Monday afternoon I received an email from a reporter of the Santa Fe New Mexican.  The email read in part:

I’m doing a story about the role of social media in the recent New Mexico legislative session and would like to interview the person in charge of your Twitter updates regarding NM. IF you are interested, please call me ASAP at (505) 986-3017. Thanks. Julie Ann Grimm, The Santa Fe New Mexican. jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com

Ms. Grimm received my response via email as I declined a phone interview at that time.  Tuesday morning an article by the SFNM about social media and the past legislative session was brought to my attention by a conservative group on Twitter.  The article portrayed my party and the conservative movement as ineffective on the social networks when it came to activism.  To begin with  Ms. Grimm’s article gives lengthy paragraphs to leftist organizations and media while only two belonging to the conservatives are mentioned as having any impact on Twitter.

As a Republican I am active on the social networks working with national and New Mexico groups as well as Republican candidates on social media and internet relations projects; New Mexico Republicans in particular are lacking in this area, but articles painting us as incapable as this article does are unnecessary.  While Governor Martinez (who has been inactive on the social networks over a year) is mentioned a couple times, Republican Lieutenant Governor John Sanchez is not given a single line, though he has often tweeted about constituents visiting him in the legislature and pieces about popular legislation which has passed.

As the SFNM article states, the social networks had an important impact on legislation, but (as is not made clear) the Republican right organized to oppose HB-77 on the social networks as well.  Between Facebook and Twitter we got the word out quickly:

Take House Bill 77, for example. The measure to impose background checks on all firearms buyers at gun shows had made it through the House, but Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Española, hadn’t put it on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda for a hearing and was rumored to have told a constituent he wouldn’t put it on the agenda. While this might have spelled a quiet death for the legislation, organizing and news reports referenced in social media turned up the heat.

Martinez put the matter on his committee’s list the next day. The bill — one that had bipartisan support and that the governor said she would sign — eventually died in the last minutes of the Senate floor session during a Republican filibuster.

Breaking the mold are the likes of handles such as @politixfireball, which has nearly 24,000 followers and hits national issues as well as local ones. Gov. Susana Martinez reportedly has a communications staffer assigned to update social media.

The article further details the effort on Twitter and how it was used to bully Representative Nate Gentry who was supporting Gov. Martinez’ drivers license bill:

But Pat Davis, director of Progress Now NM, said the take-away lesson is that people took action. Hundreds of calls to Martinez’ office happened because of connectivity through email and social media websites, he said. Likewise, when the liberal nonprofit tweeted a House member’s cellphone number to invite calls about his stance on immigrant driver’s licenses, the lawmaker complained that he got so many calls he couldn’t use his phone that day.

Breaking the mold are the likes of handles such as @politixfireball, which has nearly 24,000 followers and hits national issues as well as local ones. Gov. Susana Martinez reportedly has a communications staffer assigned to update social media.