Richmond - The Virginia Association of REALTORS® (VAR) today announced their in-kind financial support of text messaging platforms for two General Assembly campaigns in the 2007 election cycle. This is the first use of this technology by any candidate in Virginia. The text messaging platforms will be used with the re-election campaigns of State Senator Jeannemarie Devolites-Davis (R-34) and Delegate David Poisson (D-32). The use of this technology will mark the first by any candidate in Virginia.
“VAR is proud to help bring this technology to candidates for public office so that they can reach voters that who are often unreachable by traditional landline telephone or over the internet. According to statistics, mMost Virginians have their cell phone with them throughout the day and communicating by text messaging is the fastest growing method of interactive communications in the nation,” said Martin Johnson, Director of Government Relations for the Virginia Association of REALTORS®.
Toby Wyman, President of UTEXT Communications, the company working with the Virginia Association of REALTORS® VAR to provide text messaging technology to the campaigns, said, “This is an “opt-in” service offered by the campaigns for voters who wish to communicate with the candidate of choice through text messaging. Just as political candidates have taken advantage of email and the Internet as effective means of communicating with voters, text messaging is emerging as an equally effective tool for voter outreach as is evident in grassroots strategies employed by the 2008 presidential campaigns. Text messaging allows campaigns the ability to mobilize supporters with instant information and calls to action.”
VAR is providing this in-kind contributions to one Democratic House of Delegates member and one Republican member of the Virginia Senate seeking re-election this fall. The association has previously provided support to both State Senator Devolites-Davis and Delegate Poisson.
Miles Hoge of Woods Rogers Consulting and Jeff Britt of McGuireWoods Consulting will be working with the Poisson and Devolites-Davis campaigns, respectively, to help the candidates maximize their use of text messaging as an effective voter outreach tool.
The Virginia Association of REALTORS® (VAR) is the business advocate for real estate professionals in Virginia. VAR represents more than 39,000 REALTORS active in all phases of real estate brokerage, management, development and appraisal.