THE INTERNET — Yesterday we reported that some new polls show shifting ground for Colorado Senate candidates, and just about everyone else running this election cycle, in terms of where folks fall on various issues, specifically: Obamacare, personhood and oil and gas development/ fracking.
Below is the result of our semi-scientific efforts on the twitter analytic tool hashtagify.me, complete with contextualizing timeline. Here’s what we’re seeing, although we encourage you to weigh in via comment below.
Nationally, people are talking less about Obamacare and more about fracking. You’ll notice that’s a particular trend after state lawmakers’ attempt to hash out a legislative solution to the public outcry for local control over oil and gas development (fracking) failed right at the end of the session. Though #fracking tweets aren’t necessarily as local as #copolitics, they do appear to be rising together.
Also this week, news hit that Republicans in Congress are no longer actively seeking to repeal the health care law (Obamacare) and that few will say for sure if they’ll be investing in more critical ads on the subject. Obviously it remains to be seen, but our chart shows #fracking about to eclipse #obamacare, which may be another reflection of popular fatigue with the great healthcare law debate.
Meanwhile in personhoodville, well, no one’s tweeting about personhood anymore. That could point to a good strategic move by Senate candidate Congressman Cory Gardner’s team. See Gardner’s announcement that he’s flipped to a “no” on personhood way back in March? It caused a few spikes on the topic through April. But despite opponent Mark Udall’s campaign’s efforts to keep the issue popping in the public discourse — for example by pointing out that Gardner’s still a co-sponsor for a federal personhood bill — it looks a little like the birds are forgetting, or have plum forgot.
#co Key:
#cosen = Colorado Senate race between incumbent Democrat Mark Udall and Republican Congressman Cory Gardner
#cogov = Colorado Governor’s race
#coleg = Colorado State Legislature
#copolitics = General Colorado political chatter
Update: Curious about how the “popularity” measure gets figured out? So were we! Founder Dan Mazzini tells us that the popularity figure is based on a comparison between the reach of the hashtag we search for and that of the most popular hashtag on twitter, which is given a score of 100. Then logarithms happen. You can read more here.