Billy Hewes is on Track

Tonight we take a first look at the lieutenant governor race in Mississippi, specifically, State Sen. Billy Hewes' campaign.

The Republican nominee will probably be lieutenant governor because no one is running as a Democrat. Sid Salter, probably the most authoritative political columnist in the state now, says the lieutenant governor race is the one to watch. http://bit.ly/hjGiUl

The race is between State Treasurer Tate Reeves and State Sen. Billy Hewes from Harrison County. As you saw from Sid's column if you read it, Reeves is a little ahead in the polls, but Hewes is catching up. They have four months, which is a very long time in a political race.

It looks like it will be a pretty close race. Reeves is a two-term statewide elected official, but state treasurer is a pretty low profile office. I expect most voters couldn't name any of the last five state treasurers, and I expect that the only way voters know Reeves is the treasurer is because he is running for lieutenant governor. That said, he has run two statewide campaigns, and he has to be connected to the Republican Party. He also probably doesn't have much political baggage that turns off voters.

Billy Hewes is a five-term (20 years) state senator. He hasn't run for statewide office, but he has been in Jackson for those 20 years. He is presently serving in the senior senate leadership role, President Pro Tempore. He also has a couple of marks against him. First, he is from the Coast. Coast politicians are notoriously unsuccessful statewide, way out of proportion with our population. I don't know if it is a bias or if they just can't get their stuff together enough. I just know its true. Steve Simpson, another Coast product, is starting to have a rocky time in his race for attorney general. More on that some other time.

The second thing Billy Hewes has to overcome is his political baggage. You don't serve in the state Legislature for 20 years without making somebody mad, unless you are asleep. While Billy may not have been the chair of one of the high profile committees, he has not been asleep. Agree with him or not, he has answered the roll, and he seems to have gotten bolder in his last three or so terms. He also is a strong ally of Phil Bryant. I think he got the Pro Tempore job because of Phil, so he may have some baggage from his association with Phil's positions. But don't count out Billy Hewes.

So how is he using the internet?

My first observation is that Billy Hewes gets the fact that the internet and social media are about connecting with people. We will see if we can say the same thing about Tate Reeves next time. I didn't find any candidate-sponsored blogs, but they are both on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube.

Billy Hewes put his campaign commercial on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01xesnnbKls. I figure he is trying to create buzz with it because it doesn't say anything except he is running for lieutenant governor, he wants to create jobs, he has a family and he drives a van. He comes across as likeable. But he doesn't have much substance there. He also doesn't have much buzz. The video has had 14 views with no likes or dislikes -- no buzz there.

But Billy really seems to get what is going on on the internet and in social media. He had a streaming video link from the MSU political forum on his Facebook and Twitter pages, and he has a link on his Facebook page of the recorded session for people who missed it ( got plans for Saturday night?). He may not have hit a homer with his YouTube offering, but he apparently understands enough to know that he has to give it a shot. Face it, politics isn't sexy.

His web site http://billyhewes.com/ doesn't bombard you with offers to register and donate. His family seems his biggest selling point, and he includes them in everything he puts on the web. The Facebook page looks like a regular Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/cabrunsman#!/pages/Billy-Hewes/177096772324929 . And like the political Facebook pages we have seen, it is heavy with supporters. In fact, I didn't see a negative comment or a question about a position. But he is engaging with -- conversing with -- the people that post, a sign to me that he is on top of social media.

I will be interested to see how he may handle challenges or position questions. I saw his reaction to a challenge a long time ago about funding education, and it cost him a vote -- for life. It will be intersting to see if he has learned any lessons.

He seems to use Twitter for campaign announcements, http://twitter.com/#!/BillyHewes . He put the link to the candidate forum at Mississippi State on his page, and he had a link to his campaign announcement on YouTube, but the video is no longer at the link. And he hasn't been taking any negative hits on Twitter, which may be a sign that people don't know him enough to have any strong negative opinions about him.

Bottom line: Billy Hewes, at least so far, seems to be doing everything right on the internet. I think this could be anybody's race, and I think the internet side of things could play a big role. Billy just hasn't found the magic formula yet to make it take off. Stand by.