Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Lawmakers Talk Twitter At Web Conference

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., uses Twitter to talk about her spinach soup recipe and the budget debate. That blend of the personal and political is key to engaging constituents, she explained today at a conference on politics and the Internet.

McCaskill joined Reps. Cathy McMorris Rogers, R-Wash., Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Steve Israel, D-N.Y., at the 11th annual Politics Online Conference in downtown D.C. to talk about how their offices are using Twitter, YouTube and other new media.

"It's not a fad, it's not a phase," McMorris Rogers said of the Web's growing influence. "It's a new way citizens are engaging elected officials. It's the new town hall. It's the new letters to the editors." McMorris Rogers, who is the vice chair of the House Republican Conference, is working to train GOP members to adopt new media for their offices.

But Twitter has drawbacks, too, the lawmakers emphasized. McCaskill, who has nearly 21,000 Twitter followers, said she needs to be cautious when working with colleagues on the Hill. "I don't want to be marginalized in the Senate by the fact that the people don't want to deal with me because interactions with me might immediately go on the public bulletin board," she said.

Not everyone has access to the Internet throughout the day, she went on to say, and the replies she receives are almost entirely polarized. "There's a lot from the far left and a whole lot from the far right," the senator said. "There's not a lot of people in the middle."

While the discussion centered mainly on Twitter, the lawmakers also took up other new media gaining ground on the Hill. Ryan envisions reaching more of his constituents, especially students in classrooms, through online video, and his office already posts YouTube responses to constituents' concerns. He wants to work with the House Committee On Rules to further open up Congress by recording more hearings and finding more avenues for talking with voters back home. --Amy Harder