LG Candidate Brian Colón Launches Campaign Website (And It's a Hub of Activity)

Featured on the front page: the Colón family

Brian Colón, who's running to be the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor in New Mexico, today launched his new campaign website at http://www.electcolon.com/. He previously had just a bare-bones page at that URL, primarily for fundraising. Now that the campaign season is heating up he's got a fresh new site with lots of multimedia, a blog and all the latest bells and whistles. There's an emphasis on social media too, with easy links to Brian's accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, as well as a running feed of his latest Tweets.

Campaign website exclusive: kid Colon

Both Colón's campaign and his new website clearly are geared to easy and personal interactive communication, energetic outreach to folks all over the state and on-the-ground grassroots organizing. Colón has been sending out down home and personal weekly updates on his activities to supporters for a couple months now, and this website can be seen as an extension and expansion of that.

Colón's campaign is operating out in the open, with lots of public contact and input, and an emphasis on day-to-day, face-to-face campaigning. Even during this early stage of the campaign, Colón's travel schedule has been extensive and grueling. He's out there meeting people at every turn, on a personal, "retail politics" level not often seen these days. His campaign website is set up to report on all this interaction, as well as encourage engagement with the campaign online and offline -- to make supporters part of the action, part of Team Colón.

Right now on his website, you can download a nominating petition and gather signatures, take a survey on the issues that are important to you, enter a statement to be used on the website to voice your support and encourage others to join the cause, register to host a house party, volunteer for his campaign, endorse Brian's candidacy, invite Colón to an event, donate to the campaign or sign up to get on his mailing list.

In the issues section, it's telling that Colón lists Constituent Services at the top of the list, right before Ethics:

I’ve spent my entire life bringing people together to solve problems. As your next Lt. Governor, I will work to be a hub of information and assistance to everyone who interacts with state government. I know that New Mexicans are some of the hardest working people in the country and I want to spend every day promoting our workers, our industry, and our wonderful way of life. Constituent service will be an important focus of the Lt. Governor’s Office under my administration, ensuring a better New Mexico for all of our families.

Colón clearly sees the importance of the Lt. Governor serving as what he has termed a "conduit" between ordinary New Mexicans and government and vice versa, just as he did when he was a conduit between grassroots Democrats and the Democratic Party infrastructure when he chaired the DPNM. He defines his focus as pragmatic -- bringing people together to find solutions to problems. His campaign website is structured in a similar way, as a hub of activity with tools that make it easy for information and messages to flow in both directions -- out from the campaign and in from the public.

Like Brian's campaign, his website is designed to be active and interactive with lots to draw people back to visit on a regular basis. It's a nice contrast to the kind of static candidate websites that used to be the norm and, unfortunately, sometimes still are. Well done.