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With candidates increasingly getting people connected to their campaigns through the use of social media, it is no surprise to see the mayoral campaign of former New Mexico Senate President Pro Tem Richard Romero turn to an Albuquerque-based social network to solicit ideas to help improve public safety.
“Every citizen has, or should have, an opinion, story or theory on Albuquerque public safety,” the post on Duke City Fix says. “At the behest of Mr. Romero, we are soliciting stories, opinions and possible solutions about crime in Albuquerque. Tell us what you think about it.”
So far, one person has bit (though two comments have apparently disappeared).
This is not a new phenomenon. Duke City Fix (“Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM”) managing editor Sophie Martin says in an e-mail to NMI tahat she thinks it is “great” that candidates reach out online.
Richard Romero’s campaign isn’t the first to have done so on the Fix. In some cases (Michael Cadigan comes to mind) it’s not just the campaign but the individual candidate who’s interacting with the voters directly, and that seems to me to be the ideal — real voters communicating with the real candidate.
Martin mentioned that asking the question isn’t enough. She argues that to make the communication truly effective, it has to be a two-way conversation. “If a politician solicits responses or reactions online and then fails to respond to the public’s comments, it looks worse than never reaching out at all,” Martin wrote.
So far, it looks like Romero is on top of things, answering the only comment that is left up on the post.
Martin cited a recent post by incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez on Facebook that NMI’s Marjorie Childress wrote about yesterday.
We see an example of that right now with Mayor Chavez’s popular bar closings tweet. His Twitter account feeds to his Facebook profile, and people have been responding on Facebook. In some cases those responses merit follow-up from the mayor or his staff, but as of this moment (21 hours since the original tweet) there’s been nothing. Maybe the tweet was sent out with no expectation of a reaction from the public, but if so that raises the question — why do it at all?
Since she wrote that, Chavez, the all-but-announced candidate for reelection, has responded three times (by my count) to the fifty-plus comments on the Facebook posting.
It should be noted that on his Twitter account Chavez often replies to other Twitter users, even some who are openly hostile to him.
Romero’s Twitter account, however, isn’t as active.
