Earlier this year, a study conducted by the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering found that Republican candidates and their tea party supporters used Twitter more effectively than their Democratic rivals in 2010. A Congressional Management Foundation survey of 260 Congressional staffers interviewed from October to December concluded that Democrats on Capitol Hill are starting to feel that they have fallen behind Republicans not only on Twitter, but in all forms of social media engagement.
At the same time, tea partyers have also embraced online forums set up by FreedomWorks, TheTeaParty.net and others, following in the footsteps of some of the early conservative bloggers.
“There seems to very good reception on the Republican side to want to do the same, if not more [than Democrats]” said Schigel, who started his new position late last month. “When you’re close to this stuff, you know that it changes very fast. Some of the things that you used two years ago are obsolete today.”
Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, arrives for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the investigation of the IRS' targeting of political groups. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify and caused a protest from some committee members when she offered an opening statement and engaged in dialogue with members before invoking the right.
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