January 18, 2012 02:20 AM UTC

Jared Polis Gets Social Media Right

• 2 Comments
• by: ProgressiveCowgirl

They’re all on Twitter now, aren’t they? If you happen to really, really love dry, prewritten campaign updates and restatements of slogans hammered within an inch of their lives by PR people, you can follow most any Congresscritter of your choice on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook. But Congresspeople who really, really understand social media are few and far between.

Congressman Jared Polis is one of us: The few, the proud, the truly Web-nerdy. I’ll go out on a limb here and bet that he’s at least once closed the Reddit tab in his browser, then ten seconds later thought, “I wonder what’s on Reddit?” and reopened it. Proof: Reddit asks Polis anything, and he answers like a real person, not a conglomerate produced by a communications team.

Selected extra-awesome quotes after the jump:

By way of describing himself:

I also= gay, Jewish, gamer, nerd, baseball fan, retired florist, alfalfa farmer, numismatist, tarot reader, new father, beekeeper

Didn’t know you were a beekeeper, Jared! If you’re out there reading Pols (we know you are… one of us! one of us!) I’d love any suggestions you may have. Thinking of getting a hive myself. Moving on, a Redditor asks:

Is there anyone you look up to in Washington?

Polis replies:

Congressman Joe Crowley (D-NY). I think he’s the tallest Congressman. like at least 6′ 5″

A Redditor pitches a softball:

How do you get away with being so cool and yet somehow so smart?

Polis:

It’s all an act.

Explaining to a non-American what Congress does:

we are responsible for passing all laws, and spending all the governments money, usually more money than the government takes in

In response to an invitation to a meetup:

of course I’ll come to one, but I have to buy my own beer, ethics rules and all.

I think with Boulder and Ft. Collins I will represent the most microbreweries in the country 🙂

On whether or not a question-asker should run for office:

just go for it and run! the worst that will happen is that you won’t win and that’s the same as if you didn’t run!

About Congress’s approval rating:

I am in the ~90% that doesn’t approve of Congress.

And a photo of his dog: