Los Angeles DA Race Has a Projected Winner: Danette Meyers

LOS ANGELES, June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- With issues on the ballot like Prop 29, and California's GOP primary, the June 5th election of the Los Angeles District Attorney may not be getting the attention it merits. Far from irrelevant, the District Attorney position stands to have a more powerful effect on the electorate. The race goes underreported because mainstream polls are inconsistent and short on bold answers. Apart from the question of Steve Cooley's post-retirement legacy, the DA race isn't grabbing headlines. To make matters more confusing, without any one candidate projected to get the necessary 50% in the June election, most reporters expect this race to go on until a runoff scheduled for November.

But an Internet marketing company called Cyberset is more than willing to make a prediction: By every standard of measurement used in cases like these, Danette Meyers is likely to be Los Angeles' next district attorney.

Taking the example of Facebook "likes," Chief Deputy District Attorney Jackie Lacey, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and Deputy District Attorneys John Breault, Bobby Grace and Alan Jackson do not even approach the following Meyers has online. She is so far ahead of her rivals that the candidate in second place, Jackie Lacey, has less than one third of Danette Meyers' social networking followers. Meanwhile Carmen Trutanich isn't utilizing social media at all in his campaign.

Trutanich might be passing on the benefits of social media and coasting on what he believes to be a lead. However, as ranked by Alexa (the industry standard tool for site rankings) he doesn't actually have a lead.  His website doesn't have nearly the traffic of DanetteforDA.com, while in the meantime, Meyers' site shows up on the first page of Google results when users search for "Los Angeles District Attorney."

It's important when making these predictions to factor in how Meyers arrived at all of that Internet popularity in the first place. Historically, the Internet is the domain of the young and educated. The secrets to her success, and how they relate to her social media supremacy, are a mystery in some ways, although there are clues. Meyers has prosecuted Lindsay Lohan multiple times in the past few years, so her name pops up outside the context of the election on sites like TMZ.com. This may or may not be related.

Representatives of Cyberset are quick to add a disclaimer. "Obviously rankings and tweets don't equal votes," says their CEO, Shahab Saba, "But she's shown the public that she cares about this election by taking her Internet presence seriously," he says.

The Internet's effect on our democracy is still materializing. Nonetheless candidates like Danette Meyers who make marketing themselves online a priority - and succeed - let us feel that effect.

SOURCE Cyberset