Denver November 2004 Election - Gulchie Awards
Gulchies are awarded to the campaign in each election that demonstrates the best use of Internet technologies. An understanding of technology is key to the success for today's elected officials. Technology is essential to the democratization of government and can help lower costs, provide better information and service, along with helping to spread the message of inclusion that we all should want from government.
Two campaigns used weblogs (sort of) during this cycle but neither campaign really used them effectively. Weblogs should be updated often with pertinent information. More importantly, a weblog is an opportunity for a candidate to talk directly to voters. John Walsh's weblog also included an RSS feed so that supporters and interested parties could be updated immediately if the weblog updated. Sadly Mr. Walsh and Attorney General Salazar's weblogs were updated very infrequently.
Another problem from all campaigns was the timely posting of event information. Many of the websites did not include information on the various forums being held. Voter participation in a primary battle is very low. Coordinated efforts to get out the word, especially e-mail and weblogs should be a focus for those left in a race after today's primary.
I don't want to be too negative. We really don't know how much a web presence helps a local or state campaign. Web experts can be expensive to retain and for many candidates funding is a terrible problem. There is no question that Internet technologies have helped the various national campaigns raise money. My expectation is that the Internet will become more important, locally, as time goes on.
Here are the winners of the Gulchies for today's primary:
Denver District Attorney - John Walsh
U.S. Senate (Democrat) - Ken Salazar
U.S. Senate (Republican) - Peter Coors
C.U. Regent (1st Congressional - Democrat) - Michael Carrigan
Initiative 100 - Denver for Cruelty-Free Circuses
I hope to see all campaigns in the general election create websites, and weblogs, for the general election on November 2nd.
Here's the link to last spring's Gulchie discussion and the winners.
Thank you to everyone that helped the 'Ol Coyote pick the Gulchie winners.
Don't forget to vote!
Here's a summary of the candidates and issues from Political State Report by way of a Curious Stranger.
The Rocky Mountain News has this story on today's election [August 10, 2004, "Plenty of primary prospects"]. Here's the Denver Post coverage [August 20, 2004, "Election officials predict big turnout"].
Update: I can't find a link to election results on the DenverGov website. Send me e-mail if you've found results online. The Rocky is running them on the front page tonight.
Update: Rocky Mountain News: "Republican beer magnate Peter Coors held an early lead in his bitter primary fight with former Rep. Bob Schaffer to seek Colorado's open Senate seat. Attorney General Ken Salazar was far ahead of his lesser-known opponent for the Democratic nomination."
Update: Denver Post: "Beer magnate Coors led former congressman Bob Schaffer in the Republican primary, 60 percent to 40 percent, with 25 percent of the precincts reporting. On the Democratic side, state Attorney General Salazar held a 3-1 lead over educator Mike Miles."
Update: Rocky Mountain News: "Coors, Salazar cruise to wins."
Update: Hey all you Denver County number junkies. Here are tonight's results from DenverGov.
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