Dino Rossi may have just introduced a new metric into the U.S. Senate campaign: Facebook friends. And he's ahead.

A press release marking  his one week anniversary of getting into the race suggests he's way ahead on that score: “In just the first week, we have signed up over 2,500 people online, attracted over 20,000 Facebook followers, third most of any US Senate candidate and nearly twice that of Senator Murray and raised over $600,000, including nearly $200,000 online." 

So clearly, Murray's going to have to get busy getting people to "friend" her or someone's going to write about Rossi's ongoing Facebook advantage, and what she'll have to do to overcome it. And then, before you know it, they'll be exploring any Twitter gap she might have, and then talking about how he's so much better at campaigning in the new media.

One reason why Rossi may be doing so well: Go to his campaign website, and there's not much to do except watch his YouTube announcement speech, signup to follow the campaign on Facebook or Twitter or by e-mail.

Or donate, of course.

But no long biography, no boringly detailed issue analyses or white papers, no calendar of campaign events...at least not as of Thursday afternoon. It's the perfect site for web surfers with short attention spans.

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