Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (Photo c/o The Plain Dealer.)
Today, I got e-mails from both Democratic U.S. Senate candidates in Ohio. Both e-mails suggested that improvement could be had in their attempts at online communications.
Lee Fisher, Ohio’s lieutenant governor, had the winner, though, for most awkward over-sell. The opening from today’s e-mail:
Today I’m proud to announce the launch of our new website, FisherforOhio.com. It’s a state-of-the-art resource for our campaign, and I hope you’ll check it out.
I’m reminded of one Claudia Jean Cregg, asking sarcastically if the president’s one news event would be “broadcast in living color.” I realize that it wasn’t a targeted e-mail, and it went to everyone on their e-mail list. If someone is on a Senate candidate’s e-mail list more than nine months from the primary election, though, then I’d imagine that the concept of a Web site with multiple pages and the occasional video isn’t exactly viewed as “state-of-the-art.”
Check the site out for yourself. There’s not that much there that I would consider “state-of-the-art” — even if I thought that term was even appropriate in describing a rather ordinary campaign Web site.
Then there’s Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s campaign press secretary, Pia Brady, who sent out a news release this morning. This was more targeted, obviously, and, thus, a better vehicle for advancing specific information. The choice of headline was not exactly the sort of message I think one would want to be sending, but it seems the Brunner camp is still in the position (or, at least, believes it is) of convincing folks that this is an actual primary that could go either way. The headline: “U.S. Senate Contender, Jennifer Brunner.”
Well, knock me over with a feather. In any event, that’s not my problem. The point of the release is:
Public Policy Polling evaluated data from 16 recent polls in gubernatorial and senatorial races and found the largest general election lead belonged to Brunner. She enjoyed a 40-32 advantage over Portman, and her Democratic rival, Lee Fisher, has just a one-point lead. Among independents, Brunner led Portman 35 percent to 26 percent.
Despite that — and despite the fact that the e-release later provides links to the National Organization for Women’s PAC endorsement page and to www.jenniferbrunner.com — the release provides no link either to a Public Policy Polling or even to a Brunner site page for more complete information about the poll. It does provide a contact number and e-mail, but if they’ve shown that they have the capability and know-how to sent out links with their e-mail news releases, it seems that the key point of the release should be one of the items on which you provide additional, confirming information.
So, it’s good to see both campaigns attempting to engage more on the Internets. (Both have Twitter acounts, although @JenniferBrunner is more of the actual candidate noting what’s happening, whereas @FisherforOhio appears to, for the most part, be a place to further note endorsements and fund-raising success.) As I noticed in a completely different situation yesterday, though, nonprofits and campaigns are eager to jump on to every tech bandwagon to show how “hip” they are — but understanding how the people who use those items view their effective use is the key to engaging well on the Internet.
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Chris Geidner is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who writes at Law Dork, is the senior political writer at Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications. An extended biography can be found