Endorsements Don't Matter, Unless They Come From You 7:37 PM

"My coffee cup endorses Rubio. The lint I just brushed off my suit has endorsed Rubio. 97.9% of the objects in the known universe mass endorse Rubio.”

Those statements, tweeted today by leading GOP strategist Patrick Ruffini, are just as insightful as they are humorous. The political collapse of Charlie Crist's Republican candidacy for the U.S. Senate has brought on an avalanche of endorsements over the past week for Crist's GOP rival, Marco Rubio. As each endorsement has been rolled out by Rubio's supporters, I have found myself re-declaring this statement – Endorsements don’t matter to voters anymore!

Now more than ever, the power of the press and the political establishment over public opinion is waning and the power vacuum is being filled by our social-graphs – our Facebook friends, the people we follow on Twitter and the numerous un-traditional information outlets we now turn to for news and opinion. As I have said before, our friends are killing the newspaper editors, and for that matter, the power of political endorsements.  It is more important than ever for candidates to develop meaningful relationships with influential individuals who will become their campaign's ambassadors online.    If these relationships are genuine and extend beyond asking for money, individuals will buy into campaigns and will recruit their online "friends" for your cause.  

Six months ago, I was asked to advise a candidate on how they could mount a formidable challenge to an established political titan. The opponent of the candidate I was advising had locked up all of the early establishment endorsements and money and was undoubtedly running a Traditional 3M campaign (Money ---> Momentum ---> Message).  My advice was simple, but difficult to achieve – do everything in your power to appear to be publicly shunning the political establishment. Instead of going after high-profile endorsements, ask regular Joe and Jane Shmos to look into a camera and tell the world why they “endorse” you. Make the campaign about why establishment endorsements are the problem and not the solution and communicate directly with voters via the web to earn their “endorsements” instead. Crazy? Maybe. But I still think it could have worked.

All of the endorsements in the world didn’t help Charlie Crist defeat his primary challenger. In fact, Crist’s endorsements ended up hurting him more than they helped as grassroots conservatives rose up against what they perceived as a candidate being forced down their throats by the Party establishment.

Voters are no longer making decisions primarily based on what political endorsements, press releases or advertisements tell them – they are making decisions based on the opinions of the most important people in their online and offline lives – their friends.

Cross-posted to TechRepublican.com

TIEA Passes House Unanimously 4:17 PM

Great news for those of us who have been following Florida's Technology in Elections Act - the bill passed the Florida House of Representatives today by a unanimous vote of 114-0.  Here is the full release from State Representative Eric Eisnaugle (R-FL), the bill's sponsor:

Today, Representative Eric Eisnaugle’s (R-Orlando) Technology in Elections Act (HB 869) passed the House unanimously 114-0. The legislation modernizes rules governing the use of technology in political campaigns. Current law does not contemplate the use of many new technologies or websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google by voters and campaigns. Large portions of campaign budgets are currently spent on expensive traditional media like radio and television advertisements. However, voters increasingly report a preference to learn about candidates and issues on the internet.

“It’s vital to ensure that voters and candidates can hold a dialogue on the internet on the sites voters use,” said Eisnaugle. “If we want to lower the cost of elections, we must ensure that free, public websites are available for official candidate use.”

The Technology in Elections Act provides safe harbors on disclaimer requirements for candidates using text messaging, social networking sites, downloadable applications, blogs, message board postings and text link advertisements. A fall legal challenge in a St. Petersburg mayoral race raised questions regarding the use of Google ad links and therefore other media and technologies by candidates. Representative Darryl Rouson (D–St. Petersburg) co-prime sponsored the bill.

The legislation also included language to bring transparency to opaque Electioneering Communications Organizations (ECOs). The ECO language requires timely reporting on where and how these organizations raise and expend their funds.

Create Your Own Google 'Search Story' 1:47 PM

Following Google's phenomenally successful Super Bowl ad (which has garnered 4.75 million YouTube views at the time of this blog post), Google has launched a super-cool "Create Your Own" Search Story feature on YouTube.  The easy-to-use interface allows users to create their own Google-centric "Search Story" and then upload the video to YouTube.  Here's my experiment with  the feature which I used to create my own Search Story video business card:

Create your own Search Story at http://www.youtube.com/SearchStories