By Mark F. Bonner
mark.bonner@rankinledger.com

In the first few moments Lee Yancey began plotting a run for the state Senate he knew a strong Web presence, utilizing YouTube and MySpace, would be a must.

Not because it is in vogue, or because the sites are creating a major buzz with presidential candidates - although they are.

"It just works," the 39-year-old Republican District 20 candidate said.

What works is his Web site, www.leeyancey.org, from which the candidate has developed a 4,000-person e-newsletter, garnered dozens of hits a day and fielded about 30 requests for yard signs.

And he's far from alone. Dozens of candidates in Rankin County's local elections, large and small, are shifting their campaign efforts online in the hopes their Web prowess will give them an edge with voters at the polls.

"I don't have any empirical evidence that says being online creates more votes," said Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University. "But, if a candidate doesn't have some sort of Web presence or join the high-tech club in some way, people will question the validity of the candidacy."

The Web and all of its tools are efficient and, if a candidate gets lucky, Wiseman said, the Internet can save a campaign a lot of money while creating a wealth of buzz.

Take GOP Secretary of State candidate Delbert Hosemann, whose tongue-in-cheek television advertisement, poking fun at his name, has been spreading across YouTube like wild fire.

Tuesday morning his commercial had been viewed more than 4,000 times.

"I alone have been e-mailed that ad 10 times," Wiseman said. "It's fun to watch and I can do it at my leisure. If you didn't know the name 'Delbert Hosemann' after that spot, then you know it now. Every time I watch it, I am expanding the dollars he used to create it."

But an aggressive Web campaign isn't just for statewide office seekers.

In Rankin County, hyper-local races for Board of Supervisors, chancery clerk and tax assessor are now competing online - and their methods are nothing to double-click away from.

As soon as Oma Cox's Web site loads, www.coxfortaxassessor.com, the Republican candidate can be heard welcoming browsers to his page against the inspirational score from the movie Rudy.

Elsewhere on the site, he has several flash videos of himself answering 15 minutes of questions, seemingly from inside his home office.

A computer screen with his campaign art can be seen in the background.

The approach might sound cheesy, but Cox swears it's working.

He averages 60 to 70 hits a day, and though the numbers aren't in yet, Cox estimates for the month of July he will average 160.

That's not bad considering 148 votes decided who made the runoff in the 2003 election.

"I've gone out to businesses and handed out cards, but to me this is easier for people to deal with," Cox said. "It's like my application, or my resume, to the people of Rankin County who don't know me. It tells them everything I have done."

And with the help of his Web-savvy 21-year-old daughter, the cost of designing the Web site has been defrayed.

For his campaign and his business Web site, Cox only pays $7 a month.

"For that amount of money, it would have been foolish for me not to do it," the 50-year-old said.

Bridget P. Hallett, president of local public relations firm the Hallett Group, said that although candidates may never abandon the standard pushcard and sign angle, a sea change is occurring in regards to local elections and the Internet.

Going door-to-door to meet and greet potential voters will never go out of style, but if a candidate's pushcard lacks a Web address, garnering a vote might prove difficult.

"If the candidate is online, it gives people the option to check qualifications on their own time," she said. "They can log on real quick and see what they want to see."

Her two Republican clients, chancery clerk candidate Larry Swales and District 2 supervisor candidate Bobby Peoples, both have an online presence. But a Web site is not the only way they are using technology. According to Hallett, both campaigns have been utilizing mass e-mailing.

"Rather than a phone call, people are more likely to respond by e-mail now," she said. "That's just the way it is now."

Parker Dykes Jr. has taken it a step further.

As the Constitution party candidate for the District 35 Senate seat, he has the Web site, the YouTube video denouncing America's two party system and an inspirational reading of Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech.

But what he has that no one else has is DVDs.

"Yes, when I go knocking door-to-door, I hand out my DVDs," he said. "Basically, it's me talking about the national ID card, the illegality of the IRS and the income tax."

Claiming 1,000 hits a month at www.senate35.com, Dykes said much of the response he has gotten has more to do with people's curiosity about his political affiliation than his candidacy.

"If I don't win, so be it," he said. "But at least now, people know what I stand for."

Another outlet online campaigners are infiltrating to entice voters is social networking Web sites like MySpace.

Yancey has his own page decorated with the image of the American flag, a bald eagle and the sounds of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

And he has a cadre of about 100 friends and supporters cheering him on, some of whom have decorated their own pages with Yancey's campaign materials.

On Yancey's wall, one woman wrote: "YANCEY FOR PRESIDENT ..... YEP WE'RE GOIN ALL THE WAY !!!!!!"

"Most people under 40 don't read the newspaper, and that's a shame, because I do," Yancey said. "But there are other forms of media they do read and MySpace is one of them."

But it doesn't end there. Leading to the election, Yancey said he will be posting a humorous YouTube video featuring himself.

"I'm just trying to maintain awareness," he said.

Wiseman thinks this is only the beginning. With more mobile technology becoming available, he predicts candidates will start finding ways to target potential voters whenever they want - in a car, in a meeting, at the grocery store.

"You won't be able to escape it," Wiseman said. "But for now, If they Google you and you aren't there, then you must not be that important."