Ted Cruz and Roy Cooper have something in common. Both got punked by parody web sites using domain names that their campaigns should have owned. TedCruz.com leads to a site promoting Obama’s immigration policies. RoyCooperforGovernor.com goes to a parody site indicating Cooper would take us back to the days of Mike Easley and Bev Perdue. Both sites will quickly show up in Google searches for either Cruz or Cooper.
In today’s world of internet snark, parody accounts are inevitable. Neither site will have a bearing on the outcome of elections. The only people paying attention to these shenanigans are partisans. Smart campaigns, though, don’t make them easy. They buy up domains associated with their candidate.
For Cooper, the episode shows a weakness in a fledgling campaign that can’t afford any. His social media presence is lacking when, at this point in the election cycle, it should be his primary method of communicating. His target audience is not the 6 million or so people who will vote in 2016, but the handful of activists and political junkies following the campaign. They are all on Facebook, twitter and other social media venues.
Cooper announced early that he would likely challenge Pat McCrory next year. In doing so, he generated enthusiasm and gave Democrats a reason to get excited and get behind a leader. However, the enthusiasm has died, replaced by grumbling. Cooper needs to reinvigorate his supporters and the Democratic base. He needs to provide a vision of what Democrats will do, not just what Republicans have done wrong. At this point in the cycle, social media is the vehicle to deliver that message.
Cooper’s error was certainly not fatal. It’s probably not even lasting as long as his campaign learns from the mistake and makes adjustments. Real social media campaigns cost money but they are investments. Cooper should be able to reach and motivate activists, raise low-dollar contributions and create opportunities for earned media. If he does that, the social media team will pay for itself as well as generate more income and interest.
Beating an incumbent governor is never easy. Pat McCrory has obviously learned from his early mistakes and is moving to the center while criticizing the abuses of the legislature. To win, Cooper needs to run a near-flawless campaign. He can’t afford careless errors like this one. He needs to step it up.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Roy needs to something with his hair. His style is a little dated. Before he can be a serious candidate he needs a trip to the hair stylist. Hair is important in this visual age and Roy’s hairdo is outdated and rather lame.
I would suggest to grow it longer and get a feathered or layered look.
or perhaps short and spikey w/ blond tips? maybe a fauxhawk?
😉
He needs to campaign where he is needed. That would be against Richard Burr, not the Governors race where he’ll not make much of a difference either way, in no small part because he really isn’t all that different from McCrory when you strip the Party affiliations from both.
I agree that Cooper’s ramp-up to his official announcement to run for gov has been…well…less than impressive. His campaign has not done much in the way of using traditional or social media, and he just seems to cast a meek, non-confrontational “Casper Milktoast” sort of shadow.
So far, I have been very disappointed in how and when he chooses to sound off against the NCGOP. This approach, should it continue, can only succeed come Nov 2016 if McCrory makes big mistakes and/or is involved in a major scandal of some sort.
“…indicating (Att. Gen.) Cooper would take us back to the days of Mike Easly and Bev. Purdue.”: there is absolutely no comparison to be made between an ethically challenged Mike Easly and former governor Beverly Purdue, who’s major transgression was her moratorium against fracking – a very noble and courageous stand. Considering what we have now in NC. government, a return to almost anything else would be an improvement. I’d much rather see you actively promoting Att. Gen. Cooper, who would be a godsend for NC. at present, rather than see you ridiculing him because he chooses to take the high road in his campaign for governor. Furthermore, regardless of how Att. Gen. Cooper runs his campaign, the republikan ‘brown shirts’ will continue winning most if not all offices because they are cheating at the polls! Until we demand independent/transparent vote tabulation verification we will continue having republikan operatives installed in the various offices of state – and you can bank on that. We in the US. are no longer dealing with a democratically oriented political system – it is now a fascist oligarchy.
cosmicjanitor, you routinely post about polling issues and irregularities… I wonder what evidence you have to back your hypothesis up. If you are right, that would be a scandal of epic proportions. If you are not right, it would be nice to know, so you could stop talking about it. Just curious… what do you know that we don’t?
CJ,
A) Roy Cooper was not ridiculed in this article
B) this site is about politics, not blind support for candidates
C) the critic may be helpful to Cooper
Before NCGOP punked Cooper they should have bought up the equivalent McCrory site: http://www.patmccroryforgovernor.com/