Regarding the Mayor and challenging mayoral candidates debating online via
posting to this list (was Grow on DFL Exclusion), Eva Young says,
> The Strib is basically a one way forum (yes folks can write back in
letters
> to the editor, but there are numerous filters there). When the mayor and
> other candidates post here, they get the immediate feedback.....
snip
You are assuming they want dialogue and feedback... that's not necessarily
the case. Why would an incumbent politician even bother, given the size of
this audience? It's too time consuming, and you'd likely end up with staff
interpretations/postings related to issues/positions which may or may not be
totally consistent with the candidate's position-- potentially creating more
problems than it's worth.
> An immediate focus group of politial junkies--folks who are likely to talk
> to their friends and influence more votes than their own.
snip
'Political junkies'-- just what most people/voters citywide are not! Using
this list as a focus group poses a basic dilemma-- just what demographic/
psychographic/ behavioral groups) are represented by members, no, by active
participants of this e-list? How representative is this e-list (especially
the active participants) of the overall city population; the voter
population? What citywide groups are, or are not, represented by this
e-list (or by the 20-50 regular posters)?
In St. Paul, the incumbent Mayor isn't running for re-election. It will be
interesting to see how the online debate progresses-- it is definitely an
experimental event. It's different in Minneapolis-- the incumbent Mayor is
the DFL/Labor/... -endorsed, successful multi-term candidate running for
re-election. It is up to challengers to mount active campaigns addressing
issues and soliciting/garnering voter support. The incumbent Mayor doesn't
have to play the same game as challengers in this effort. For this reason,
I don't think a online Mayoral debate will work in Minneapolis, especially
before the primary.
Mayoral candidates have web sites with position statements and they use
email. However, I don't expect to see active online candidate dialogues
because of the time required (and remember time=money), and because such
online dialogues don't offer any appreciable upside for the effort... only
downside risk.
Michael Hohmann
13th Ward
http://www2.visi.com/mahco
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