3 comments

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  Riche Zamor

  1 year ago

  Social media and local politics are not as simple as you make it seem. There are large challenges to pulling this stuff off, such as:
  
  1) Most local races don't have the budget to pay someone to be an Internet Director
  
  2) The name recognition of local candidates is not as large and the level of engagement in local races is not as great
  
  3) In large cities, where you may see this type of stuff done because of the larger scale races, you tend to have lower adoption rates of new technology
  
  4) The technology to run some really effective online campaigns is not affordable
  
  Once you start getting into statewide races, such as gubernatorial races, and some large mayoral races, then maybe you can see this happening. But, I think we are a few years off from seeing this happen.
  reply
• 

  Henri

  1 year ago

  Anthony,
  
  First I would like to point that you spelled my name wrong, it's Makembe.com. Thanks for the shout out.
  
  I think you bring up some good points. But as Riche, point out most local campaigns don't have have the resources (time and money) to invest in all that. We want to outreach to people, but we don't have months to build up the audience and the awareness that do. How would address those?
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  Andrew Wright

  1 year ago

  Anthony, good post. I think that while national politics is sexy, local is where the meat is. Most of what government does that actually affects us on a daily basis is at the local or state level. I do think that technology and the Internet can help connect citizens to what's going on locally (town halls, meetings, etc.)
  
  Both Henri and Riche are correct, officials at this level don't have the resources (money, experience) to deliver such applications. A platform will need to be developed that can scale nationwide but serve each locality and be free or affordable (and easy) for local officials and citizens to utilize.
  reply