If you are from the Gulf Coast, the other guy running for lieutenant governor in the Republican primary is Tate Reeves. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Tate is the state treasurer, a low profile office even if it is a state elected office. For the Coast, he is the other candidate because five-term State Sen. Billy Hewes of Gulfport also is running. At last reading, however, Reeves was ahead in the polls with Hewes gaining.
I wouldn't put much faith in the latest poll because it is only a snapshot, and the primary is in August -- more than four months away, which is an eternity in a close political race. Since the race is so close, the internet is likely to play a role in the outcome.
As we have seen already, Billy Hewes is pretty active on the internet. Tate is pretty active as well.
He has everything linked. He has a page on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/friendsoftatereeves with all of his campaign videos and interviews posted. He has a Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatereeves/ with 17 pages from all of his campaign stops. The 17 pages tell you that he has been all over the state. It in fact buries you with that fact.
I find his website a little too hard sell. The first thing you see is a big picture of Tate that changes and http://www.tatereeves.com/ banners that change, screaming for visitors to get involved in the campaign -- contribute, volunteer, support on line. I prefer a gentler sell. Tell me who you are, first. Tell me what you are about. Tell me what issues are important to you. Tell me your stands. He does these things, but you have to look for them. They aren't hard to find, but you have to look for them, and they aren't the first thing you see.
His Twitter site, http://twitter.com/#!/tatereeves , is a lot like most of the others -- I am here today; We had a great time in Oxford; etc. He also links to stories about him in state media. But he doesn't seem to have a lot of chatter on twitter. He has no hashtag that I could find and not many comments under his name.
His Facebook site http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home# is clearly his most interesting. For the most part, his entries are standard stuff -- thanks from supporters, bits about campaign stops, links to other media about some appearance and links to his other sites, but he does seem to engage more than the other candidates I have seen. He missed a perfect opportunity to take a stand on education, but he didn't respond to the guy's question. However, in one of the more interesting exchanges I have seen in this internet politics Mississippi-style, one of his supporters responded to a criticism/challenge. The guy with the question/comment seemed to be from the lunatic fringe, but someone for Tate stood up. I was impressed. It tells me that he has passionate followers.
We will keep following to see if that observation is close to the mark. Don't look now, but Mr. Reeves may be building a formidable internet presence. I will check back with Billy Hewes to see if he is keeping up, but he better be. This race could get interesting by August, and we have a ringside seat right here on the internet.
Like I said before, this lieutenant governor's race could be the most interesting of the year.
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