the technology in his 2011 campaign. His hurdle: reaching the busy, low information voter. Read about his experience.

Powering The Online Activist Pipeline….with online advertising

In my first of many blog posts here (some of which will be more technical than others), I want to talk at a high level about the opportunity that online advertising presents for driving activist engagement in 2012. The numbers are straightforward. As of June 2011, there are roughly 160 million adults online, and in [...]

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Following the 2010 elections I attended a post-election presentation at Google’s D.C. office where some very smart internet strategists touched upon the future of online political advertising. Many saw the upcoming 2012 as the tipping point in online advertising. However, so far campaigns have been very reluctant to spend even a small fraction of their advertising budgets online and have relied instead on television and radio. I could go on about the challenge that web consultants face when it comes to getting buy-in for online advertising but I wanted to focus on one recent example of how not to run an ad campaign if you’re lucky enough to get buy-in. This may even be an example of why candidates don’t trust web consultants with larger online ad budgets.

Thank You….

On November 3, 2010, the day after election day, I received an email from Doug Gansler with “Thank you” in the subject line. Doug Gansler is the Maryland Attorney General. I got excited because I’d never received an email from Doug Gansler or his campaign before. After reading the email I learned that this was because it was the first one that he or his campaign had sent out in 12 years of campaigning for elected public office.

Politechal advice

As I mentioned in my last few posts, I recently wrapped up working on a statewide election in Maryland. I’ve since stepped away as New Media Director for the Maryland Democratic Party in order to gain a different perspective on how best to use the interwebs in political campaigns. I also plan on dedicating a bit more time to this blog.

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