Media, Politics, Technology, Website review

May 17, 2006

We’ve been working on a study testing how effectively this year’s Senate candidates are using the Internet for their campaign websites. The study won’t be released for a few days, but so far we have been able to identify some of the best campaign websites out there. These websites stand out because they successfully present seemingly complicated web tools in a clear and user-friendly fashion, allowing every-day voters to get involved, while simultaneously adding personality and down-to-earth qualities to the candidate’s platforms. Here are some of our favorites:

By far the best campaign website was used by Hillary Clinton (D-NY). Her website offers more web tools than any other senatorial campaign websites, and was very easy to navigate. Her website has the most extensive action center of all the candidates, providing tools to create individual fundraising campaigns, track team progress, and to host house parties. She also offers an extensive download gallery, information to buy Hillary gear, and a full Spanish version of her website. While her site lacks some personal touches such as a blog or podcasts, the technical and team-oriented aspects of her website provide a great example for other candidates.

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) also offered an effective website that used a unique feature: text message updates for Bingaman news. Senator Bingaman was the only candidate to use this service, so he gets some creativity points there.

Jim Webb‘s (D-VA) was one of the only websites to offer fundraising campaigns. He also as an up-to-date blog with RSS and a catchy slogan–”Born Fighting!”

Barbara Ann Radnofsky (D-TX) has another great website. Complete with podcasts, near-daily blog entries, a large gallery of downloads, as well as an online store and variety of video files, Barabara definitely had one of the best websites.

Finally, Senator George Allen (R-VA) gets points for his “Special Teams” feature, where he uses an analogy with a football team to grab the attention of voters.

While Olympia Snowe’s (R-ME) website did not involve a lot of technology, its creative layout, user-friendly qualities, and inclusion of photos throughout the website’s pages gave her campaign site a “down home” kind of feeling.

http://www.radnofsky.com Katie Floyd

From: Barbara Ann Radnofsky
Re your most favorable review of my website:

Thank you!

I’m a democrat, and proudly so. I won 60 percent of the vote in my runoff to secure the nomination as the first Texas democratic woman elected as a Senate nominee. I’m the Barbara Ann Radnofsky who called on Kay Bailey Hutchison to “renounce perjury or resign”, identying my opponent as the recipient of 1.7 million of big oil campaign cash, with no solution for gas prices and our energy crisis. I’ve opposed wasteful spending of our taxpayer dollars, and called for significant health care reform. I’m a wife, mother, teacher, mediator, lawyer and appreciated the great review of the blog “rad-note-skys” and the website http://www.radnofsky.com.

Thanks,
BAR
Barbara Ann Radnofsky
US Senate Committee, Inc
P. O. Box 550377
Houston TX 77255-0377
http://www.radnofsky.com
http://www.radnofsky.com Katie Floyd

From: Barbara Ann Radnofsky
Re your most favorable review of my website:

Thank you!

I’m a democrat, and proudly so. I won 60 percent of the vote in my runoff to secure the nomination as the first Texas democratic woman elected as a Senate nominee. I’m the Barbara Ann Radnofsky who called on Kay Bailey Hutchison to “renounce perjury or resign”, identying my opponent as the recipient of 1.7 million of big oil campaign cash, with no solution for gas prices and our energy crisis. I’ve opposed wasteful spending of our taxpayer dollars, and called for significant health care reform. I’m a wife, mother, teacher, mediator, lawyer and appreciated the great review of the blog “rad-note-skys” and the website http://www.radnofsky.com.

Thanks,
BAR
Barbara Ann Radnofsky
US Senate Committee, Inc
P. O. Box 550377
Houston TX 77255-0377
http://www.radnofsky.com
http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

Was looking through a draft of the study and the Santorum site (http://www.ricksantorum.com) is really feature rich (blog, store, etc.). It has tons of info. But man that design is not my cut of tea. Dislike the colors and the site nav is “below the fold” – you have to scroll down to get to most of the content.
http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

Was looking through a draft of the study and the Santorum site (http://www.ricksantorum.com) is really feature rich (blog, store, etc.). It has tons of info. But man that design is not my cut of tea. Dislike the colors and the site nav is “below the fold” – you have to scroll down to get to most of the content.
Henry

The Hillary Clinton for Senate site looks a lot like the 2004 Kerry for President site. It is very nice though. Nice post.
http://None Henry

The Hillary Clinton for Senate site looks a lot like the 2004 Kerry for President site. It is very nice though. Nice post.
http://www.bivingsreport.com/2006/campaign-study-on-pbs-mediashift/ Campaign Study on PBS MediaShift » The Bivings Report

[...] Best 2006 Campaign Websites [...]
http://latetotheparty.wordpress.com/2006/08/07/best-2006-senate-campaign-websites/ latetotheparty

[...] Mildly interesting assessment of the use of websites in politics in The Bivings Report. They also rated these as the best sites of 2006 Senate candidates: [...]

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We are pleased to announce the launch of the Brick Factory, a Washington, DC-based digital agency founded by former employees of The Bivings Group. You can read the details of the transition here.

As a result of the change, The Bivings Report will no longer be updated, although we intend to keep it up for archival purposes. You can read the Brick Factory's new blog here.

Best 2006 Senate Campaign Websites

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