Sprinkled in his Twitter feed of #hcr, #tcot and #teaparty hash tags and re-tweets of the GOP leadership and conservative publications, Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., tweets “#lost.”
Since politicos have started using Twitter, they’ve used it to seem more like average Joes, and it seems Roskam does this by tweeting about his favorite TV show.
“Don’t give up on Sayid. #lost,” Roskam tweeted last month.
It’s not wonky and it’s not partisan, but Roskam’s new media director, Gerrit Lansing, encourages the lawmaker to loosen up on Twitter and talk about the ABC hit show that he “got hooked” on.
“I’m sort of new to tweeting this year, and I had been a little reluctant to be overly personal on it because my sense is that you don’t want to be the guy who’s saying, ‘I’m eating pizza right now and I like pepperoni,’ ” Roskam told Yeas & Nays. “You know what I mean? Who cares? But it did seem that there was a little ‘Lost’ subculture that we could reach out to.”
Roskam’s love for the show seems genuine. When he’s working late and misses an episode, he watches “Lost” online. He said he’s even toying with the idea of throwing a party for his staff for the season finale and end of the series.
David All, founder of the Capitol Hill Tweet Watch Report, a daily e-mail that aggregates top political tweets, said he sees this trend to get personal on Twitter as an effective way to stand out in a political Twitterverse dominated by mystery tweeters (aka press secretaries).
“The fact that he’s tweeting about a popular TV show … allows the public to see another side of him, other than just what he’s doing inside the … Capitol,” All said.
“It’s also a cue to folks … who pay attention to these folks, that they are actually using the medium directly, which also raises them up a notch [and] means we’re more likely to follow what they are saying,” All continued.
And since Roskam has sent out those few lines, he’s gotten good feedback.
“They’ve been the typical kinds of things from people who were kind of surprised that I watch ‘Lost’ and maybe began to look at me a little differently or more favorably from their point of view, like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’ ” Roskam said.
All lauded Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, for using his candid tweets to show that “he’s just like one of us,” and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who has cleaned up her image with some friendly tweets, for using the medium to listen to her constituents.
Who does he think could loosen up a bit?
“[House] Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. His tweets are very partisan,” All said. “If he lightened up his tweets a bit, it might make him a bit more personable.”
