Legislative Web sites as campaign tools - Inside Politics - Brief Article

The official Georgia taxpayer-funded Web site for state Rep. E.M. "Buddy" Childers (D) is rather bare-bones, featuring only a small picture of the veteran lawmaker contact information, a list of committees on which he serves and minimal biographical information. Constituents wanting to find out about issue positions are provided precious little information on the site (www2.state.ga.us/Legis/2001_02/house/gash013.htm).

Childers' campaign Web site (www.buddy.childers.com) in contrast, provides an array of legislative information for constituents, including detailed position explanations on issues such as health care, crime and education. The site is maintained through campaign funds, and like the Web sites of many state lawmakers, it is becoming the go-to source for constituents.

"That's something that legislators are doing more and more," said Pam Greenberg, of the National Conference of State Legislatures and an expert on legislative Web sites.

On legislators' campaign Web sites, constituents "can view bills; they can view the (state) budget," said David McLaughlin of Georgia-based electyou.com, whose firm built and maintains Childers' campaign Web site.

As for the state-sponsored site, "It's not attractive and he doesn't even have control of it," McLaughlin said of his client. "They're not given space to give really good constituent service.

Georgia lawmakers are not alone in expressing frustrations with state-provided Web sites. A series of studies have concluded many state legislative Web sites don't give their users nearly enough information or tools to understand and influence lawmaking. That means legislators' Web sites are often deficient in providing information about pending bills, and provide little or no information on legislative calendars, committee schedules or floor schedules.

Good constituent service is not the only upshot of using a campaign site to provide detailed legislative information.

"Of course it's good politics," Childers said in an interview from the 13th District in northwest Georgia, near the Alabama border. "I've really used that to keep my constituency informed."

The Web site allows legislative offices to keep track of constituent e-mail addresses, said Childers, who first took office in 1975. All e-mail from constituents, whether political or legislative, is directed to Childers' campaign e-mail address, rather than his state-sponsored e-mail address.

"The state furnishes e-mail service to us but I never even look at it," Childers said.

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