Barrett's Web site lacks information

MADISON (AP) - Tom Barrett's campaign Web site really stands out.

For what it lacks.

Two months after the Democratic Milwaukee mayor joined the governor's race, after weeks of pressure from the White House and others in the party, Barrett's campaign Web site remains bare bones.

The pedestrian site includes only a picture of Barrett and links to sign up for updates, to volunteer and, of course, to donate money.

Contrast that with the two most prominent Republican candidates, and even a dark horse newcomer, all of whom have flashy sites complete with biographies, videos, position papers and other bells and whistles.

Republicans Scott Walker , the Milwaukee County executive, and Mark Neumann , a former congressman, are also far more prolific on other social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

Even Mark Todd , a newcomer to statewide politics running as a Republican from Appleton, has a Web site that has his biography, outlines his positions, and tells followers where he'll be next.

Visitors to Barrett's Web site, barrettforwisconsin.com, won't find any information about campaign stops or his positions on issues. Barrett was the last of the three major candidates to get into the race. He announced in November while Walker's site has been up since April and Neumann's went live the day he announced, July 1.

Barrett campaign spokesman Phil Walzak said a new and improved Web site should launch within a couple weeks. The campaign also expects to have a person on staff any day to work on new media outreach.

"We certainly will be investing quite a bit in online presence within the next couple weeks," Walzak said. "We fully expect to be able to engage voters online."

Political campaigns and partisan operatives know that courting voters and donors through social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook are imperative in modern campaigning. President Barack Obama famously used social media to his advantage in the 2008 campaign and the state Republican and Democratic parties have worked to cultivate their online presence.

For Barrett to have a Web site so bereft of information two months into the campaign suggests that he "is in the Dark Ages as far as media evolution is concerned," said Paul Levinson, head of the communications department at Fordham University in New York.

Even though Barrett is behind where the Republicans are when it comes to his Web site, there is plenty of time to correct the mistake and make up the deficit, Levinson said.

No matter how boring his Web site may be, it hasn't seemed to hurt Barrett where it really matters - raising money. In just 47 days after he got into the race Barrett was able to raise about $750,000, which gave him $1.5 million in the bank and sent a strong signal to anyone who questioned whether his relatively late declaration of candidacy would hurt his fundraising efforts.

Barrett is on Twitter, but as of Friday he had only about 400 followers, nearly eight times fewer than the 3,700 following Walker. Neumann had more than 3,500. As of Friday, Barrett had tweeted just 15 times compared with 1,254 for Walker and 308 for Neumann.

Neumann's Facebook page had more than 14,000 fans as of Friday, the most of any of the three major candidates. Walker's Facebook page had more than 7,200 fans and Barrett had just over 4,000.

But that's not all that matters.

"It's not being on Twitter, on Facebook on You Tube. It's doing things there," Levinson said. Both quantity of postings and quality matter, he said.

Levinson said he expects candidates to devote at least 10 percent of their resources toward cultivating opportunities through social media, which he said is even more important given the decline in newspaper readership and television news viewing.

"What we're seeing now is just the beginning of a huge sea change in how political campaigns will be run," he said.

Neumann said he has a full-time staff member and a volunteer dedicated to new media outreach and other technical issues in the campaign. Walker campaign spokeswoman Jill Bader said they also have campaign and consultants working on social media outreach.

"We view it as very, very important," Neumann said in an interview.

Walker, in a prepared statement, said new media options allow him to interact directly with voters and mobilize them for the election. Similarly, Neumann said he views Facebook as the most effective, modern way to build grass roots support.