Is the internet really that important

How valuable is the internet in political races really, especially in Mississippi?

Lt.Gov. Phil Bryant, the presumed front runner in the governor's race, has the weakest presence of anyone I have examined. He apparently doesn't have a Twitter account, and I can only find his governor campaign Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Phil-Bryant/149191811767085 from his govenor campaign website. http://www.philbryant.com/  His regular lieutenant governor Facebook page is easy enough to find, but it doesn't even link to his campaign page.

On Facebook he announces who is supporting him and comments on things in the news, like the open meetings law improvements, but he doesn't dialog with voters, which would seem to be the greatest value of a social media account.

A week ago, Phil was getting a lot of shots on Twitter with no apologists over his redistricting stand.

A little background: The Mississippi Legislature is in the throes of an ugly redistricting fight that pundits have been predicting will get resolved only in court. Every 10 years states have to redraw their voting districts to accommodate changes in the census. The state House passed its new plan and sent it to the state Senate. The Senate rejected the House's plan and sent the Senate's plan for the House as well as the Senate's plan for the Senate to the House for approval. The House rejected the Senate version of the new House plan. Normally, when both houses can't agree on a bill they have a conference committee where they work out their differences. The House leaders said they won't go to conference.

Lt.Gov. Phil Bryant, who as lieutenant governor is leader of the Senate, has led the charge against the House redistricting plan. For a while, he was getting a lot of criticism over his role in the whole thing.

This week, however, Twitter seems to have cleared away the debris of recent weeks, and Phil has very few negative tweets about him. Search phil bryant and phil bryant gov on Twitter to see for yourself.

So even though, he has not been responsive and even though he is not on Twitter, he doesn't seem to be suffering. I guess the proof will be seen on election night, but sometimes I wonder if we aren't throwing a bucket down an empty well. Phil obviously knows the voters and how to run a campaign, maybe for right now, in Mississippi, the internet is really not as important in politics as we may think it is.

Think about it.