I’m on the mailing lists of both the Republican and Democratic parties. I got there by having been registered to vote at one point as a member of each party. (I won’t get into why I was registered with each party; I try to not take sides in the context of this blog, slamming or praising either party when they do something wrong or right from a communications perspective.)

The email I just received from the Democratic Party was intriguing enough to prompt a quick post. The Democrats have launched a CGM campaign inviting people to submit videos, the winners of which will be featured in TV ads. The email, from Brian Wolff, director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says the videos will offer an alternative view to President Bush’s State of the Union:

Let’s respond with energy, imagination—and maybe even a little sense of humor—to George W. Bush’s last attempt to lie, scare, and mislead America into adopting his disastrous policies.

The winning videos in our contest will be part of a larger DCCC Real State of the Union initiative. Using mobile text messages, videos, and an online lie detector, we intend to make sure that the truth speaks louder than George Bush’s spin.

The Real State of the Union video contest involves uploading productions of up to two minutes to YouTube. The panel of judges includes movie director Jerry Zucker, Goo Goo Dolls singer John Rzeznik, political blogger Arianna Huffington, Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek, Everclear singer Art Alexikas, and party strategist James Carville.

The contest web page asks for videos on gas prices, the middle class squeeze, college affordability, health care, Iraq and topics of your choice.

Undoubtedly, I’ll get some comments here from the other side that are partisan in nature. Partisanship aside, it’s another interesting way to get voters involved on behalf of their party, just as Coors is using a similar approach to deal with the fact that Budweiser has shut the company out of advertising on the SUper Bowl.

Frankly, I’ve been bored and unimpressed with most of the social media efforts on display so far from Democrats and the party. It’s nice to see something interesting crop up.