I conducted a little facebook experiment and thought it fitting to post prior to Sam Brownback leaving the race (hums tune "Another one bites the dust")

Here are the numbers of facebook friends for each republican candidate as of September 12th.

1. Ron Paul 23,141
2. Mitt Romney 17,204
3. Fred Thompson 12,718
4. John McCain 9,989
5. Mike Huckabee 4,548
6. Sam Brownback 2,664
7. Rudy Giuliani 980
8. Thomas Tancredo 851
9. Duncan Hunter 654

Total Friends 60,063

Ron Paul in the lead, no suprise there. Rudy Giuliani still in triple digits! That was a bit of a shocker.

Here are the results as of today October 18th (% change in parenthesis)

1. Ron Paul 31,617 (+36.6%)
2. Mitt Romney 19,431 (+12.9%)
3. Fred Thompson 17,688 (+39%)
4. John McCain 12,001 (+20%)
5. Rudy Giuliani 7,041 (+618%)
6. Mike Huckabee 6,489 (+42.6%)
7. Sam Brownback 3,061 (+14.9%)
8. Thomas Tancredo 1,007 (18.3%)
9. Duncan Hunter 822 (+25.6%)

Total Friends 99,157 (+65%)

Best Status Update:"Thomas [Tancredo] is challenging Mitt Romney to a trap shooting contest, loser drops out."

Worst Use of FacebookDuncan Hunter - A Flag for a profile picture, no information, no applications, no photos and no mentiont that he is even running for president.

Best Growth - Rudy Giuliani 618%Followed by Fred Thompson 39%Worst Growth - Mitt Romney 12.9%Followed by Sam Brownback 14.9%

According to these numbers the next to drop out will be Mitt Romney and Thomas Tancredo :-)

I'll be continuing to track these numbers and will be interested in see how the friends count compares to the actual vote. I've also got the numbers for the democrats and they put the republicans to shame. Obama has more friends than all the republicans put together.

What do you think about this data?

I wanted to start by introducing myself to those of you I have not yet met. I am the ePress Secretary for the NRSC, which as most of you know has placed a much greater emphasis on reaching out to and integrating the Internet into our full campaign strategy.

I am planning on using this space to keep everyone updated and informed on our activities, including videos and new sites.

For starters, please check out our YouTube page: www.youtube.com/thenrsc which includes all of the videos we have produced to date.

Additionally, we recently launched a new site highlighting and quantifying the cost to each American (broken down by state) of a Democrat-led Congress: Cost of Democrats.

Please share this site with others, and if interested please blog roll on other sites, as it is incredibly important that people are well aware of the consequences they face when pulling the Democrat lever on Election Day.

Our efforts are already beginning to show results as Sen. Landrieu has been forced to address allegations of funneling federal dollars away from Louisiana and to NYC. In this instance Landrieu requested an earmark for a foundation in NYC that is supposed to set up an outpost in Louisiana. But the Dead Pelican blog exposed this and has forced Landrieu to release the earmark request and address these allegations on local TV. To read more check out Dead Pelican (currently in the middle column).

The stakes have never been higher as we work to take back Congress from the liberal left and keep the Presidency.

I look forward to working with all of you.