Steve Abbott’s New Media Pitch

Today, Steve Abbott’s campaign announced a trifecta of personnel for the New Media wing of his campaign.

Maine politicos will undoubtedly recognize the three names:  Lance Dutson, Mark Ellis and Scott Fish.

I could describe the three myself, but Abbott’s release does a good job of that, so I’ll just let them speak for themselves:

Dutson:

Lance Dutson served last year as New Media Director for U.S. Senator Susan Collins. He was also Director of Internet Strategy for Collins’ 2008 re-election campaign. Mr. Dutson received the Maine Software Developers’ Association ‘Best of the Web’ Award for the Collins for Senator web site.

Dutson ran the political blog ‘Maine Web Report,’ and was recognized nationally for his investigative reporting on Maine state government. Lance broke ground in 2007 when he became one of the original bloggers credentialed as press to cover the US v. Libby trial in DC Federal Court. He has been published in the Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, and was featured on Fox News, NECN, and local television and radio programs.

Ellis:

Mark J. Ellis, Abbott for Governor Political Director, is the former two-time chairman of the Maine Republican Party. Mr. Ellis most recently served as Director of Information Technology for Douglas Dynamics, L.L.C., where he led a team of computer, network, and software experts. He has worked in information technology for 30 years with companies such as Fisher Engineering, Forster Manufacturing Inc., Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp., and Digital Equipment Corp. (now Hewlett-Packard).

Ellis is founding webmaster of MaineGOP.com and designed and maintained the very first website for a statewide race in Maine: Susan Collins’ 1996 winning U.S. Senate campaign. Ellis was also county and eCampaign chairman for Dick Campbell, Ross Connolly, Jane Amero, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Charlie Summers, and Jim Longley. In 2004, Ellis served on the Bush-Cheney ’04 Maine Steering Committee as the eCampaign Chairman.

Fish:

Scott K Fish is perhaps best known in Maine as owner/editor of the State’s premier political web site, AsMaineGoes.com, online since 1998. From 1989-2000 Scott worked in the Maine State House as a communications staffer for the Senate and House Republicans. In 1992 he served as communications director for then-U.S. Representative Olympia Snowe’s re-election campaign.

Scott has been active for over 20 years writing guest columns for many Maine newspapers. He has been a featured guest expert on internet and political issues on Maine talk radio and television shows, and also produced and co-hosted the “Fish and Plowman” show on WVOM in 1998. Mr. Fish is in his sixth year writing the monthly Soapbox Derby political column for Bangor Metro magazine.

The presence of Dutson and Ellis on Abbott’s team should come as a surprise to absolutely no one – we basically already know about this.  The most interesting bit of this announcement is the presence of Fish.

As Maine Goes has been a staple of the conservative online community for more than a decade, and it has a particular reputation as a bastion of true believer conservatism.  Go into any gubernatorial thread there, and you will find a plethora of supporters of all the candidates.  Fish has not (at least not that I have found) come out publicly for one of the candidates up to this point, so his picking a horse will undoubtedly generate some conversation.

What this means for his forum is an open question.  Will it become a PR arm of the Abbott campaign?  Will he report on the race the same way he has up to this point?  Will his readers embrace his backing of Abbott, or will there be backlash?  These are open questions, but in the grand scheme, minor ones.

But, none the less, this announcement shows that Abbott will be focusing a great deal of his attention online.  The question of if these three men can move the needle for him will be an ongoing story line in the course of the election.  He has certainly chose people with extensive experience in the online space in Maine, which can’t hurt.