Redstate

By NightTwister Posted in State Politics — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

United States Senate candidates Bob Schaffer(R) and Bob Udall(D) have begun their advertising campaigns this past week. Bob Schaffer's television commercial started with a thud. The Denver Post reports on the commercial. In the advertisement there is a picture of a mountain in the background.

The image was supposed to be Pike's Peak (bottom), but instead they had an image of Mount McKinley (top). The ad was pulled quickly, but several media outlets have already picked up on the gaff, giving negative coverage to Schaffer's campaign.

The lack of technological prowess on the GOP side in Colorado is unfortunate. As more and more people turn to new media to obtain information about current events, it becomes increasingly important to lead in this space. I've been frustrated for some time at the lack of information available at Bob Schaffer's campaign website. By comparison, Mark Udall's campaign website is light years ahead. I've already seen bumber stickers for Udall around town, yet as far as I can tell, you cannot even obtain items for Bob Schaffer. This puts his campaign at a significant disadvantage.

Political campaigns are a battle in the realm of ideas. It is therefore, extremely important that those ideas are distributed in as many ways as possible. Liberal politicians continue to offer more and more government programs and services to people. To combat it, conservatives need to communicate not only that government handouts are bad for people, they need to communicate why.

Visually pleasing presentations are important to capture the attention of the reader. Bob Bacon(D) is the State Senator for the 14th district in Colorado. His re-election website is a good, functional webste. Information is easy to obtain, and follows logically. Matt Fries in the Republican candidate, but unfortunately his campaign website has significant problems. The picture at the top does not display, and there is only a single page with limited information. State House District 53 Republican candidate Donna Gallup's website has more information, but the primary contact information for her is via traditional mail.

I've tried to contact many of these campaigns and offer new media resources (blogging, interviews, etc.), but have not received a response. For Bob Schaffer's campaign I've written a couple of articles, but like the information above it's obtained through traditional sources. I've so far been unable to obtain any information about these other local candidates.

So long as the Republican candidates in Colorado are behind the technological curve, they will continue to struggle to get their message out. As more and more Democratic candidates win contests in Colorado, this becomes increasingly important. We simply must win the war of ideas, or we will lose the ability to govern.

Night Twister
Fort Collins, CO