Remember when the hippest way to blaze onto the campaign trail was an appearance on The Daily Show? No more.
This morning San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom announced his bid for California Governor via Twitter, instantly sending his new campaign video (embedded below) to his 270,000 followers. No doubt inspired by President Obama’s successful campaign over the last two years, Newsom is looking to social media to help connect with voters. Alongside this morning’s Tweet, Newsom also sent out a message to his 37,000 Facebook fans.
I suspect Newsom will be able to strike the same chords with an online campaign as President Obama did – he’s relatively young and a Democrat, with an online presence that’s already quite well established. Now the question is whether his opponents will be able to effectively use the same tools without ringing hollow. Among Newsom’s opponents in the race for the 2010 election is former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who only has 2,100 supporters on Facebook and a measly 850 Twitter followers.
Via Laughing Squid
Please don’t win. Please go away.
That’s just what this state needs: another Governor who doesn’t give a damn about budgets, credit lines, etc… As long as we keep floating those n-billion dollar bonds we’ll be ok!
Can we get at least one party in this state that is willing to balance the budget and eliminate debt?
I second that sentiment, as a San Francisco resident.
Doesnt this kind of ring…. gossip girl? o_o;;
He is a douche. I pray he does not win or we will be in a world of hurt here in Cali, even more so than we are now.
What about Arnold?
Whitman’s is already ringing hollow — just look at her username!
“whitman2010″
That says to me “I don’t care about this tweeter crap, but my campaign folks say I need to use it”. Hollow indeed.
Honestly I’m not even 100% that’s the official account (seems sort of low…), but it’s the only one I can find on Google.
yeah this dude is an ass. Hope he looses big time.
You are not sure that’s her account but you posted a story about she doesn’t have a lot of followers ? awesome. Great reporting there.
It’s hers according to this http://www.dail...09/04/07/23292/
Anyone living in California who sees Newsom come to ballot, vote for just about anyone else. I’ve been living in San Francisco through his entire term and he’s a meaningless empty suit with ridiculous hair. While most politicians only care about furthering their own career, he is one of the worst and he has done nothing for SF except tweak statistics to make it look like he’s been effectual. I hope he fails miserably so he just goes away.
Amen. Who wants to increase crime, homelessness and day laborers anyway?
i hope he will win
I have some people I follow on Twitter that wished him luck in the race to become governor. I have no idea why, the guy is an immoral ass who only attends self-aggrandizing events, and has done next to nothing to improve SF.
People like him because he fought for gay marriage, and apparently are willing to overlook the face that he’s done nothing else of merit (and frankly, that fact that he went against state law bothers me, even if the law is “wrong”).
Anyway, it will be interesting to see how Twitter use swings the vote. If it does have an impact, I hope it’s for the right reasons, not simply due to the fact that one candidate made better use of an online tool.
would you vote for a guy that sleeps with his best friend’s (& best man at his wedding) wife?
Apparently Gavin is speaking at Facebook today. I’m very confused as to why so many Silicon Valley people are supporting him. He’s openly criticized for his lack of leadership and political posturing.
Look at local SF press (not Tweets by young entrepreneurs who just moved to SF a few years ago) if you want to form a real opinion.
I think it’s because they’d rather have him than Meg Whitman.
He will be backed from the Democratic Party and rake in millions from them, but mostly he is running for one reason to get Same Sex Marriage legal here and Millions more will flow into his account from the Homosexual Movement….. You don’t believe me watch it happen…………….
can people please not give gavin the attention. He will put california into a bigger shithole than it is in now.
If he runs on a platform of legalizing gay marriage, he will lose. I’m guessing the issue of gay marriage won’t come up during the election much, because the majority of Californians (as shown by the recent election) oppose gay marriage.
Just an observation. I don’t know anything about this guy, or about California, other than recent election results.
Why is everyone echoing everyone else? People are wondering if Twitter will swing the vote? Hell yeah it will! Celebrities speak & all follow!!!
I’d like to see him beat a billionaire..LOL
I’m a HUGE obama supporter. However, Newsom is shady. Will NOT vote for Newsom…he seems like he’s all talk no cattle. As a Californian, we need someone other than him. I really don’t know…but yeah, he seems a bit TOO polished for my taste.
Please, please, please, pass the word to vote for whoever the other candidate is. Period.
Dude is trying to copy Obama’s swagger.
It’s hard to imagine a worse candidate than Gavin. Calling him an empty suit is being kind. What a loser.