Friday, March 17, 2006

Arcuri Campaign: Give Me Something Good to Write About!

Mark your calendars. I'm begging the Arcuri campaign now. Please, give me something good to write about.

Getting up the web site was a good idea. Finally making an official campaign announcement was good too, even if it was three months after the real beginning of your campaign.

But, removing links to the Arcuri discussion board today was not a good idea. Not today, when Sherwood Boehlert will be making his retirement announcement and voter attention will be stronger than ever before. Now should have been the time to make that forum really soar, with new threads for volunteer opportunities, supporter testimonials, etc.

It may seem that I'm picking on you, but that's not what I'm trying to do. I'd like to write something positive. Do you have some new policy statements or something that you can feed me? Anything?

I really can't help but write about your discussion board when Bob Hyde, the webmaster for the Oneida County Democrats (also the "Weekly Democrat" who seems to write every two months), comes over here and complains about my writing on the Arcuri forum. Hyde practically invited me to go on over to the Arcuri web site and notice that there is no link to the discussion forum on your web site any more.

The name of the game when it comes to online campaigning is establishing control over the language. The Arcuri for Congress campaign ought to be working to establish dominance of key search terms like "Sherwood Boehlert" "24th District" and "Michael Arcuri". But, when someone searches for "Michael Arcuri" on Technorati, what are they going to find? They're going to find this blog.

I've been doing my best to give you a wakeup call about the online world for weeks now, but I'm concerned you're not getting the message. When it comes to online campaigning, the more openness, the better. The more you try to control the online coverage of your campaign by restricting information and cutting back on your web site, the worse coverage you're going to get. The less involved you allow voters to be, the more likely they'll be to forget about you.

With Boehlert withdrawing, this is now a national campaign, and you need a strong online presence to win. Local conversations in restaurants and committee meetings is not going to be enough, not when your competitors are trying to establish a nationwide presence of the kind that can only really be established online.

I'm on your side, guys. I want a Democrat who can win this race. So please, open up. Give me something good to write about. Give me a call. Write me an email. You know who I am and how to get in touch.

7 comments:

24thIndependent said...

Utican,

You're the person who's coming here to comment on my comments about the comments on the Arcuri web site.

If you think that I need to get a life, well then... what does it say about you that you?

Personally, I'm not quite as concerned about my need to get a life this morning as I am concerned about the preparedness of the 24th District Democrats to deal with the national media attention that is going to come our way because of the Boehlert announcement at 3:00.

The Democratic campaigns need to be working at top speed to communicate with voters right now. Yes, I think that's important.

Perhaps, to you, it's tedious that our congressional candidates ought to be communicating more openly with the public. To me, it's what democracy is all about.

And, by the way, I don't believe you when you suggest that you don't care. If you didn't care, you wouldn't be coming here and leaving complaining comments as fast as possible, would you?

You're the webmaster for the Utica County Democrats, Bob. Why don't you go over to Arcuri's offices and help them get their web site in order?

Anonymous said...

Another arrogant County leader it seems. No wonder the "party of the people" can't win elections.

Anonymous said...

what is your e-mail again. I'll see what I can do.

please note that I don't work for the campaign, but a i know a lot of people who do. So this is not official or a promise, but I will try.

24thIndependent said...

My email. The Arcuri for Congress campaign has my email, as I have tried to get in touch with them several times.

I'm a bit sour on the Arcuri for Congress campaign at this particular moment, what with that poorly timed comment by Rahm Emanuel.

And then there's the issue of the Arcuri for Congress discussion forum, which has not just been de-linked. It's been erased.

Why? Was it because I asked the question again about where Michael Arcuri stands on the abortion issue? The first time someone tried that, the question was just deleted. Now, the Arcuri campaign has responded by just deleting the whole discussion board.

I find that suspicious.

My email is, as I have mentioned before, oakgall@gmail.com

I don't expect to get a response. Arcuri's staff is too busy exchanging emails with Rahm Emanuel, I expect, to talk with a 24th district voter like myself.

Anonymous said...

I can see why you would think that, it is just a case of bad timing. I know the reason why it was taken down (temporarily), but since I don't work for them and thus it's not my place to say. I have your e-mail now and will see what I can do.

I can tell you for sure that it has nothing to do with your question though. (the reason why the forum is down)

take care

24thIndependent said...

Well, Jim, the discussion board is down. So, why don't you tell us what it DOES have to do with, if Arcuri really isn't running away from the abortion issue?

24thIndependent said...

Discussion board still down - TWO DAYS LATER.

I've worked with discussion boards. They're not hard to get back up and running when there's a problem. Something is going on...

... or does Michael Arcuri not campaign on weekends? That would be tragic, because he's got a full time job during the week.