A Review of 2006 Online Campaigns

I'm almost done with the political blogging for the week, but I had to examine how candidates online this year. Here are some examples of tight races where I took a look at their online campaigns and projected winners based on their online campaigns (web, blog, & email when relevant). In most cases, the candidate with the better site won but not all.

CA Governor:
Better online campaign - neither (both were bad)
Winner - Arnold Schwarzenegger, http://www.schwarzenegger.com/
(opposing candidate - Phil Angelides, http://www.angelides.com/)

CA Lieutenant Governor:
Better online campaign - John Garamendi, http://www.garamendi.org/
Winner - John Garamendi, http://www.garamendi.org/
(opposing candidate - Tom McClintock, http://www.tommcclintock.net/)

CA Secretary of State:
Better online campaign - Bruce McPherson, http://www.mcpherson2006.com/
Winner - Debra Bowen, http://www.debrabowen.com/

MI Governor:
Better online campaign - TIE (both were good) between Dick DeVos, http://www.devosforgovernor.com/ & Jennifer Granholm, http://www.granholmforgov.com/
Winner - Jennifer Granholm, http://www.granholmforgov.com/

MO Senator:
Better online campaign - Claire McCaskill, http://www.claireonline.com/
Winner - Claire McCaskill, http://www.claireonline.com/
(opposing candidate - Jim Talent, http://www.talentforsenate.com/)

CT Senator:
Better online campaign - Ned Lamont, http://www.nedlamont.com/
Winner - Joe Lieberman, http://www.joe2006.com/

RI Senator:
Better online campaign - Sheldon Whitehouse, http://www.whitehouseforsenate.com/ (by a hair)
Winner - Sheldon Whitehouse, http://www.whitehouseforsenate.com/
(opposing candidate - Lincoln Chafee, http://www.chafeeforsenate.com/)

Overall comments --
One thing I noticed was that in general, more Democrats' sites had blogs. Of course, most of them hadn't been updated in a few days, but at least they had them. I was amazed at how the Michigan governor's race had two sites that looked incredibly similar - but I was impressed that Granholm's site included a Farsi (I'm assuming) translation for the huge Middle Eastern population in the Detroit area, along with Spanish. And I was a bit shocked that a couple of the Republican candidates' sites were so sparse they could've been local city council web sites.