House Republicans Use Social Media to Draft Agenda

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2010— -- House Republicans, eager to move beyond the divisive intraparty fights that marked the primary campaign, will unite around a new governing agenda Thursday in an attempt to harness the energy of the Tea Party movement and voters' discontentment ahead of the midterm elections.

While the legislative priorities in the plan are not expected to be new, what is notable sources say, is the process by which they were formed: based largely on the input from more than 100,000 registered users of the interactive online forum Republicans have branded "America Speaking Out."

"People have been hungry for an outlet to have their voices heard," said House GOP spokesman Brendan Buck, who noted Tea Party members, in particular, have "felt ignored."

The high-tech strategy, which includes iPhone and Android apps, allows users to post ideas which can be "liked" or "disliked" by other users, who can also add comments in a format similar to Facebook. California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who has spearheaded the effort, unveiled the initiative in May.

"The idea was to make people feel like they are contributing to the agenda," said Nick Schaper, the House GOP director of new media. "We think this is opening up Congress in a way never done before."

Schaper said the project cultivated 16,000 "policy ideas" that garnered more than 800,000 "votes," both for and against. The most popular topics -- taxes, Congress, jobs, freedom and the Constitution -- mirror themes most often raised by the Tea Party, which has been agitating the GOP establishment.

Social media experts say "America Speaking Out" is the first time an entire congressional caucus has used an online town hall format to engage voters and build an agenda. Individual members have long used the Internet and social media tools to interact with constituents and develop priorities.

"They're taking the conversations that happen through telephone, faxes and email in congressional offices individually and they're taking that public as a group," said Heather LaMarre, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota. "It's a new way of presenting a united front of House Republicans and has the appearance of giving people a direct link to Congress."