Who’s Winning the Twitter Wars?

Amidst arguments about health-care reform and the economy, Twitter has become a major outlet for politicians to connect directly with supporters, hash out ideas, and air complaints about opponents. It has also played a role in many of this year's most unusual political stories. Last February, Rep. Pete Hoekstra tweeted about a secret trip to Iraq. This summer, Newt Gingrich called Sonia Sotomayor “racist” in a tweet (he later said he shouldn't have used the term), and Sarah Palin’s musings became fodder for a parody by William Shatner. Suddenly all of Washington is atwitter, and Democrats and Republicans are trying to capture a dominant share of the audience.

So far, media analysts have largely ceded the battle to the GOP. The Washington Times and CNN have both claimed that conservatives have the "upper hand" on Twitter, and at first glance, that appears to be true. TweetCongress.org, a directory of members of Congress on Twitter, lists 101 Republicans on the site and just 57 Democrats. Each party is mostly held up by a few Twitter superstars (like Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and Republican Sen. John McCain), but congressional Republicans overall have more followers and tweet more often. The five highest-ranking Republicans on Tweet Congress, led by McCain, have a combined 1.3 million followers. The top 10 Democrats, have about 72,000.

Beyond Congress, superstar users like Palin and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can claim hundreds of thousands, even millions of followers. But numbers don't necessarily mean dominance. Twitter strategies on both sides of the aisle are radically different, and the way liberals have been using the service may turn out to be more effective in the long run. But it's too soon to declare a victor yet in this fight.

A look at the profiles listed on Tweet Congress shows that members from both parties are largely using the site to promote their legislative goals and accomplishments. But conservatives tweet more provocatively, and they draw more notice as a result. "It's a survival tactic," says David All, president of the David All Group, a conservative media consulting firm. "[Republicans] are in the minority. They can't get press clips anymore. They need to rally support for their policies outside of the Beltway."

Conservatives, according to All, see Twitter as an online soapbox, a way to reach large audiences when traditional media outlets won't pay attention. When Sen. Chuck Grassley directed angry missives at President Obama earlier this summer ("When you are a 'hammer' u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL"), he briefly dominated the news cycle, even though the White House press corps was traveling through Europe at the time. Combative tweets like Grassley's make for great reading, so it's no surprise that Republicans draw larger audiences than Democrats. But there's no way to tell how many of those Republican followers are supporters, and how many are just there for the show.