Posted on Sat, Jan. 13, 2007

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S.C. politician takes to YouTube

By Seanna Adcox

The Associated Press

COLUMBIA - The first online videos chronicling S.C. Rep. Keith Kelly's legislative career show him sitting at his desk, wading through the governor's proposed budget and lamenting about a Christmas gift - a coffee maker without a pot.

The freshman GOP lawmaker plans to post regular vlogs (video logs) on his Web site and http://www.youtube.com/ page, becoming perhaps the first S.C. legislator to keep constituents informed through the popular online video-sharing site.

"Who would've thought it would've been me?" asked the 48-year-old Woodruff attorney. "I was dragged into the new age by my daughters."

YouTube has already become a part of the political scene nationwide.

Several congressional candidates took to the site for the midterm elections to court younger, Web-savvy voters. The site also has revealed politicians' gaffes and mistakes.

Virginia Sen. George Allen's "macaca" remark, an obscure racial slur directed at a rival campaign worker who was filming him, became the defining event of his losing campaign against Democrat Jim Webb.

Kelly doesn't plan to give weighty speeches on his weekly vlog, just talk about "whatever comes up."

On the General Assembly's opening day earlier this week, that meant getting settled into a nearly empty office.

"There's nothing hanging on the walls," he says to the camera, clad in a white dress shirt and bow tie.

"I really was going to have a cup of coffee this morning before I started, but I opened this and there's no coffee container," he said, motioning to a box on his desk.

His campaign Web site has been reconfigured to show his vlog and provide a link to his YouTube page, where he urges people to post comments.

"It's instant communication," he said. "Send me something, I can get it back to you. I don't have to wait on you to write a letter and mail it."

In another video clip, he's looking through Gov. Mark Sanford's executive budget.

"I'm now about one third of the way through this budget," he says. "Give me some comments. Tell me what you want me to do for us back in the district."

A colleague, Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, said he may launch a vlog to accompany the blog he started after his 2004 election.

"I sure will need to if I'm going to keep up with the technology," said Bryant, 39. "I didn't know I'd gotten one-upped."