Sure, there probably are Maine companies that can do it. But if companies in Boston, San Fran, or D.C. have been doing it for years and have packaged products ready to implement with little to no customization or tweaking, tell me how a company who has never had experience in this very specific and demanding service in Maine can expect to compete on a cost-basis.

Are you going to ask the candidates who designed their relationship management databases and if they were Maine companies? What is Jacobson and LePage have website designs from Maine and the database management is outsourced.

For Richardson, there appears to be no excuse. This is the commissioner of DECD in the state.

Nice job of sleuthing, btw.

I don’t buy the “cost” argument, either. Money spent in Maine, stays in this state (some great data on that connected w/ Portland’s Buy Local campaign). Given the state’s revenue issues, Mainers, particularly Mainers hoping to be the next governor ought to understand that.

“Hey Mike,

I work for Rosa Scarcelli. Saw your Tweets regarding candidate’s websites. A couple of points:

1. We did interview Maine-based web designers for the job.
2. Liberty Concepts won out due to their considerable experience with campaign websites, which other companies simply couldn’t match.
3. Liberty’s owner, Jonathan Karush, is from Vasselboro and has family here. Other staff members, including Christen Dute, designer, and Ashley Brann, office manager, are also from Maine, Topsham and Windsor, respectively. Their knowledge and relationship to Maine played a big part in our decision.
4. If Rosa is elected governor, she hopes to improve Maine’s business climate so companies like Jonathan’s can return to Maine.

Thanks.

DB”

he followed up later with the folowing: “Believe me, it wasn’t an easy decision on web designers. And there are a lot of great companies here in Maine. It was really the experience and contacts that Liberty has that won out.”

I pointed out in the post that several Maine candidates have also used Liberty Concepts (Tom Allen, Mike Michaud). I still think it’s unfortunate (and, frankly, a little difficult to believe) that no Maine companies could match their expertise; clearly many of the other candidates were able to find Maine firms to do their sites.

And I think the “roots in Maine” defense which both Scarcelli’s and Lynne’s campaign are using falls a little flat. The money and exposure went beyond Maine’s borders, when that money and exposure could have stayed right here at home.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!

Unfortunately, I stand by my original conclusion. It’s great that Eleana has roots in Maine, and I even attended one of the Kennebunkport rallies that her father organized (when Vladimir Putin visited the Bush compound), so I’m grateful to him for that.

But in an election where job creation for Mainers is such a vital issue, it’s disheartening to see candidates choose to spend their campaign dollars outside the state, for what could have been done right at home. I’m sure Eleana is a wonderful person with a family who actively contributes to Maine. But even if the job was inexpensive, those are dollars that could had stayed local. If I’m not mistaken, embracing a local economy is one of the major tenets of the Green Party, isn’t it?

Nearly every candidate’s site is “maintained” locally, and that’s not something that is unique to the Lynne campaign. That’s why sites use a CMS like Wordpress (or Drupal or one of scores of others). If the candidates were unable to keep their sites up-to-date with the latest campaign news, they’d be very little use to anyone. That’s why I tried to uncover was who styled the site, not who maintained the content.

Again, thanks for participating!

You could have 1000 visitors each month that do nothing, and I could have 100 visitors each month that make a campaign donation.

Alexa would see 1000 as a “better” site, even though in reality my 100 visitors/donors were higher quality visitors.

Definitely pursue the redesign, default blogger templates can water down your message.

You may consider that a failure, but I believe you have an obligation to update your page (http://mikedesjardins.us/wordpress/2009/12/hey-aspiring-maine-governors-who-did-your-site/) to indicate that the site is Maine-designed and Maine run.

David Bright
campaign manager
Williams Campaign Committee
234-4224

Thanks.