Government Technology - August 2008 - (Page 19)

treat the Web as an afterthought, or worse, they don’t think of it at all. On the flip side, there are candidates of all ages from all walks of life running for office who use Web 2.0 as a tool to connect with voters and win. From city council races in Roanoke, Va., and Fresno, Calif., to campaigns for the Idaho Senate and the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota, Web 2.0 is changing the local election process from top to bottom. Fresno City Council Michael Karbassi is making headlines in the local paper. The attention he’s received doesn’t only stem from the fact he’s running for a city council seat; what interests people is that he’s 24 years old. With a population On the other side of the country, Roanoke, of nearly 500,000, Fresno is the sixth-largest Va., residents just elected Court Rosen as city in California, meaning a win for Karbassi first-term city councilman. Rosen bested would be an impressive achievement for the incumbent Brian Wishneff in a race rife precocious, first-time politician. with controversy. A day after Rosen won by Part of Karbassi’s campaign a narrow margin, The Roanoke strategy is to lean on his appeal Times revealed that Wishneff to voters both young and old. may have violated state elecPart of doing that is taking tion laws by using a false name advantage of what the Web has to purchase advertisements to offer, Karbassi said. attacking Rosen. “They say younger people, But before the results — and like myself, use Facebook and the scandal — became public, MySpace. That’s all well and Rosen spoke about the role the good, but a lot of people, even Web played in his campaign. the older generation, know how “I’ve got a list of about 700 to use the Internet a lot more. people, which is not a lot,” he Michael Karbassi’s Young professionals are a big campaign for Fresno said. “But in the scheme of voting bloc as well,” Karbassi (Calif.) City Council came things, when you e-mail somesaid. “You can only knock on so up short, proving that body and they forward the many doors. The Web offers you even Web 2.0 doesn’t e-mail on, or they start talking a semi-personal way to com- make politics a sure thing. to folks, it starts multiplying. municate with a candidate and I’ve been using e-mail to direct ask questions, and there are some important people to YouTube, where I’ve put all my questions out there.” campaign commercials for people to see. So Karbassi’s competitor, 34-year-old Andreas while they may not see them on TV, everyBorgeas, is also young by political standards. one by and large these days has access to Neither candidate’s site is as refined as a the Internet either at work or at home. By national candidate’s, but both use video where directing people to YouTube and asking and when they can. them to forward it on, there’s no telling how Besides clips from the local news, Karbas- many folks have seen the ad.” si’s site is home to his personal blog. While Rosen’s Web page is modest; in fact, it’s blogs certainly aren’t new, his opponent just a blog on the BlogSpot network. Rosen doesn’t have one, which could give Karbassi shared his views and opinions on his blog an upper hand in reaching voters. and included a link to his Facebook site. “I think the ultimate question is: What differentiates the two candidates?” Karbassi said. “It’s about issues and who the people are. The Web offers that opportunity because it gets the bio out and we get our issues out there. There’s an issues page; people can see where we stand. I know that on my page I actually have my stance on issues. The other candidate does not have a specific stance on issues. I have a blog; the other candidate does not. I do donations, the other person doesn’t. Everyone has their own style. I just feel like the Web is a very important tool for getting information out to people.” Roanoke City Council Court Rosen, a candidate for Roanoke (Va.) City Council, built his site entirely in blog form. Though not ﬂashy, blogs can be informative and are often free to create. Rosen readily admitted he wasn’t well known in the community when he decided to run for city council. That reality motivated him to enlarge his online network of associates by expanding his presence on Facebook. “The Facebook page has been very useful,” Rosen said. “There is a network, and so joining the network opens up my Facebook page to hundreds of people who then share it. These folks are sharing it with their friends.” But it isn’t all sunshine and puppy dogs for Rosen. He believes older voters aren’t going to connect to his campaign through the Web, hence the blog-based home page. He also said tech-savvy younger voters found him through Facebook, so he didn’t need to invest donated funds into a high-end Web site. “A lot of the older Court Rosen’s folks — the middle-aged successful run for to more elderly — aren’t Roanoke City Council going to by and large go incorporated a Facebook to my Web site anyway,” page and blogging. he said. “So I just didn’t think that there was a huge need for one, given that the people who would get online and visit are as likely to go to my Facebook page or my blog.” 19 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - August 2008

Government Technology - August 2008 Contents Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions for... Net Gains A Government Technology® Industry Profile: CA CA Contents IT Network Management: State and Local Governments Face New Challenges MyFloridaNet Arkansas Department of Information Systems Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Government Tightens Its Belt Rocking the Vote High-Speed Portal Project On Track Wi-Fi on a Shoestring From Paintball to Video Virtually Vulnerable How It Works Products signal:noise

Government Technology - August 2008

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