What is PeekScore?: PeekScore is a rank from 1 to 10, assigned to every person. The higher someone’s score, the “more important” they are on the web. In calculating your PeekScore and updating it often, PeekYou takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to; your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news.
Here’s the latest installment of our ongoing survey of the full range of GOP presidential candidates – possible, presumed, withdrawn, speculated, and fully announced and running alike – to measure their prominences and impacts here in cyberspace, and to rank them according to their PeekScores.
Much has occurred in the GOP race since our last update of this list in November. Among the more notable events, Herman Cain – enjoying a moment as the party’s frontrunner at the time of that last entry – found his campaign derailed and himself withdrawing his candidacy. As has been custom throughout this turbulent race for the nomination, other frontrunners have emerged in the interim between then and now, with Mitt Romney usually polling just a smidgen ahead of the pack, and remaining more or less the one ultimately perceived by the mainstream media as the most likely nominee (although that perception is clung to very tentatively).
(What we did here at PeekYou during that time, in lieu of a December update of this list, is take a more in depth look at the online lives of some of the more prominent candidates. You can see that entry by clicking through here).
Many noteworthy developments have occurred on this list, as it remains as volatile as the race itself has been throughout its many months. The three most dramatic changes from the last update to this, however, are entirely consistent with the popular narrative and the revolving door “frontrunner” polling. (This seems as good a place as any to parenthetically interject that Mr. Romney, the one consistent leader of the polling pack, and the co-victor in the Iowa caucus, has never topped our list once in the many months we’ve been compiling it.)
The first two occurrences worthy of comment are the emergence of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich as this list’s two top dogs; each with a PeekScore of 10. Congressman Paul – a known and longstanding internet fave – has hovered near the list’s top for a while, and has found his PeekScore at the coveted 10 before. But he’s never topped our list until now. Speaker Gingrich has never found his footprint nearly so dramatic as this previously, and no question his late autumn ascent to frontrunner status – which just now, as of the time of this writing, seems to officially be waning – is what found him scaling such lofty heights. A less dramatic change from the last update is the jump up the chart from 10th place to 7th for former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, in the midst of his newly minted moment as “frontrunner,” and fresh off a dead heat tie finish with Romney in January 3rd’s Iowa caucus.
And now a couple of quick disclaimers for first time readers:
In compiling this list, PeekYou is not trying to suggest that a measurement of a candidate’s online presence or impact is any indication of the likelihood of him or her winning an election. This list is intended as a commentary on, and observation of cyberspace, and its ways, trends, and customs, and not so much on politics.
As is probably the case in most workplaces throughout the country, the political inclinations of the PeekYou staff run the gamut. These rankings are entirely objective and impartial.
| Rank | Picture | Name | Bio | Current PeekScore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 |
Ron Paul | Congressman from Texas | 10.00 / 10.00 |
| 2 |
 |
Newt Gingrich | Former speaker of the House of Representatives | 10.00 / 10.00 |
| 3 |
 |
Former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza | 9.87 / 10.00 | |
| 4 |
 |
Former governor of Alaska | 9.74 / 10.00 | |
| 5 |
 |
Rick Perry | Governor of Texas | 9.61 / 10.00 |
| 6 |
|
Governor of New Jersey | 9.46 / 10.00 | |
| 7 |
 |
Rick Santorum | Former senator from Pennsylvania | 9.34 / 10.00 |
| 8 |
 |
Mitt Romney | Former governor of Massachusetts | 9.30 / 10.00 |
| 9 |
 |
Former governor of Arkansas | 9.23 / 10.00 | |
| 10 |
 |
Congresswoman from Minnesota | 9.17 / 10.00 | |
| 11 |
 |
Chairman, Trump Organization | 9.15 / 10.00 | |
| 12 |
 |
Former mayor of New York City | 9.07 / 10.00 | |
| 13 |
 |
Gary Johnson (no longer running in the GOP, but instead running for the Libertarian Party nod) | Former governor of New Mexico | 8.77 / 10.00 |
| 14 |
 |
Former governor of Minnesota | 8.73 / 10.00 | |
| 15 |
 |
Jon Huntsman | Former governor of Utah | 8.65 / 10.00 |
| 16 |
 |
Congressman, chairman of the House Budget Committee | 8.62 / 10.00 | |
| 17 |
 |
Junior senator from Massachusetts | 8.43 / 10.00 | |
| 18 |
 |
Senior senator from South Carolina | 8.29 / 10.00 | |
| 19 |
 |
Former US ambassador to the United Nations | 8.28 / 10.00 | |
| 20 |
|
Governor of Indiana | 8.28 / 10.00 | |
| 21 |
 |
Thad McCotter | Congressman from Michigan | 8.08 / 10.00 |
| 22 |
 |
Andy Martin | Frequent political candidate and litigant | 8.05 / 10.00 |
| 23 |
 |
Roy Moore | Former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court | 8.00 / 10.00 |
| 24 |
 |
Buddy Roemer | Former governor of Louisiana | 8.00 / 10.00 |
| 25 |
 |
Fred Karger | Former campaign advisor to Ronald Reagan and gay activist | 7.95 / 10.00 |
| 26 |
 |
Vern Wuensche | Small-businessman, frequent candidate | 7.06 / 10.00 |
