| The state Republican Party held a tech seminar today that was "dedicated to ensuring Republican elected officials and campaigns from around the state are educated and trained in the latest cutting-edge technologies available."
Liz has more on the story:
Some 100 Republican county chairs, operatives, and past and future candidates for elected office are gathered in Albany today to attend the state GOP's first-ever "Politics Online Seminar," an event designed to help train party members in "the latest cutting-edge" political technologies.
According to Niagara County GOP Chairman Henry Wojtaszek, who organized the seminar at state Party Chairman Joe Mondello's request, this includes tools that have come to be considered fairly standard in political circles - things like Twitter and Facebook, for example.
The fact that this is the first time the New York Republicans have ever held an event like this underscores just how far behind the eight ball they are in this realm, particularly when you consider how tech-savvy the Democrats have become.
I'm sorry, but if you consider Facebook the "latest cutting-edge political technologies" then you are definitely far behind. I have been a Facebook member since 2004. That is a full five years before the state Republican Party caught up with the rest of the world and decided that they wanted to talk about "the Google."
I can't say that the national Republicans are that far behind the Democrats, but Democrats all over the country have dominated the Internet this decade. In New York, the gap is wider. The Republicans lack a strong tech foundation. The number of pro-Republican blogs in New York is very low. That alone tells you the story of the state GOP's Internet operations.
In 2008, the blogosphere and Internet proved to be key at the state and national levels. In New York, the takeover of the New York State Senate by the Democrats was aided by a strong blogosphere and tech presence.
There is always room for improvement, however. I believe that the Democrats can widen the gap by including technology more and more. Whether that means Tweets from the Senate floor or Facebook groups for ALL Democratic senators and their respective campaigns (some of them already do this, but all of them should be), we can increase our lead on the Republicans by simply doing what we do best.
While the Republicans are still educating themselves on how to create an account on Facebook or learning what a blog is, we can better ourselves. Remember the saying "more and better Democrats?" Well, why not more and better tech savvy Democrats? It is possible and we can do it right here in New York. |
