There’s growing evidence that now that Republicans are the party out of power, they’re finally closing the gap between Republicans and Democrats, when it comes to new technology. Long plagued by the question, “When will the GOP catch up online,” necessity has now bred tech-savvy.
The $1.3-million online fundraising day for Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts was just the most recent indicator, causing even Daily Kos proprietor Markos Moulitsas Zuniga to say:
Twitter, a micro-blogging tool and social network, was created in 2006, but rose to prominence in 2008 and became ubiquitous in 2009. Contra conventional wisdom, it is the GOP that’s learning to use it fastest, according to a new study:
The specifics reveal that the GOP lead— in number of followers, volume, and influence— is wide, especially in the House of Representatives:
* GOP House members were the most active tweeters, having sent out some 29,162 tweets by Jan. 3, 2010, to the Democrats’ 5,503. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, was the volume leader with 2,632. The nearest Democrat was Maine’s Chellie Pingree with 492.
The gap between the most-followed Republican and the most-followed Democrat is telling:
* Kucinich was the only House Democrat to rank in the House top 10 in terms of followers (he’s 8th). Only two House Democrats — Kucinich and Ohio’s Marcia Fudge — ranked in the top 10 in terms of their clout.
The Senate numbers are a bit closer, which makes sense. The Senate GOP trailed the House GOP in adopting this new tool. It was way back in August 2008 that Rep. John Culberson inspired a Twitter movement (#dontgo) by tweeting live video from the House after Nancy Pelosi and Democrats voted to adjourn before dealing with energy issues, to the GOP’s dismay:
* Otherwise, the Senate tweeter race was neck-and-neck. Democrats had six of the top 10 members with the most followers, while the GOP had six of the top 10 members with the most clout.
* The leading Senate Democratic tweeter was Missouri’s Claire McCaskill, who had 34,989 followers and trailed only DeMint in clout. She also led by number of tweets (1,321). McCain was second with 882.
A Twitter account alone does not an election win, of course, but the GOP’s mastery of Twitter is an indicator that it’s figuring out how to meld its traditional tactics with new ones to create the kind of bold, comprehensive strategies, as Obama might say, that it needs to win.
