Monday, November 23, 2009

Comparing Oklahoma Politicians/Candidates on Facebook

The McCarville Report Online reported this morning that 5th District Congressional Candidate James Lankford recently surpassed the 10,000 Facebook supporters mark, making him the first Oklahoma candidate or politician to reach that milestone.

Admittedly, I was in some disbelief that Lankford, a newcomer to politics, could have more Facebook fans than every other major politician in Oklahoma. So, I logged into Facebook, and conducted a very thorough search of politicians and candidates in Oklahoma, and the number of fans they had.

The results stunned me.

Not only does Lankford have the most Facebook support, he has over 2 1/2 times more fans than the nearest competitor. Ironically, that person is the incumbent of the office Lankford seeks - Mary Fallin (who is running for Governor).

For those political junkies out there, here is the list of politicians and candidates that I compiled, with a few notes. There may have been a few who slipped between the cracks, but not many could have. I compiled this between 2pm-3pm today.

Name / Current Office / Office Sought / Facebook Fans

James Lankford.... n/a............ Cong Dist. 5..... 10,069
Mary Fallin........... CD5........... Gov.................. 3,833
Tom Coburn......... US Sen....... US Sen............. 3,351
Brad Henry.......... Governor..... n/a.................. 2,008
Andrew Rice......... State Sen... State Sen......... 1,830 *
Drew Edmondson.. Atty Gen..... Gov................. 1,739
Jim Inhofe........... US Sen....... US Sen............. 1,654
Randy Brogdon..... State Sen...Gov................... 1,534
RJ Harris.............. n/a........... CD4.................. 1,514
Brittany Novotny... n/a........... State House....... 1,294 **
Dewey Bartlett..... Tulsa Mayor.... (just won)..... 1,158
Jari Askins........... Lt Gov......... Gov................. 1,116
Kenneth Corn....... State Sen.... LtG................... 978
John Sullivan....... CD1............. CD1.................. 960
Al McAffrey.......... State House... State House.... 940 ***
Tom Adelson....... State Sen..... State Sen.......... 935
Rob Johnson........ n/a.............. State Sen......... 760
Todd Lamb.......... State Sen..... LtG.................. 726
Ryan Leonard...... n/a.............. AG................... 692
Shawn Hime........ n/a.............. State Super....... 653
Charles Key........ State House... State House..... 633
Steve Gallo......... n/a............... State House..... 609
John T. Hammons. Muskogee Mayor..... Mayor?.... 573 ****
David Holt.......... n/a............... State Senate..... 560
Dan Boren.......... CD2.............. CD2................. 541
Frank Lucas........ CD3.............. CD3................. 527
Tom Cole........... CD4............... CD4................ 499
David Hogan....... n/a................ State House.... 494
Mike Sanders...... State House.... State House.... 483
Randall Gorman.. n/a................ State Super..... 414
Jay Paul Gumm... State Sen....... State Sen........ 410
Kevin Calvey........ n/a............. CD5.................. 392
Dan Arnett......... n/a................ CD2................ 370
Susan Paddack.... State Sen....... State Super..... 360
Seneca Scott...... State House.... State House..... 291
Nathan Dahm..... n/a................ CD1................. 279
Janet Barresi...... n/a................ State Super...... 241
Jason Reese....... n/a................ Labor Comm..... 232
Mick Cornett...... OKC Mayor....... OKC Mayor....... 230
Johnny Roy........ n/a................. CD5................ 221
Shawnnessy Murphy.. n/a........... State Sen........ 205
Lee Denney........ State House.... State House.... 191
Clark Jolley......... State Sen........ Atty Gen........ 187
Kathy Taylor....... Tulsa Mayor.... n/a................. 183
Mark McCullough.. State House.... State House.... 178
Scott Martin........ State House.... State House.... 164
Sean Burrage....... State Sen...... State Sen........ 158
Dan Newberry..... State Sen....... State Sen........ 152
Jeff Cloud........... Corp Com....... CD5................ 151
Steve Burrage..... State Auditor... State Aud....... 139
Mike Thompson... State House.... CD5............... 129
George Faught.... State House.... State House.... 119
Charles Thompson.. n/a............ CD2................ 100
Owen Laughlin.... n/a............. State Treasurer.. 100
John Wright........ State House... LtG.................. 96
Howard Houchen.... n/a............ CD2.................. 94
Cory Williams...... State House... State House..... 92
Shane Jett.......... State House.... State House.... 58
John Sparks........ State Sen....... State Sen......... 55
Daniel Edmonds... n/a............... CD2................. 44
Sally Kern........... State House... State House..... 32
Oden Grube........ n/a............... State House...... 28
Chris Pierce......... n/a............... State House..... 22
Anthony Sykes.... State Sen...... State Sen.......... 20
Doug Cox........... State House.... State House..... 18
Gary Stanislawski.. State Sen.... State Sen.......... 12
Mike Mazzei........ State Sen..... State Sen............ 1

Notes

* - 2008 Democrat Senate nominee ** - Bisexual, and running against controversial conservative Rep. Sally Kern. Most of Novotny's numbers are likely from the homosexual/etc. community across the nation. *** - Homosexual. See final point above. **** - Famous as the youngest mayor in America, hence high figure.

As you can see, Lankford has a very high amount of Facebook support. There are several other interesting notes in the list, if you look at it enough (for instance, the difference between congressional candidates' figures).

UPDATE: I only used figures from fan pages and groups, not personal profiles. In instances of multiple groups, I picked the one with the most members, except in one instance (Kenneth Corn has several groups, but has discontinued all but one, and directed the members to join his newest group, which had slightly fewer members to date).

If you run across someone I missed, I would appreciate the notice! You can email me at muskogeepolitico@gmail.com.

19 comments:

  1. Actually, Sen. Kenneth Corn has two facebook sites:

    Corn for Lt. Governor c4ok and
    Corn for Oklahoma Lieutenant governor.

    Togther those two sites more than 2,700 friends, making Sen. Corn one of the top Facebook political sites.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually, there are 3 Corn groups on FB, but on two of them they state that, essentially, there are being discontinued, and please join the new official page. That is the page I used for my figures.

    As I stated in my update at the bottom of this post, in instances of multiple groups, I picked the one with the most members, except in this one instance, due to the call to join the new, official page.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Missed David Holt for State Senate, one of the highest in the state (560), especially for a legislative candidate:

    http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=113079475434&ref=ts

    ReplyDelete
  4. What about candidate David Hogan of Spiro? He has 494 members.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous,
    Sure enough - I did miss David Holt. Duly noted, and fixed.

    Greg,
    Thanks for letting me know about him. Hogan has not filed with the State Ethics Commission, so I was not aware of his candidacy. He's on the list now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. James Lankford is a wonderful man of God who has touched the lives of many Americans. He will make a wonderful Congressman!

    ReplyDelete
  7. James is a man who leads with conviction, wisdom, strength, compassion and will be a fabulous congressman. He will certainly make an impact on all who come in contact with him.

    ReplyDelete
  8. John Sullivan's political page has roughly 1,726 friends on it. His other page, his official page with 900+ has only been online for a few weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous
    As I have mentioned previously several times, I did not take figures from politicians/candidates personal accounts - only the fan pages or groups. I felt that to be the best, and most fair, way to calculate these figures.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Over 10,000 fans on Facebook is an incredible number for any candidate, let alone one that has never held public office. To accomplish this in less than 3 months is a remarkable testament of the power of social media to spread the ideas of one rising star. I think we should keep an eye on James Lankford.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I couldn't agree more with cbalth. James Lankford may be new to the race for the 5th district but the amount of leadership and influence in he has Oklahoma can't be quantified by the number of dollars raised thus far. This is truly a grass roots effort to have someone in office who would REPRESENT his constituency.

    ReplyDelete
  12. James Lankford has many "friends" because of his former position as Director for Falls Creek Baptist Youth Camp. Many of his Facebook friends do not live in the 5th Congressional District or even in Oklahoma.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous
    That is true, but as with most (if not all) of the politicians and candidates with Facebook pages/groups, a significant portion of their supporters do not reside in their district, either. A few that come to mind from the above list: RJ Harris, Brittany Novotny, Al McAffrey, Charles Key, John Tyler Hammons, Dan Arnett, et cetera.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Lankford's facebook fans may or may not be from the 5th district or even Oklahoma, but we must remember that he is a candidate for a Congressional seat which deals with national legislation. This goes to show that people inside as well as outside of Oklahoma realize the need for a man of character in the seat he is striving to fill.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Shawnnessy Murphy for Senate District 30 - looks pretty good to me, considering she just announced her candidacy and filed with the Ethics Commission in the past week.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I have been following this with some interest. I am certain that James Langford is a nice enough man. I, however, do not feel that a pastor has any more business in government than a politician has in the pulpit. I think it's a dangerous thing, and I feel that Mr. Langford, while having leadership qualities, does not represent a broad enough spectrum of the community. He's far too conservative to do so. I mean no disrespect. It's simply my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous...I am not really sure what it means to "I feel that Mr. Langford, while having leadership qualities, does not represent a broad enough spectrum of the community." Are you stating that you think he should be a follower or a leader. To follow the "status quo" would certainly have the potential to enable Mr. Lankford meet your criteria for a good candidate, but would this truly be leadership? Perhaps leadership should be more about conviction. Besides, a man with integrity is more likely to represent his people than a man trying to climb the political ladder. I have read much of what Mr. Lankford is saying and he appears to want to be "set apart" even from many of the conservative and even "religious" politicians. Just my read...may not be accurate

    ReplyDelete
  18. For clarification, Ms. Novotny is a woman who happens to have a transgender past, not bisexual. Additionally, according to numbers available to the campaign via Facebook, at least 700 of her supporters are from Oklahoma, including more than 500 from the OKC area.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Shawnnessy Murphy's Facebook is almost a year old - it was started when she was called Shawnnessy Jiwa and before she got divorced. So she didn't gather those group members in one week. Don't exaggerate.

    ReplyDelete

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