In what I am calling the “Battle Royale” of races, I will look at the technology outreach of the various candidates running for Delegate in District 12. It is only fitting that we have 12 candidates currently filed to run in this district, 10 Democrats and 2 Republicans. I think this will be my most entertaining race that I will follow.

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

Democrat

Bailey, Brian S. – http://www.baileyfordelegate.com/ – Lists Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Cohen, Jay Fred – Unable to find website or any technology outreach

Dongarra, Rebecca P. – http://www.peopleforrebecca.com/ – Lists Facebook

Ebersole, Eric – http://www.ericebersole.org/ – Lists Facebook and Twitter

Gisriel, Michael – http://gisrielfordelegate.com/ – Lists Blog site. I was able to find a twitter account, but it is not listed on the campaign website.

Hill, Terri –http://www.friendsofterrihill.org/ – Lists Facebook and Twitter

Lam, Clarence K. – http://www.clarencelam.com/ – Lists Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Also lists YouTube but the link does not work today.

McGuirk-Spence, Renee – http://reneemcguirkspence2014.com/ – No other technology outreach listed.

Sachs, Adam – http://sachsfordelegate.org/ – Lists Facebook and YouTube

Stewart, Nick – http://www.nickfordelegate.com/home.php – Lists Facebook

Republican

Bull, Gordon – http://gordonbull.com/ – Lists Facebook

Hooe, Joseph D.”Joe” – http://www.joehooe.org/ – found old Facebook and Twitter accounts but not 100% sure they are still in use.

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

2/22/14	Website	Facebook	Twitter	YouTube	LinkedIn
Brian S. Bailey	Yes	953	242	Yes	–
Jay Fred Cohen	No	–	–	–	–
Rebecca P. Dongarra	Yes	512	–	–	–
Eric Ebersole	Yes	398	33	–	–
Michael Gisriel	Yes	–	8	–	–
Terri Hill	Yes	522	14	–	–
Clarence K. Lam	Yes	491	315	?	Yes
Renee McGuirk-Spence	Yes	–	–	–	–
Adam Sachs	Yes	1	–	Yes	–
Nick Stewart	Yes	466	–	–	–
Gordon Bull	Yes	228	–	–	–
Joseph D. “Joe” Hooe	Yes	119	56	–	–

Here are my takeaways from the scorecard above:

Bailey holds a significant lead in Facebook followers over all of the other candidates.

Lam holds a slight lead on Twitter over Bailey, but they are both significantly ahead of the rest of the field today.

It is great to see active YouTube pages from Bailey and Sachs. I do wish Sachs had a better way of advertising his page on his website. Hopefully Lam will get his link working soon.

Lam is the only candidate listing LinkedIn on his website. I think this is a wonderful thing for candidates to do. It gives potential voters and donors additional insights into to the background of candidates in races.

Gisriel should list his Twitter account on his website.

I like the fact the Gisriel is using a blog (WordPress) site to communicate. This is a great way to get out lengthy messages not really suitable for social media. More regular updates would help attract more followers to the blog.

No website or outreach from Cohen yet but I am giving him a pass at the moment. Cohen just filed in January and maybe their team has not had time to get everything setup yet.

I hope I didn’t miss anything. If I did, please reach out to me and I will be happy to correct any mistakes I have made in this post.

As far as a technology outreach leader right now, I would have to lean towards Bailey. Lam is a very close second with everyone else trailing right now. There is plenty of time for all of the candidates to make improvements and obtain more followers on social media.

 HoCoBlogs has a great resource for local candidates. I would say it is a must read for everyone running locally: http://hocoblogs.wordpress.com/for-elected-officials/

As far as me, I think this is another good resource for candidates in this race: Social Media Mistakes By Political Candidates – Part 3 – Linking Facebook to Twitter

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.

I hope this is useful and look for updates to the scorecard every month until the election.

Scott E

#HoCoPolitics