Jake Parillo has some great ideas for how a GOP candidate could use the internet and technology to better position themselves for a 2010 campaign for Governor in Illinois. Included:
7. Create and iterate. Repeat. With the freedom of this new organization and the right folks involved, this group should be empowered to think “big” and get creative. The costs are mostly in staff related expenses. Treat it like a minor start-up within the campaign. Give them the autonomy to do what they want and the results will help the overall campaign as long as the right person is running the operation and has the clearance from the top to get the most out of this setup. What kind of staff do you need? I dunno. Say: 1 on camera talent, one dynamo who can film/edit, one generalist on the web, an engineer or two, and some outreach folks.
There’s all the other pieces of the web that fit into different parts of the campaign like list building, email distribution, fundraising, text messaging, messaging overall, and volunteer development. Those are important, but that’s blocking and tackling. In 2 years everyone will be doing that stuff. The really fun part of being in a campaign would be to be the first to create this new news/reporting bureau within a campaign. Start on the ground floor. Do it right and the impact would be huge.
Of course, I'm more pessimistic than he is - I don't think any of the GOP candidates will even consider such a high level of online activity. Instead, we'll get more straw polls at the State Fair.
Let's not wait for the candidates to perform the activity .....let's just do it ourselves and let them benefit. Lead by example. Not the perfect solution but let's not let the good be the enemy of the perfect ....or however that saying goes.