If politics is all about networking, then Tony Knowles' new best friend must be Facebook.
Facebook, the popular social networking site, opened its doors to political candidates on Sept. 1. Within two weeks, Knowles, a 63-year-old Democrat, became the only candidate for governor in Alaska to post a biography on the Web site.
"Facebook offered and we jumped at the chance to use it as a forum to connect with and keep in touch with a younger demographic, particularly those that might be absentee voters," said Chris Schutte, the Knowles campaign's Webmaster.
In contrast, Republican candidate Sarah Palin's Facebook page is mostly an empty template, with only her name, party, and a picture of the U.S. flag.
John Bitney, Palin's issues coordinator, didn't know why Palin doesn't use Facebook. The Palin campaign largely relies on volunteers and is still setting up shop after the long fight to win the Republican primary in August, he said.
"We don't have oil money, we don't have special interest money to have a big machine," Bitney said. "We're a lot of volunteers, and our contributors are just a lot of volunteers writing in and contributing to us."
On his Facebook biography, Knowles says his favorite movie is the 1967 classic "Cool Hand Luke." Knowles' television preferences include college football and "The Daily Show," and he loves country western music.
While the tid-bits of info on Knowles' Facebook page are fun, the campaign is more concerned about its potential to network with young voters, especially those attending college out-of-state.
College age voters tend to vote for more liberal candidates, and the Knowles campaign is looking to get every possible vote to edge out Republican gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin in the Nov. 7 election.
In a message to supporters Sept. 11, Andy Hughes, the administrator of Knowles' Facebook page, provided info on how to register to vote absentee. He also encouraged people to visit Knowles' official Web site and to write letters to the editor.
"This is obviously a tremendously important election and it's going to be very close, so every vote counts (despite what Loren Leman might think)," Hughes wrote.
Hughes declined an interview, citing campaign policy.
Numbers aren't available on how many people have endorsed the candidates. Unlike with normal Facebook profiles, candidate biographies do not keep a tally of their total friends or supporters.
"I don't have exact figures, but for the past two weeks about 10-20 people each day have listed Tony as their candidate," Schutte said.
From Sept. 10-24, 201 people gave their support for Knowles, based on a hand count of news feed items. In that same period, Palin nabbed 91 supporters. Independent candidate Andrew Halcro had 19.
Knowles' "Election Pulse" ratings, which tracks the number of online endorsements candidates nab, were at 61.4 percent on Sunday. Palin had 30.6 percent, and Halcro had 6 percent.
It's not just the Webmaster who is taking notice of the Facebook numbers. During a campaign swing through Fairbanks on Sept. 18, Harry Bader, a campaign coordinator for Knowles' running mate, Ethan Berkowitz, met with student groups to get more information about Facebook.
"People beware: I am now poking people if they are friends of Tony," Bader said, referring to a feature that allows site users to get a person's attention without sending actual messages.
Offline, the numbers are much starker for Knowles. A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports on Sept. 5 showed Palin with 52 percent and Knowles with 38 percent. The survey of 500 likely voters had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.
Campaigning on Facebook isn't flawless. Several of Knowles' endorsements, for example, are by people who don't even live, let alone vote, in Alaska. And in a bizarre twist, an unofficial Knowles group created by several college students in Toronto has popped up on Facebook.
"The best thing about being Tony Knowles' official Toronto promoter is that I have no idea who he is," writes group member Ron Kelly, who also describes himself as Knowles official shoe shiner.
All the campaigns recognize campaigning online has its limits. Because of that, online voter mobilization has been matched by traditional, face-to-face outreach. All of the major candidates have made appearances at least two UA campuses already. Palin, Knowles and Halcro also spoke with the Board of Regents this week.
It remains to be seen whether targeting young people will be an effective strategy for any of the campaigns, especially given their historical low voting rates. But Knowles' running mate, Berkowitz, said that even though the youth vote may not turn out in droves, every vote matters.
"The interesting thing about this generation is that it has incredibly high rates of volunteerism and low voting rates," Berkowitz said. "And so there's a high incidence of civil engagement, and I'd just like to be able to translate some of that into participation in the political process."
