As Eliza Newlin Carney reported in our State of Lobbying issue this week, the advocacy industry is increasingly using social networking tools to promote their issue of the day.

The Sunlight Foundation is using Twitter to directly lobby senators to co-sponsor the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act that we blogged about yesterday. Sunlight courted bill supporters to lobby senators' blackberrys directly via a 'Tweet Lobby'.

"[We] believe this will be the first organized direct lobbying of members of Congress over Twitter," Sunlight Communication's Director Gabriela Schneider told National Journal. Two senators, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., tweeted about their support of the bill. Both of these lawmakers supported the bill in previous sessions of Congress so their position is not necessarily a reflection of the Twitter lobby.

It will be interesting and telling if the Twitter lobby generates a response from a greater portion of the 17 senators on Twitter, especially those who haven't voiced support of the bill in the past. We'll be paying attention.

                                                                                                                --Eliza Krigman