Vote for Me!
According to Dee Margo’s MySpace profile, he’s married and interested in networking and making friends. He has 40 users signed up as “friends� including Jesus Christ, Admiral CrackMunky and Forever a Bad Ass. Dee is not a high school student, college student, a 20-something, 30-something or even a 40-something. He’s a 54 year old politician from El Paso running for a seat in the Texas State Senate and he’s using MySpace to reach out to a new, younger audience of voters.
Margo is not alone. More and more politicians, according to an article in USA Today, are using sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube to speak to an untapped younger audience. But when the buttoned up world of scripted speeches meets the unmonitored freedom of the Internet, the results, I’ve found, can be pretty funny.
Len Munsil, a Republican running for Governor in Arizona, has eight children, five of them teenagers, according to his site. I’m guessing that they helped him create his elaborate MySpace profile page, blog, etc. complete with numerous videos from YouTube. But, what I love most is messages left for him like these:
“Ya, go republicans, go Len. Can I call you Lenny?�
“Good luck, Lenster. Be gentle on J-Nap when she strolls into the unemployment office.�
(Joelle Note: The Lenster’s Democratic opponent is Janet Napolitano)
At this point, I would hope, all politicians have websites and recognize the power of the Internet in terms of getting their message out, collecting donations and promoting their causes. Creating a profile on MySpace, and other social networking sites, seems to be the next step. In general, I think it’s a great idea. But I do think these politicians need to do more than just transfer their campaign literature photos and scripts to these sites. I think some modifications are in order — maybe a photo of Dee in jeans with country singer Kenny Chesney instead of his suit and tie? Perhaps, they can try injecting a little light-hearted humor or something like a Top Ten List of reasons to vote to for him. After all if you’re going after a new audience, you shouldn’t be using the same old message.
October 30th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Joelle, I think you’re being too nice! These sites — like many on MySpace are awful! I agree they’re funny, but I don’t think they do much to elevate the image or credibility of the candidates. But maybe that’s now what it’s about… I guess the candidates feel that they are speaking to a younger constituency in their own language. Hope I’m not showing my age
November 3rd, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Ok, you’re right. They are pathetic. But funny too. I love how even a politician has to fill in his relationship status and sexual orientation. I do think, however, that they COULD appeal to a younger audience if they tried a more appropriate approach on these sites. Simply taking your current campaign message and literature and putting it on a MySpace profile is definitely not going to cut it.