The following is my opinion on what makes a Candidate's website a good site.
First, I think there's a element of "smoothness", that makes the site look like it was professional and not though together at random.
One website I can point out as being "smooth" is the site for Jay Fawcett who is running in the 5th District in Colorado.
His website is put together to look very professional. From the page, you can easily look into his background, or issues..
(more under the fold)
Basically, "tool bars" are very useful.
A lot of sites have the bar of "About Me"/"Issues" and all that on the left side of the page. There's probably a precise science to positioning that sort of thing for maximum effect.
Another good thing to have on a serious site is good looking graphics, such as the Fawcett graphic on his page (along with the pictures shown on the right side of his page)
The home page of Peggy Lamm (candidate for the 7th District) also displays some of the usual design of a campaign website. Which is "[Name] For [Office]" with a photo of the candidate and another photo of something scenic.
Other websites i've found though Politics1:
Rich Lesh (Democratic candidate running for Missouri's second district) - Nice layout, but the quicktime thing didn't load for me.
Stacey Tallitsch (Democratic candidate running in Louisiana's first district) has a lot of information and graphics on her page, but it's not really presented in the best way.
Pavel Goberman (Democratic candidate running in Oregon's first district) has a very long and incoherant website, which is fitting since Politics1.com considers him a "Frequent Candidate"
Coleen Rowley (Democratic candidate in Minnesota's second district) has one of the usual layouts, but it comes with the slogan of "Always Try"
Jill Derby (Democratic candidate in Nevada's second district) has a very brief page, without information about herself. It has a nice graphic though.
Barry Michaels (Democratic candidate in Nevada's third district) probably lacks "smoothness" in his site. Although he does resemble Dr. Phil.
Shane Sklar (Democratic candidate in Texas's 14th District) has a pretty smooth site with multiple photos of himself, and a good color scheme.
Rosalind Kurita (Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in Tennessee) also has a nice page. Although after going though many sites, some sites like her's lose their uniqueness. But the page does link to a short film on her.
There's hundreds of specific sites.
So to sum up my thoughts.
Since the internet is getting more important than ever, websites for candidates should have a good layout. It should allow readers to move around the site easily.
Also, the front page shouldn't be excessively long, but it should point out important information and link to extended pages of information.
And having links to "contribute money" is probably very helpful.
So, what do you look for in a Political Candidate's website?
What would you like to see more of and less of in a political candidate's website?
I'm sure there's a way to break the template in a good way. And it doesn't involve bringing back scrolling text, flashing text, or gif files of dancing cartoon characters.
Although flash games, if done right, would be a unique addition to a page.
So, yeah, i'm handing the floor over to you all. What do you look for in a campaign webpage? What makes a page better than average?