Bloggin’ With the Blaine House

By Justin Ellis staff writer

On his MySpace.com profile, he lists his general interests as golf, a favorite book as “Blueberries for Sal” by Robert McCloskey, and his father as his hero.

He’s an Aquarius, married, a graduate of the University of Maine and lists his occupation as “restaurateur/politician.”

Yes, even Gov. John Baldacci has a MySpace page.

Among the bizarre forest that is MySpace, with its collection of small-time (and big time) bands, “aspiring models” and all the normal people in between is the recently re-elected governor and a number of other Maine politicians.

As far as social experiments go, MySpace has taken off like a missile running on Red Bull and Mountain Dew. The online community boast millions of users, many in their teens and 20s.

But as the Web site has grown in popularity, so has the number of people looking to connect with the sometimes prized 18- to 34-year- old market.

As we all know, sometimes politicians will try anything to get their message out to the masses.

If politicians can use something like MySpace to kick up interest in their plans and policies, does it strip off some of the fun of the online community or make them seem more like the rest of us?

Is it just another easy campaign ploy that’s been thrown down the well now that the election is over?

So far, the governor has 362 online “friends,” more than two dozen comments – including congratulations on his win in November and the raging inaugural party two weeks ago – and at least four blog entries. In this case, “blog” means campaign and policy updates.

How does a man responsible for protecting the state’s environment, managing a long list of government agencies and creating a billion-dollar state budget find time to check friend requests and update his photos?

The short answer is – he doesn’t.

Joy Leach, the governor’s deputy director of communications, said one of the governor’s nephews is responsible for the site.

Leach said the idea came up during the campaign last fall and Baldacci had no problem with it.

Leach said the governor plans to keep the site active and post updates and other news. Though the governor has an official page on the state’s Web site, Leach said the MySpace page will specifically reach out to younger people.

You don’t have to look far to find other politicians and groups planting a flag in some of the more “youth-dominated” corners of the Internet.

Ralph Kettell, communications director for the Maine College Republicans, said a number of Republican legislative candidates created groups on Facebook.com to generate interest in their campaign.

Facebook, a social networking site similar to MySpace, had only been available to high school and college students and faculty until it went public last fall.

Another Facebook group created by Maine College Republicans is “Susan Collins – Our Senator,” supporting the U.S. senator.

The groups have “proven very effective in helping to turn out volunteers and motivating people to help out,” Kettell said over e- mail.

Robert Klotz, a political science professor at the University of Southern Maine, said politicians recognize that young people use the Internet differently than adults.

The more interactive materials – blogs, video sharing, forums, messaging – the better to get young people’s attention, he said. Klotz said it can be a way of making politicians more identifiable or even seem normal.

“It seems like an effort to reach out to young adults on their own turf,” Klotz said.

It’s also a natural connection because young people are often responsible for the behind-the-scenes legwork in political offices and campaigns, he said.

This also explains how U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat, ended up with his own MySpace page.

Allen, who was also re-elected last fall, said the idea came from a couple of volunteers on his campaign.

Allen’s site is a little more stripped down, but offers his views on education, the environment and the war in Iraq. Among his 64 friends are Maine Democrats and Baldacci.

Allen said he’s taken a look at the site and thinks it will be updated as he begins his work in the new Democratic majority in Congress.

Allen said technology will only continue to change how people communicate with each other, and young people usually have the best grasp on what works.

At the same time, the problems facing the United States and the world have also “really placed a tremendous burden on the backs of young people,” he said. “Their engagement in politics and government is essential for the country to move in the right direction.”

Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380 or

jellis@pressherald.com

(c) 2007 Portland Press Herald. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.