Great article on the use of technology in the Brown campaign - that is really worth reading

[karynnj]

He really did use the same types of outreach that Obama did (and dean and Kerry before him) even in the very short primary/general election campaign. It is also clear that things like Twitter actually did help with networking. It was interesting to read of their use of Google ads near their many headquarters to get volunteers to do GOTV - while we were all reading that they were paying people to do this - and that Coakley would have the Democratic GOTV.

Reading this versus a candidate who didn't poll and really did not seem to like to campaign, it is clear that people taking this as an indication of a shift to the right are wrong. The contrast is pretty stunning, but it might have been there even against a Democrat who campaign at a more typical rate, but who did not campaign as if he/she could lose.

What it likely suggests is that we are moving ever more towards people wanting a candidate to personally communicate to them in a way that requires them to do nothing or very little. This likely WILL catch incumbents, who think what they did in the past is adequate IF they face candidates who can project a nice personality and who aggressively reach out to say they are with them. (This would not have let him win versus a Kerry or Kennedy, but both of them really did reach out to people.)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/02/05/urnidgns852573C400693880002576C1007132D3.DTL