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SALT LAKE CITY -- More politicians are gaining followers on Twitter. Hinckley Institute of Politics Director Kirk Jowers says for the most part, carefully crafted speeches and press releases will still be the main way to get a message across, but you can't beat Twitter's speed.
"It will play a big role on occasions because time matters and if you hit it just right it's going to be a big deal," he said.
He says Democrats are generally tweeting more to build support for their initiatives and programs among their base. But Republicans are winning the Twitter battle with more followers and definitely more interesting messages.
"They use it like hand grenades. They throw it out there, it gets picked up by the press or at least by a lot of people. It's used to take some shots at the majority party," Jowers said.
Newsweek reports that media analysts also give the upper hand to the GOP. TweetCongress.org lists 101 Republicans and just 57 Democrats on the site.
Jowers says some politicians are finding more success than others.
"One of the early hits on McCain was that the guy doesn't even know how to use a computer. But now he's become the Republican king of tweets," he said.
McCain and the other four highest-ranking Republicans on Tweet Congress have a combined 1.3 million followers. In contrast, the top 10 Democrats have about 72 ,000 followers.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
