Victory-endorsed Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker understands social media has revolutionized the way candidates interact with voters, and she’s currently leading her opponents in reaching out online, according to one political observer.

Back in May, political blogger David Ortez wrote that Parker’s website was “the most effective out of all three candidates that I judged” in employing social media tools.  But this is 2009 and a snappy website isn’t enough to win an election – as it wasn’t in 1996 when the Dole-Kemp campaign launched the first website for a Presidential campaign.

These days a candidate needs effective strategies utilizing Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and all of these must be routinely updated to keep up with the voters’ increasing demand for information and interaction.  Ortez examined the major Houston mayoral candidates’ social media presences and once again Annise Parker came out on top:

Annise Parker’s Social Media Campaign was the best but after implementing certain items … she has gone into overdrive and left the rest of the campaigns in the smoke…From being personally invited to a blogger lunch…to obtaining clarifications on Twitter… this campaign has been proactive about reaching out to bloggers.

Parker’s online dominance is corroborated by the raw numbers. She boasts more than 1,100 followers on Twitter and over 6,000 supporters on Facebook, easily eclipsing the support of her opponents.

The rising popularity of social media has been a tremendous development for gay and lesbian politicos by shifting the balance of power away from just large donors and toward a broader coalition of supporters who can afford to give smaller amounts.  In 2008 Barack Obama broke fundraising records thanks to an unmatched online presence that brought in over $100,000,000 from small donors alone. Social media is also more effective in persuading supporters to volunteer, an advantage which is hard to translate into dollars and cents. Hopefully it is an advantage that Annise Parker will be able to harness from her growing stable of online supporters.