NC's top political Twitter feeds

Washington Post's "The Fix" released its top political twitter feeds to follow for each of the 50 states, including N.C.

Posted 3:34 a.m. Mar 1, 2011 — Updated 2:52 p.m. Mar 1, 2011

Laura Leslie

The Washington Post’s “The Fix” (the online empire of columnist and Roll Call alum Chris Cillizza) released its picks today for the top political Twitter feeds in each of the 50 states.

North Carolina's list was pretty interesting.

@NCCapitol made the list (thanks very much!) along with my slightly less political alternative feed, @LauraLeslie. So did five of my fellow N.C. journalists:

@Binker (Greensboro’s Mark Binker)
@Josh_Ellis (State Government Radio/WPTF)
@M2Mpolitics (Barry Smith, Freedom Newspapers)
@marynewsom (Charlotte Observer associate editor)
new-media journalist @JonathanKappler (research director at N.C. Free Enterprise Foundation)

Seven Republican officials/activists made the list:

@mridenhour (Charlotte tea party organizer and former city council candidate Matthew Ridenhour)
@Corey_Thompson (former Mecklenburg County commissioners candidate and tea party backer)
@katys (Katy Benningfield, conservative blogger)
@NCCivitas (The John W. Pope Civitas Institute)
@LawShaheenJr (political consultant Larry Shaheen)
@CommishNeil (Mecklenburg County Commissioner Neil Cooksey)
@meckcommish (Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James)

But only two Dems joined them:

Charlotte Mayor @Anthonyfoxx
@CommishJennifer (Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jennifer Roberts)

And to close it out, one apparently honest-to-Pete civilian: @tbrasse (Charlotte land developer Tom Brasse). Congrats!

To be fair, this isn’t a list of the most consistent or smartest or even most followed Twitter accounts in N.C. politics. It was compiled from votes by Fix readers who a) follow Twitter for state politics and b) cared enough to vote for their favorite feeds. It’s a long way from scientific (and the curators don’t deny that), but it’s probably as good a real-world “clout” metric as you’re likely to get.

A lot of people think the social media world is dominated by Democrats, the party that used it to great effect for grassroots organizing in the 2008 campaign cycle. I’ve been thinking for a while now that the GOP has closed that gap. The Fix survey makes me think maybe I’m right.

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