In this post I will look at the Maryland Democrat candidates running for Governor in 2014. I will examine each by looking at their technology outreach to potential voters.

The candidates: To see the list of candidates that have “Officially filed” click here

Anthony Brown: (Officially filed) – http://anthonybrown.com/ – Lists Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr social media accounts.

Douglas Gansler: (Not officially filed) – http://douggansler.com/ – Lists Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and YouTube social media accounts.

Heather Mizeur: (Officially filed) – http://www.heathermizeur.com/ – Lists Facebook, Twitter and YouTube social media accounts.

Ralph Jaffe: (Officially filed) – http://www.fedupwithcrookedpolitics.com/ – Lists YouTube social media account.

Charles Smith: (Officially filed) – Could not find the campaign website.

The Scorecard: (Click the numbers below to view the social media page)

Here are my takeaways from the scorecard above:

I was able to find a website for everyone but Charles Smith. By far the most professional websites were that of Brown, Gansler and Mizeur.

Heather Mizeur has a big advantage on Facebook “Likes” at this point.

Doug Gansler and Heather Mizeur have the advantage on Twitter followers, but don’t forget that Anthony Brown has his Lt. Governors Twitter account also.

Ralph Jaffe has some YouTube videos but does not have his own campaign channel. No one has a significant number of subscribers.

Doug Gansler is the only one listing Instagram on his website.

No candidates are listing a Google+ page yet. Hopefully they will see the error of their ways and extend outreach to that platform in the near future.

I guess if I had to pick a technology leader among the candidates I would lean towards Heather Mizeur (hard to overlook over 12,000 Facebook followers). I do believe that the Mizeur campaign should do more to extend their outreach but her overall numbers are hard to ignore at this point. Doug Gansler and his outreach on Instagram would rank second with Anthony Brown a close third. The other two candidates are doing so little from a technology prospective that I am going to choose not even to rank them at this point.

Of course the reality of followers, likes, and subscribers does not mean a lot when it comes down to voting in the end, but it is a fun exercise to do and makes a great resource for following all of these candidates.

Coming soon – The 2014 Governor Republican Candidates Scorecard

Scott E