Dems, GOP take 2010 campaign fights to iPhone and iPad

Democratic and Republican strategists are poised to take their
campaign battles to the iPhone and iPad ahead of this year’s tough
midterm elections.

As smartphone popularity continues to grow
exponentially — with 2009 marking
the first time consumers used phones
for data more than calls — strategists seem to agree the newest
trench
in political warfare is none other than the mobile device.

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National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) was the first party
organization out of the gate with an iPhone app, released last Friday.
The tool allows users to follow GOP Senate races with the help of
a feed aggregates Republican campaign news across the NRSC’s
Twitter, Facebook and blog pages.

The app also includes Senate
race
descriptions, video archives and ways for users to receive more
campaign information and share it with friends.

“So many more people are
using mobile, using iPhones and other smart phones, and now the iPhone
will be going to Verizon — [the audience for the NRSC app is] that sort
of market of folks who are dropping their landlines and using their
mobile phones for connecting more and more,” Katie Harbath, Chief
Digital Strategist at NRSC, told

TechPresident last week. (It is not clear, however, if and when the

iPhone might migrate to Verizon.)

However, the
Democratic National Committee soon plans to one-up the NRSC: A
spokeswoman told Hillicon Valley on Monday that the DNC is planning its
own campaign app, available on both the iPhone and iPad.

That
tool, due
out this summer, will offer Democratic voters “news updates and
access to the latest election information
along with a variety of other features,” said the DNC’s Brandi Hoffine.

“The

Obama campaign and its successor Organizing for America has prided
itself on being on the cutting edge technologically with respect to
engaging and involving Americans in politics and in helping pass the
president’s agenda for change across all types of mediums and
platforms,” she said.