Ohio's Kucinich Holds 10th Spot On The Web: Huckabee's Hits Soar To 2nd Place

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's campaign Web site now is getting 36.12% of all the hits tracked in the Republican field, a surge that puts him a tad behind Ron Paul's Internet juggernaut. The former Arkansas governor -- whose poll numbers are in a steep climb -- has also taken off like a rocket in cyber space. Of the 16 campaign Web sites maintained by the Democratic and Republican candidates, Huckabee gets nearly a fourth of all traffic, making him No. 2 overall and right behind Paul. The candidate whose site seems to have tanked: Fred Thompson.

Here are the top four sites across the entire field: Paul, 24.22%; Huckabee, 23.62%; Obama, 12.28%, Clinton, 8.7%. Cleveland U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is No. 10 on the list at 2.52%. The least looked at Web site belongs to Sen. Chris Dodd.

The data is compiled by Hitwise, a commercial online intelligence service. It has been monitoring the presidential Web sites and charting their popularity since at least September. The company is a unit of Experian, the credit bureau. It says it has patented methodology that captures online usage, search and behavior of Internet users and can analyze online trends.

The Huckabee campaign is elated that its Web site is attracting heavier traffic as the January 3 Iowa caucuses approach. It put out the numbers on the campaign blog two days ago, and also said that this week has produced record numbers of hits.