Ron Paul leaps ahead of his rivals … on Facebook

Blame it on the pressures of tax time, but libertarian lawmaker Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) earned more new Facebook fans last week than any other member of Congress, making him America’s most popular lawmaker. At least on Facebook.

According to ohmygov.com’s rankings, the congressman racked up more than 3,000 new Facebook fans in a seven-day period, for a grand total of 193,959 fans, miles ahead of his closest competitor, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has 26,146 fans.

{mosads}The biggest leap for the week belonged to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R), who added 657 fans to his 920 existing fans — a 42 percent gain.

GOP House lawmakers still dominate the five top spots on the Facebook political fan charts. Rounding out the list, below Paul and Ryan, are Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio), Rep. Adam Putnam (Fla.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.).