Minnesota Independent

Newt Gingrich. Photo: Lauren Victoria Burke, WDCpix

Analysis: Only 8 percent of Gingrich’s Twitter followers are ‘actual people’

By Lynda Waddington | 08.03.11 | 11:16 am

Newt Gingrich says he has six times as many Twitter followers as all the other GOP presidential hopefuls combined, and he’s right: His 1.3 million followers trumps even Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann, who has more than 67,000 followers. But a new analysis by a tech company shows that all is not as it seems: Only 8 percent of those followers are “actual people,” with the rest made up of spammers, business accounts and private or anonymous users.

Rep. Michele Bachmann. Photo: Photo: Gage Skidmore

After social media campaign, Bachmann listed in TIME 100

By Andy Birkey | 04.21.11 | 1:41 pm

After campaigning over the last month on social media, Rep. Michele Bachmann secured enough votes from followers to be included in TIME magazine’s list of the top 100 most influential people of 2011. Controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh wrote the profile on Bachmann for the magazine, and Bachmann is the only 2012 hopeful to make the list.

PoliTweeps: Rybak sets an example about tweeting and riding

By Paul Schmelzer | 05.19.10 | 11:30 am

Minnesota politicos have been tweeting about everything from Gov. Pawlenty’s announcement that he won’t be applying for federal Race to the Top (RTTT) funds, the new Humphrey Institute gubernatorial poll and, from Minneapolis’ mayor, tweeting while not bicycling.

PoliTweeps: Newsweek on the road with Bachmann all week

By Paul Schmelzer | 05.10.10 | 12:00 pm

Newsweek’s Andrew Romano is tagging along with Rep. Michele Bachmann this week and tweeting what he finds. Today Bachmann does a series of jobs forums, starting in St. Cloud. So far Romano’s done a little fact checking…

PoliTweeps: Unallot Pawlenty!

By Paul Schmelzer | 05.06.10 | 3:08 pm

Our favorite (or at least most prolific) politweep, Democratic Rep. John Lesch, texts on Capitol chatter about impeaching the governor over unallotment, an action by Tim Pawlenty dubbed “the politics of arrogance” by Rep. Paul Thissen. Plus:…

PoliTweeps: God, guns, green energy

By Paul Schmelzer | 04.29.10 | 12:59 pm

As some are tweeting about guns, God and green power, anticipation builds for the start of the GOP State Convention. But as one Republican candidate looks forward to seeing “many of you there,” one group won’t be allowed…

PoliTweeps: Jobs, Gaza and bikini-clad mannequins

By Paul Schmelzer | 04.02.10 | 12:30 pm

I’ve gotta hand it to state Rep. John Lesch: while many politicians tend to use Twitter as merely a feed for press releases, the St. Paul Democrat gets more… creative.…

Parry lives down tweets, saves District 26 Senate seat for GOP

By Chris Steller | 01.26.10 | 11:07 pm

Mike Parry kept Minnesota’s Senate District 26 in the Republican column Tuesday, winning a plurality of the vote in a special election that pitted him against DFLer Jason Engbrecht and Roy Srp of the Independence Party.

Three campaigns battle four winds in SD26 special election

By Chris Steller | 01.26.10 | 11:49 am

A classic Minnesota three-way election is underway today in Senate District 26, with DFLer Jason Engbrecht, Republican Mike Parry and Independence Party candidate Roy Srp vying to replace Dick Day. And classic Minnesota January weather returned just in time for the vote.

Parry denies Twitter scrubbing, calls Obama ‘angry’ black man

By Andy Birkey | 01.06.10 | 8:05 am

Mike Parry, the Republican candidate running to fill the seat of Sen. Dick Day in the District 26 special election, denied he erased any updates on his Twitter account and defended a tweet in which he called President Obama a “Power Hungry Arrogant Black Man.” To that description, he added “angry,” as well.