Jim DeMint’s finally getting the online props he deserves

Over the weekend I wrote a post titled “Jim DeMint, Senator 2.0 – Part 1,” where I made the argument that of all the incumbent Senators, Jim DeMint from South Carolina was much further ahead of the game than anyone else at this point in terms of using the internet to reach out to constituents, as well as to draw national attention to an issue.

This conclusion was made based on some preliminary research that I have been conducting recently as update a paper that I wrote in 2007, which evaluated how incumbents and candidates utilized their campaign websites to reach out even further into their communities in the 2006 Senate races. Surprisingly, in terms of progression, I’m still seeing some incumbents and candidates that just don’t get it (I’ll post their sites eventually).

I have only posted part 1 of my comments on Senator DeMint’s online strategy thus far, which was only related to how he used landing pages to increase his contact list. This has been one of his most successful tools (as my 3 page post reflected), and it is now gives him and endless supply of opportunities as he introduces future legislation that needs national exposure. In the coming days I’ll begin working on part two, which will focus primarily on how he uses the websites themselves to boost user-interest and user-involvement.

The reason that I mention all this is because I came across an article today that is also illustrating some of the same points that I made this weekend. Finally, Senator DeMint is getting some long overdue credit for the things he’s been doing online.

Here is just a bit of the article (h/t to Joe Mansour at TechRepublican):

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint is using the Internet more than ever — perhaps more than any other Senator — to mobilize voters across the country behind some of his biggest issues, such as eliminating earmarks and strengthening the border.

He knows his ability to twist arms under the Capitol dome is often limited, but if he can craft a suitable message and spread it all over the Web, then eventually bloggers, talk radio hosts and the mainstream media will get the word out in a way DeMint never could before.

The rest of the article can be read here.