Chuck DeVore, candidate for the US Senate seat in California currently held by Babara Boxer, released his iPhone App yesterday.
It's the first iPhone app released by a candidate for the US Senate -
and of course I downloaded it immediately after seeing Justin Hart's tweet.

The app is very well setup and allows you (once you create your
account) to learn all about the campaign through news, events, photos,
videos, and chuck's twitter feed, as well as engage with the campaign
(via a volunteer survey and filling in your meta data). 

The Twitter integration allows you to perform certain searches on
popular conservative hashtags (#tcot, #catcot, #rs, #gop, #sgp,
etc...). It's very well done in the typical smooth iPhone menu design. 

The only piece that it is missing (which according to Justin Hart is being
developed) is a donation link. I think once that final piece is put
into place the iPhone app will be complete. 

Last week, Google unveiled the latest must-have tool for every online campaign operative - Google Browser Size.  Upon entering the URL of your choice, Browser Size pops up an interactive overlay showing you what percentage of web browsers are able to view which sections of your site.  This comes in very handy when your campaign is trying do decide where to place a donate button, an email sign-up box or a highlighted video.

To demonstrate the power of Browser Size, I analyzed ChuckDeVore.com using the Browser Size tool:

By plugging ChuckDeVore.com into Browser Size, we are able to determine that DeVore's email sign-up box fits completely in 95% of browsers without the user having to scroll. 

Clicking through the splash page onto DeVore's homepage, we find that the "DONATE TODAY" pop-up button falls slightly down the page, viewable in 90% of browsers without scrolling:

Both DeVore's email sign-up page and donate button appear to be in easily viewable locations, increasing the likelihood that his supporters will submit their email addresses and/or donate to his campaign. 

As Browser Size can show you, moving critical components of your campaign's website just a few hundred pixels can have serious implications.  Take a look at Alan Grayson's campaign website, which has undoubtedly received a great deal of traffic ever since his "Die quickly" moment in late September:

Browser Size shows that less than 40% of Grayson's website visitors can see the entire "CONTRIBUTE" button.  If 100 people visit Grayson's site, 60 of those 100 can't see his contribute button!  That's an astounding number that should alarm any candidate, but since it's Grayson, I'm not too concerned.

What percentage of your website visitors can see your donate button?  Find out at browsersize.googlelabs.com.

ChuckBucks Fundraising

Current Assemblyman, Chuck Devore, representing California’s 70th district has an uphill battle in front of him. He is running for the U.S. Senate in California against political heavy-weight Barbara Boxer. His litany of life-long accomplishments pitted against Barbara Boxer’s political machine will make this a must follow race in 2010.

However, his New Media Director for the campaign, JUSTIN HART, is shaking things up a bit. He has introduced an innovative fundraising strategy for the campaign that looks promising.

It’s called ChuckBucks.

GOPers - Tweetier than the Dems

TweetCongress, which tracks/cajoles Senate/House members on Twitter, has tallied the current number of legislators Tweeting and discovered Republicans outnumber Dems almost two to one -- 100 to 56.

A total of 261 Dems are ignoring the new technology (Claire McCaskill ain't one 'em) compared to 119 non-Tweet R's.

Climate Change Helps Conservative Groups Grow Their Activist Lists

Climate change has certainly been good for the health of at least one ecosystem, judging from a piece that appeared in National Journal’s Under the Influence blog this week:

Ire over cap-and-trade is helping conservative groups grow their Rolodex of supporter e-mail addresses this summer as their online advocacy efforts enjoy unprecedented participation levels.

It’s a classic observation in the world of online politics — advocacy grows your list, assuming always that you don’t overdo it and wear out your welcome in the process.

The other day, I sat down with Connell Donatelli’s new president, Chuck DeFeo, to talk about how he likes the new gig and to gather where he thinks the GOP stands online.

Here’s what he had to say.

So, how are your first two weeks?

Well, I’ve been a little sidetracked – my first week on the job, my wife delivered our baby early, so this is really my first week.

What made you decide to join Connell Donatelli?

This was just a great opportunity for me. I’ve been working in Washington, DC for about 13 years, 8 of which were spent working on Capitol Hill under the umbrella of election politics and 4 of which were spent finding out how to use the web to build online grassroots communities to foster the debate of ideas…Now, I have the ability to combine those two sets of experiences to use the Internet to win elections, so I’m looking forward to the challenge.

I would argue that the Right has come a long way, in the past two years even, when it comes to embracing modern media. Where do you think we stand right now? Have we met the Left online? Are we still catching up? Are there areas where we’ve surpassed the Left? Areas for improvement?

First, I think the Right has wrongly allowed the Left to define our movement as always being behind online, when in fact there was a time in election politics when we were in the lead.

I would argue that we were in the lead in the presidential race against John Kerry in 2004 and even against the Dean campaign in 2003 & 2004.  Certainly, post 2004, the right has embraced 2.0 media and the social web.

The problem is – we didn’t embrace where the web was going. In 2008, the Democrats did a phenomenal job of using the web to pull individual people into the political process and that’s where we fall behind.

That being said, the sky is not falling & it’s never as bad as some people might say it is.

Who do you see right now in this current election cycle as the shining star, if you will, of the Right when it comes to utilizing the Internet?

To be fair, there aren’t a lot of races going on in the here and now – there just simply aren’t a lot of candidates running right now in 2009, but there are exceptions.

Some of the bright spots I see are coming from the Chuck DeVore campaign in California. I think Justin Hart is doing a lot of great work online for that senate race and I look forward to seeing what’s coming down the pipeline.

But Virginia is going to be in the spotlight this year and frankly, the Democrats aren’t really impressing me there. It’s clear that Organizing for America is still a powerhouse when it comes to engaging its grassroots base, but it is to be seen, whether that group is able to use that power to its advantage in November.

Today, Chuck DeVore released this clever video take on what the world would be like if Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Box ran the world:

I think this video has viral potential, and so I hope you can share this video with your friends & fellow activists as a solid example of creative, hard-hitting video content.

Kudos to Justin Hart, the mastermind behind this project, for finding a way to shed light on such a powerful message for conservative Republicans - not just in California, but across the country.

Today, Justin Hart - New Media Director for Chuck DeVore for Senate, and Chuck DeVore himself, hosted a blogger conference call to talk about what the campaign is doing to oppose 6 ballot measures that would increase taxes and expand government in California.

I was pleased at what I heard -- not only because Chuck is a great candidate who clearly gets modern media, but because I know that Justin Hart is doing a great job when it comes to getting the California campaign connected.

First there was the innovative Tweet for Chuck campaign that encouraged supporters on Twitter to contribute small amounts and to refer their friends to do the same.

Now, the campaign has launched, VoteNoSixTimes.com, a clever way to inform voters and to gather important voter ID data at the same time.

On the call Justin announced that Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has surpassed Senator John Cornyn on Twitter with 4,309 followers. DeVore talked about the importance of modern media for political campaigns. 

He think the move to get ahead online by the right is a lesson learned from past election cycles and that the Obama campaign's ability to connect with voters online helped the campaign of a junior senator overwhelm that of a former First Lady's in the 2008 presidential primary.

To DeVore, reaching out to the blogosphere makes sense given the rapid disintegration of the mainstream media. 

Republicans have the right message, we just need to let it be heard on the right platforms.