Candidates invade MySpace

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Google the name of Phil Angelides, the Democratic candidate for governor, and you'll get the usual responses. There are his official Web site, some recent news stories and political blogs. But on the second page, there's a surprise -- a Phil Angelides MySpace site.

Really? A candidate for governor is on MySpace.com, the consummate teen chat site? You mean to say the wonky, somewhat stodgy Angelides is a member of a site where kids exchange sometimes racy photos, swap music and talk trash about each other?

You bet your votes.

This is the new world of politics on the Internet. With the Millennium generation, an enormous chunk of the population between 13 and 25 years old that is just coming into prime voting age, experts say politicians would be foolish to ignore the nearly 76 million MySpace users. Even if they aren't sure what the fuss is about.

Most politicians try to focus on the Modern Maturity crowd because they are the ones who show up to the polls.