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 Election spurs point and click campaigningBy Jeff Roulston Online Staff Planning to vote in this year’s NABJ elections? Never met any of the candidates? Learning about the candidates for NABJ offices has never been easier. Many candidates are trying to reach voters via the Web. Candidates for several offices, including president and student representative, have Web sites with biographical information, their campaign platforms and ideas they have for improving the organization. Campaigning online is not new for NABJ politicians. But more candidates listed on the NABJ site have links to personal Web pages than in previous years. All three presidential candidates have campaign sites, as well as both candidates for vice president of broadcast, both candidates for treasurer and two of four members running for student representative. “It’s the most effective, easiest, most expansive way to reach the members and potential voters,” said presidential candidate Herbert Lowe, a staff writer at Newsday. Many of the sites include phone numbers or e-mail addresses for voters to contact the candidate. Lowe, and one of his opponents, Mike Woolfolk, anchor/managing editor at WACH-TV in Columbia, S.C., also include lists of NABJ supporters. The student representative race is the only contested race in which some candidates did not publish campaign Web pages. Howard University senior Lauren B. Anderson does not have a Web site, but she says that is not a disadvantage. She believes that she is well-known among student members. “I’ve participated in other campaign activities, like sending out my literature, personal e-mails, I’ve been active on all three listserves [frequented by NABJ members],” Anderson said. “Many students have e-mailed me back to talk about things, and I’ve gotten to know a lot of members and started many friendships that way.” Mashaun D. Simon, a Georgia State University student interning at The Herald in Rock Hill, S.C., is also seeking the student representative seat. Simon said his Web page makes him more accessible to the student members who will be voting. Candidates have found that voters are responding to their Web sites. “One [member] wrote and said that she wasn’t enthused about the NABJ elections until she saw my site,” Lowe said. “She said that my issues were the clearest and the easiest to understand.” Simon said he has received e-mails complimenting him on his site, and he said he appreciates feedback. “Some told me about things the site was missing,” he said, so the site was changed. Nearly all the candidates’ personal sites can be accessed through links on the NABJ elections page. |
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