Our friends at Red County, notably publisher Scott Graves, have this post abut a new statewide technology initiative by Republicans to use new technology and social media to sway hearts and minds.
One of those technology experts on the committee is State Rep. C huck DeVore, a candidate for the US Senate seat in 2010. In Graves’ bio of DeVore, there is this claim:
Chuck DeVore is a member of the California State Assembly and a frequent blogger and user of social media and the first candidate in America to use Twitter to raise money online.Â
An interesting claim and one not found on Chuck’s website or blog, so I’m wondering if Graves wrote it himself or got information from the DeVore campaign. But it reminds me of Chuck’s claim that he “coined” and popularized the term “Nanny State,” even though that particular term has been around since the mid-1960s.
President Barack Obama had about 127,000 people following him on Twitter with links back to www.mybarackoabama.com where followers were aprised of campaign stops, media events and … fundraising requests. Since winning the election, Obama’s Twitter account has gone dark. But there is no question this new Republican team isn’t breaking any new ground here. They are merely following the Obama model. And of course, Howards Dean is pretty much acknowledged as the first candidate to extensively use the Internet to raise money.
Twitter (you can follow the LiberalOC on Twitter or me on Twitter under my username “tecflack”) has about 3 million users;Â it’s basically a microblog that offers users the ability to send short messages (or in Graves’ case Red County spam on every story posted).
Published reports place Chuck’s Twitter fundraising efforts to date with about 100 donations of $10 to $25 each. But I’m sure the actual numbers today are slightly better than that. Conversely Senator Barbara Boxer pulled in an estimated $40K at a Hollywood fundraiser I attended in December. It was her fourth fundraiser of the day.