John Fund weighs in on a 21st Century Leadership race
November 27th, 2006 by SpokesbloggerJohn Fund over at the Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary has a nice piece on Jack’s 21st Century leadership bid — and his overall approach to modern media which is worth noting to our readers:
YouTube Insurgent
Georgia Republican Congressman Jack Kingston has always been one to embrace innovative approaches to politics. As head of the Republican Theme Team, he was one of the first members to start his own blog. He was also eager to sit down with comedian Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central for an interview and unlike some Members who’ve visited with Mr. Colbert, managed to emerge looking neither arrogant nor clueless.
After this month’s GOP loss of Congress, Mr. Kingston decided to campaign for a vacant spot in the GOP leadership, namely the chairmanship of the House Republican Conference. As part of his unconventional effort, he posted a campaign message on YouTube.com, the ubiquitous bulletin board for video junkies. “Thank you very much for opening this,” Mr. Kingston told viewers at the beginning of his video. “I’m doing this because so many of you guys haven’t been returning my phone calls and anyhow it saves all of us a little time.”
Mr. Kingston says the YouTube posting attracted a decent amount of attention and was a useful reminder to Members “that there are lots of fun ways to send a message.” Though his high-tech campaigning didn’t land him the conference job, he came much closer than expected, losing only narrowly to establishment favorite Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida. Expect to see Mr. Kingston keep honing his alternative media skills as he continues to convince his colleagues that the way to reach younger voters is to supplement traditional media efforts with something completely different.