Lawmakers getting Twitter-savvy

CARSON CITY -- Twitter, the online networking system for swapping 140-character messages called "tweets," is changing the way Carson City works and prompting grumbling in some quarters about a breakdown in decorum.

For the first time, lawmakers from both major parties, nearly every journalist, activists and state officials are tweeting everything imaginable about the legislative session, from their reaction to budget proposals and links to news articles to pictures from side trips to nearby Lake Tahoe.

It's a critical mass that has pushed the inside chatter about policy, gossip and backslapping once confined to hallways of the Legislative Building and barrooms along Carson Street onto laptop computers and smart phones and allowed people from all over Nevada to chime in.

Although the explosion in Twitter use has caused some to question whether it will be a distraction during session on the floor and in committees, it appears many more embrace it.

"You find out information quickly," said Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno. "And in the legislative arena that is what it is all about, keeping up with information."

Leslie, 55, got a rude introduction to the technology during the 2010 special session. The then-assemblywoman was in the hallway outside the Assembly chambers when she cracked that a piece of water rights legislation under consideration was dead on arrival as far as she was concerned.

She said a journalist overheard the remark, tweeted it to followers, and by the time her conversation was over, she was already getting flak for the hasty stance.

"I walked down the hallway, and people started talking to me and I had to apologize for it," Leslie said. "Because of Twitter, it suddenly was all over the building."

Rather than recoil from the prolific, text-based social medium that caused her so many headaches, Leslie decided to embrace it.

The service is free. Users need only create an account and then click on people they wish to "follow" to see their updates. Twitter, and third-party tweet management applications, also allows users to categorize what they follow by name or subject. Tweets often contain special characters that regular users use to sort information.

Leslie asked former Reno-area political blogger Tracy Viselli for a Twitter tutorial and has since become one of the Senate's most prolific tweeters.

"I think Twitter is actually a great way to get active, for regular citizens to get active," Viselli, a social media expert who now lives in Alexandria, Va., said of how it allows front-line activists and regular citizens to get their thoughts in front of politicians and journalists who make the news.

During pre-session hearings to review Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval's proposed austerity budget, Leslie tweeted her reaction to witness testimony about potential harm to schools, colleges and social services.

Activists in Reno, Las Vegas and elsewhere picked up the tweets and passed them to their followers, often with added comments.

Watching the exchanges unfold, it was easy to see what testimony resonated with people and how Leslie's responses were received by her supporters, essentially giving anyone who wanted insight into Leslie's thinking and a chance to respond directly to the senator.

"Sometimes it can be a more direct way unless you can go to their office and get them," Viselli said of getting a tweet in front of a lawmaker. "It is hard to actually find a politician in their office."

Longtime Carson City journalist Sean Whaley has witnessed the effect of Twitter on how lawmakers, lobbyists and reporters interact.

Whaley, who covered the capital for the Review-Journal from 1989 to 2008 and for the online-only Nevada News Bureau since 2009, said the Twitter transformation has been swift.

"It really kind of opens up a world that hadn't been there before," said Whaley, who was reluctant to carry a cell phone during his print career. "I've sort of been swayed by its power and its usefulness."

Whaley described Twitter as an inside-baseball chat room for legislators, reporters, lobbyists and others, a place to trade serious information, news tips and even swap jokes.

He said the power of the medium is especially apparent as he watches Nevada News Bureau intern Andrew Doughman navigate Twitter.

Doughman, a frequent tweeter, uses it as Whaley does to post links to stories. He also posts frequent observations, such as one on Jan. 21 that said, "At least one legislator snoozing during legislative training on budget for freshmen legislators," prompting freshman Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, to post, "Not me!" in response.

"I think it will probably benefit him in terms of having a rapport with lobbyists and lawmakers," Whaley said of Doughman's tweeting.

But not everyone is enamored of how Twitter has so quickly and thoroughly infiltrated the Legislature.

Robert Uithoven, a Republican political consultant and lobbyist, doesn't think lawmakers should be sending tweets during witness testimony.

"The legislators ought to be paying attention to the hearings and not playing on their BlackBerrys and iPhones," Uithoven said.

If the tables were turned, Uithoven said, lawmakers wouldn't like witnesses sending tweets while answering questions.

He said if lawmakers want to make comments, they should use the microphone to respond to witnesses and onlookers directly.

"The instant tweeting, leave that to staff and pundits and media," Uithoven said.

One legislative staffer who wasn't authorized to comment publicly about private interactions between lawmakers said that even before Twitter took hold, some legislators bristled at the idea of their colleagues using social media during hearings.

The staffer recounted an incident during the 2009 regular session when Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, got upset at Assemblyman David Bobzien, D-Reno, for posting a Facebook update during a Government Affairs Committee meeting.

The staffer said Bobzien, who was filling in as chairman for Kirkpatrick, who was absent, posted that he was chairing the meeting as it was starting.

"Bobzien got in trouble for it," the staffer said. "Him doing that in her committee was infuriating."

Kirkpatrick said she rarely uses online social networking and hasn't taken the time to understand how Twitter works.

"I just think that everybody should be doing the business of the people during committee hearings," Kirkpatrick said.

Bobzien said that far from a distraction, Twitter and other social media help him pay closer attention.

"For me it is just another form of note-taking," he said.

Kirkpatrick said Bobzien is back in her good graces since the incident.

"Bobzien is always in good graces. I just like him to use his time wisely," she said.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.