Online, Colorado lawmakers ask, 'will you be my friend?'

Face The State Staff Report

President-elect Barack Obama’s new media campaign revolutionized the use of the Web as a political tool, and now local lawmakers are following suit as a growing number create accounts with social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Carroll's Facebook page

Obama used such mediums during his campaign to access a new generation of voters who helped raise a staggering $750 million, and social networking sites, which usually charge no membership fee, typically focus on young people because they are tech-savvy. Sean Duffy, a lobbyist with the Denver Kenney Group, is convinced that Republicans will continue to lose elections unless they can master such sites and compete with Democrats for the youth vote. “Republicans have got to really focus on people under 30,” he said. “I don’t want to hear any political advice from people over 30.”

State Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, slated to be the next Speaker of the House in January, is among the Colorado lawmakers who have hopped on the social networking bandwagon. The Denver Democrat not only has a personal Facebook account, but he has also created a “politician page.” Facebook members can become online supporters or fans of the thousands of politicians, musicians, non-profits, sports teams and TV shows that are promoted on the site. Carroll’s politician page boasts 204 supporters, and he is currently running ads on Facebook aimed at increasing his following.

Carroll did not return Face The State’s request for an interview concerning the cost of such advertisements, but he does have more supporters than fellow state lawmakers who are also on the site. Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, for example, has 67 supporters, Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, has 44 supporters and Senator-elect Evie Hudak, D-Arvada, has only 28 supporters.

Not surprisingly, the higher the political office the more Facebook supporters a politician attracts. For example, U.S. Senator-elect Mark Udall, a Democrat, has 2,524 supporters on Facebook. Republican Bob Schaffer, Udall’s unsuccessful opponent, has 579 supporters. Comparatively, Obama has over 3 million supporters, while Republican John McCain trailed with about 600,000 supporters.

State Rep. Frank McNulty, a Republican from Highlands Ranch, took the lessons of the last election to heart, where Republicans experienced resounding losses at the state and national levels. He joined Facebook on Nov. 30. “We need to take advantage of every opportunity we have to communicate with friends, neighbors and constituents,” he said.

While Obama had Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on his payroll, most state lawmakers manage their own social networking accounts. As a result, McNulty and fellow Republicans are not gunning for the online success enjoyed by the President-elect but have adopted more modest goals. For his part, McNulty sees social networking as a communication tool that can be used during campaigns and the legislative session. He is especially excited about Twitter, the social messaging site that allows users to send and receive status updates among members. “There is a real opportunity here to expose and forward on, in a very quick manner, the type of policies that are being talked about down at the capitol,” he said.

Duffy said he is also in the process of figuring out how best to leverage Facebook and Twitter. “My sense is, it seems like you get out about as much as you put in,” he said. “I think people ought to use it as aggressively as they can.”