Report Card for Local Cyber-Campaign Activities

Websites, blogs, and podcasts are quickly becoming more prevalent in political campaigns. It use to be that if you put your picture and name on a website with a phone number and how to donate you were doing pretty good.

Voters demand more these days. They are proactive in seeking out what a candidate is about and want to interact with the campaign through the internet. There are 4 parts to a political campaign site. They are presentation, platform, communication, and interactivity.

Presentation: a political website/ blog shouldn't look like it was done by a person starting to learn HTML. It needs to be organized and load quickly. First impressions are everything.

Platform: This rule is simple. If a viewer can't find your platform in the first 5 seconds you have failed. Make it quick and easy to find and read. The platform should be found in a bulleted format somewhere on a website.

Communication: How you say things is just as important as what you say. People also want the latest information from a campaign. They want to read, see and hear everything that's happening. Static content doesn't do it.

Interactivity: This is a new portion. Voters want the ability to communicate directly with the candidate and their campaign. Blogs, forums, and podcasts are the latest tools being used.

I've looked at the web presence of local candidates and this is what I found.

3rd Congressional District
Mark Souder (GOP) Reviewed 2/21/06. Site is minimalistic. No interactivity. Grade D

Bill Larson (GOP) Blog Reviewed 2/23/06 .It covers his issue really well (Social Security). Site is static with no campaign info, communications, and site name not easily identifiable with campaign. Blog is good though. Needs to link blog with site. Grade D

Tom Hayhurst (DEM) Reviewed 2/21/06. Presentation and Communication is strong. Platform not bulleted. Grade B

Kevin Boyd (DEM) Reviewed 2/21/06. Presentation is amateurish. Ideas communicated well but site hasn't been updated since November. Grade C

6th Congressional District
Mike Pence (GOP) Official Blog Reviewed 2/21/06. Presentation, Communication, and platform are strong. Links page missing content. Blog consists basically of press releases. Could be done by staffer. Grade B+

Barry Welsh (DEM) Reviewed 2/21/06. Blog Embedded in site. Well rounded site with strong presentation, communication, platform, and interactivity. Has content that is more suited for an activist or Official party site. I will give a special focus on that late Tuesday. Grade A

Indiana Senate District 19
David Ford (GOP) Blog Reviewed 2/21/06.Strong communication, platform, interactivity, and presentation. Only drawback is the infrequency of his blogging. Grade A

Indiana House District 52
Marlin Stutzman (GOP) Reviewed 2/28/06. The presentation was strong and platform was easily found. Communication could be better as his Events link has not been updated since 2004. People could sign up for a newsletter giving a little bit of interactivity with the campaign. Grade B

Allen County Sheriff
Mike Foster (GOP) Reviewed 2/21/06. Presentation could be stronger. Clean communications, and platform. No interactivity. Grade C+

Mike Keesler (GOP) Reviewed 2/21/06. Strong Presentation, platform, and communications. This was the only blog I looked at that had multilingual capabilities. Mike gets bonus points for that. No interactivity. Grade B+

Tina Taviano (DEM) Reviewed 2/22/06. Site is well organized, platform is readily available, and it is easy to read. I liked the common questions section. Only negative I can see is the register to vote and absentee ballot sections don't have content yet. Grade A

Ken Fries (GOP) Reviewed 4/12/06. Presentation, communication, strong. Platform is detailed nicely but links to specific topics are easily overlooked by the intro to the initiatives. This is easily fixed by a placing a summary with initiative items bulleted at top of intro to initiative page. No Interactivity. Grade B

County Auditor
Lisa Blosser (GOP) Reviewed 2/22/06. UPDATE: WEBSITE IS NOW OFF-LINE.
Website is static. Needs Platform presented, communications about what is happening with her campaign, Presentation is moderately to simple. No interactivity. Grade C

County Commissioner
Marla Irving (GOP) Reviewed 3/27/06. Presentation, communication, strong. Platform bulleted. No Interactivity. Grade A

Bill Brown (GOP) Reviewed 2/21/06. Presentation, communications are weak. Platform not found. No interactivity. Biggest mistake though is the domain name. Voters need to be able to associate the URL to the candidate. This didn't happen Grade D-

This website has been down since the last week of March. There is no purpose to have a website for a campaign if it isn't up during the month prior to the primary. RE-EVALUATED 4/12/06 Grade F

County Council District 4
Fred Warner (GOP) Reviewed 3/26/06. Communication was strong. Platform bulleted. There were presentation issues. Parts of its design are squished together or crowded. This is probably due to the transition from being published on a Mac and viewed on a PC. Not that there is an issue with Macs but a designer should check to see how their design works with the browser for used by most of their viewers whether it be Mac or PC. Grade C+

Presentation issues have been corrected. RE-EVALUATED 4/12/06 Grade B+

County Recorder
John McGauley (GOP) Reviewed 2/21/06. Presentation, communication, strong. Platform not bulleted. No Interactivity. Grade B

EACS Board
Marvin Hoot (nonpartisan) Reviewed 3/21/06. Has no independent website but is using ablog as websiteIts a novel approach for a low level campaign to have a web presence. Presentation and communication are clear. Platform isn't bulleted but can be found by reading his articles. Interactivity is strong as he posts often and responds to comments. Grade B

If I missed anybody I apologize. Please comment with your url and I will address your site.