Greg Hauenstein
Iowa and national politics. Passionate about making campaigns human again.
The Iowa Politics Website Report Card: District 3
Today I review the websites for my district, the Fighting 3rd. We’re again faced with two websites whose content is all press releases and an incumbent who should know better.
Tom Latham – Republican, incumbent
| Detail level | Full site, multiple pages |
| CMS | Drupal |
| Responsive | No |
| Call to action | Three big buttons. Very clear |
| Notes |
AUTOPLAYING OLD TV ADS. BAD. No new content since Novermber 1. No content in Facebook or Twitter widgets. Autoplay videos on other pages. Blog content is press releases and blog posts that read like press releases. Completely bland. Website has nice colors and photography though the photos are squished in the header. |
GRADE: B-
Gabriel De La Cerda – Democrat
| Detail level | Full site, some pages |
| CMS | WordPress, “Picoclean” theme |
| Responsive | No |
| Call to action | Stretched out PayPal button |
| Notes |
First website with a translate option! |
| Free advice |
Gabe is running a scrappy one-man show so I’ll give him some free web advice.
|
GRADE: D+, but A for effort
The Iowa Politics Website Report Card: District 2
Since there’s only one candidate right now in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, I’ll take this time to explain why I’m doing this.
I’m tired of seeing the half-a-loaf approaches to the web that so many campaigns take. Your website should be more than an online brochure. It should be interactive. The emails you send, the blog posts you write and the videos you shoot (not TV ads) should be conversational. You should ask for feedback. You should write/speak publicly about the feedback you get. Bruce Braley shot a video last year about SOPA. It was him in front of a cell phone camera saying “I heard you” and explaining his vote. It has over 13,000 more views than any of his TV ads.
Your website should grow a community. Politicians always say “this campaign isn’t about me.” Well, your websites sure don’t show it. You’re all about push push push. Read my press release. Endorse me. Give me money but don’t ask what it’s buying. Share this on Facebook. Watch my TV ads here since you either fast forwarded them on your DVR or just hit the mute button. And that’s if the copy is written in first person.
Rant over for now. Onto the report card.
Dave Loebsack – Democrat, incumbent
| Detail level | Full site, multiple pages |
| CMS | I’m 99% sure it’s Zissou, the proprietary CMS by Liberty Concepts |
| Responsive | No |
| Call to action | Yes, but I’d change the order and put the email capture on top. |
| Notes |
AUTOPLAY VIDEO. BAD. A tv ad that’s irrelevant, to boot. Congressman Loebsack has had this website design and layout for years and it’s quite stale. The navbar is crowded. There has been no new content added since the 2012 election. Facebook link goes to a personal page where plenty of other people post things but not the Congressman. Given his recent hire of Sara Sedlacek, however, I have pretty high hopes for the future of his web presence. |
GRADE: C
The Iowa Politics Website Report Card: District 1
Every day this week I’ll post my critique of the websites of candidates for office here in Iowa. I’ll be looking at form as well as functionality. Specifically, does it look good on all devices, both desktop and mobile? The Washington Post reported earlier this year on the explosion of mobile internet users.
In five years, Cisco said mobile data traffic will outgrow global land-line data traffic by three times. - The Washington Post
Let’s get started with District 1. We have three declared candidates and one candidate with an exploratory committee. Potential candidates aren’t being graded. Have I missed one? Let me know.
1st District
Pat Murphy – Democrat
| Detail level | Single splash page. Fine for this early in the race. |
| CMS | Either Drupal or NPG/VAN |
| Responsive | Yes! |
| Call to action | Big and clear |
| Notes |
Nice big social following buttons up top, clean typography. Fully responsive. Good calls to action that are eye catching while matching the color scheme. That said, I don’t like color scheme and found some inconsistency in how buttons are displayed, especially on the mobile site. |
GRADE: B
Swati Dandekar – Democrat
| Detail level | Full site, multiple pages |
| CMS | WordPress, “Campaign” theme. A good choice. |
| Responsive | Yes |
| Call to action | Email capture is buried and aimed only at “supporters” |
| Notes |
Worst campaign URL EVER. Good first blog post that contains resources for others to use. Give us more! “About the author” section needs to be fleshed out. There’s a person writing these posts (I hope?) and I doubt their name is “Admin.” Comments on a blog need to be either open or nonexistent (they should be open.) Never closed. NO EMAIL CAPTURE?. I have to click through to “Support.” I don’t necessarily support her. Maybe I’m shopping around. Get rid of “search” form in top right until there’s more content to search for. |
GRADE: B
Rod Blum – Republican
| Detail level | Full site, multiple pages |
| CMS | WordPress, custom theme that looks like it’s based off “Campaign.” |
| Responsive | No |
| Call to action | Big janky looking buttons. No email capture. |
| Notes |
Good social widget in bottom right. Big buttons have jagged edges, eagle is blurry, also his stance on women’s rights, accessibility of health care, stand your ground and “our nations ability to to produce domestic sources of energy.” But that’s besides the point. |
GRADE: B
Steve Rathje – Republican
| Detail level | Full site, multiple pages |
| CMS | None, by the looks of the source code. |
| Responsive | No |
| Call to action | Very clear email capture area, volunteer and contribute buttons below. |
| Notes |
Mr. Rathje has very fleshed out issues and solutions sections as you’d hope from a guy running for office this long. Clean typography. Posts on News page are out of order, which make me think there’s no content management system like WordPress or Drupal. Not that that’s a necessarily bad thing but a bit odd nowadays. |
GRADE: A-
That’s it for District 1! Should I be looking at other criteria? Am I missing a candidate or two? Do you agree or disagree with my ratings? Leave a comment below or send me an email. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
NPR: Great long-form journalism, just clicks away
Maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety, but I’ve become very annoyed with the new short-form style journalism trend that has swept our media and those who take advantage of the low threshold to publishing. Listicles, .gif blogs, and the “sponsored stories” virus that plagues my eyes as it gets around my AdBlock.
The 24/7 news cycle is here to stay but that doesn’t mean we should compromise the quality of our content. NPR did a good piece on this and talked about some examples of good content creators that are succeeding:
Photo from Flickr Commons.
Eff Yeah Friday
Emily and I started our seeds last weekend. A little later than we planned but that’s the way the world works.
What’s so awesome? THEY’RE SPROUTING ALREADY.
Eff Yeah Friday: “Two Year Plan” by Such Gold
Every Friday I’m going to post something awesome. This is the first. There will be more.
Such Gold is my favorite band right now. Enjoy.
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