This is my first evaluation of any of the congressional races, so I choose to pick one that include Howard County (or at least parts of this county). There are five candidates in this race (two Democrats and three Republicans). Congressman Sarbanes is running for his fifth term in office.

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

Democrat

Matthew Molyett – www.everyoneforcongress.us/‎ – Lists Facebook and Twitter

John Sarbanes (U.S. Congressman) – http://www.johnsarbanes.com/home – Lists Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Flickr

Republican

Thomas “Pinkston” Harris – No website or social media found

Michael Jackson – http://jackson4congress.tripod.com/ – No social media listed on website

Charles Long – No website or social media found

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

3/11/13	Website	Facebook	Twitter	YouTube / Vimeo	LinkedIn	Flickr
Matthew Molyett	Yes	60	18
John Sarbanes	Yes	4883	1504	Yes	Yes	Yes
Thomas Harris	No
Micheal Jackson	Yes
Charles Long	No

Here are my takeaways from the scorecard above:

This might be the easiest scorecard I ever evaluate. There is really only one candidate (actually sitting U.S. Congressman) doing much with social media outreach. If this is how this race continues, Congressman Sarbanes will win as easily as he has in the previous four elections.

Molyett is trying with Facebook and Twitter outreach. He has a BIG hill to climb to gain any type of momentum in this race. June is coming quick and a real push will be needed to make significant progress.

All of the Republican candidates are really not out there at all. The one with a website (and not a very good website at that) is not doing anything else for outreach that I could find.

Not much more to add to this race. The numbers really speak for themselves.

 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/

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.

Scott E