Maine campaigns enter the digital age

Reaching out to the young, tech-savvy crowd, Tom Allen’s campaign sent out a message via Facebook today advertising the campaign’s new video podcast.

Allen, who represents Maine’s First Congressional District in Congress, is challenging incumbent Susan Collins for her Senate seat.

“I am excited to tell you that our campaign has released the first video podcast of any '08 Senate campaign in the country. We will update it periodically with a variety of interesting stuff. Right now, you can find my positions on important issues and the voices of Mainers that we have run across on the campaign trail. Please encourage your friends and family to subscribe as well to help me spread the message,” stated a short message to supporters.

The podcast can be found by searching for “Tom Allen” in iTunes, or clicking here.

Democratic congressional candidate Chellie Pingree has a similar podcast which can be found by searching iTunes.

Collins does have a podcast with audio clips from her congressional work, last updated April 3 with a clip from a public hearing where she urged Navy support for the DDG-100 destroyer. U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe also has a podcast.

Maine candidates are no strangers to Facebook, the popular social networking Web site that started by gaining popularity on college campuses before being opened up to everyone.

In the Facebook world, Allen is far ahead with 718 supporters, compared to Collins’ 376.

Congressional candidates are also drumming up support on the site. On the Democratic side in the First Congressional District, Michael Brennan has 110 supporters, Adam Cote has 154, Mark Lawrence has 47, Chellie Pingree has 246 and Ethan Strimling has 134.

On the Republican side in CD1, Dean Scontras has 223 supporters and Charlie Summers has 52.

In the Second Congressional District, incumbent Mike Michaud has 251.

Several legislative candidates also have pages.

While Steve Meister, a Democrat running in the First Congressional District, and Tom Ledue, who is challenging Allen in the primary, do not have profile pages, they do have support groups on Facebook.

Missing from the Facebook scene are John Frary, Michaud’s Republican opponent, and Laurie Dobson and Herb Hoffman, both independent candidates in the Senate race.

PolitickerME has its own Facebook page (so won’t you please be our friend?). While we are listed as “supporters” of many candidates – Republican and Democrat – it’s important to note that we only do this to keep tabs on them.