If the mayoral contest between Ron Roberts and Dick Murphy were decided by their Web sites, Dick Murphy would be our next mayor. Not because his is a particularly stellar Web site, however.

Truth be told, Murphy's Web site (murphy4mayor.com) is rather like a wrinkled suit that needs to be sent to the cleaners for a good pressing. Using a five-star rating system, neither site deserves more than three.

Comparing the two, Roberts' site (robertsformayor.com) definitely wins on style, which the young guns of the Net will tell you is all that matters. But we’re talking about a real election with real issues — an election that will determine who will be the leader of our nation's sixth largest city for the coming four years.

What Murphy's site lacks in style it makes up for in substance, particularly in terms of where he stands on the issues. Which, bottom line, is where it counts and why his site gets the nod.

That said, the link to Murphy's site was through an intermediate Web site, not directly from Yahoo. A search on Yahoo using the keywords "san diego mayor" turned up only Jim Hart's Web site.

Both Roberts and Murphy deserve dope slaps for not getting their sites listed in Yahoo, nor MSN, the two most popular search engines. Ironically, a search for Ron Roberts' site in the Lycos search engine (one of the top four), had a link to Murphy's site, but not Roberts.

The Issues

In his issues section, Murphy lists nine policy points related to the airport, the new ballpark, traffic, crime, neighborhoods and housing, among others. Eight of them are linked to additional pages within the site, providing details on where he stands and why. Some of these could be presented better, particularly the one on the airport, but, like a legal brief, they get to the point eventually.

The Roberts site, on the other hand, lists just three issues: the airport, gas prices and quality of life for senior citizens. Each is linked to well-presented comments on where he stands, but it strikes me that there's much more at stake in this campaign.

Where Murphy's site falls short is in presentation. The home page is a jumbled mass of information that intimidates and bewilders. The links to the underlying pages stretch well down the page, requiring scrolling to see them all, even on a high-resolution screen.

The link to the calendar nets you a message saying the calendar will be updated soon. Which is just one step above the exasperating "Under Construction" sign. Why not just deactivate the link until there's actually something there?

The most stylish section of the site is the scrapbook, but one wonders about the necessity of it. The picture of the week, while well intended, falls short of the target. After all, how many pictures of the area's Little League and soccer teams do we really need to see? It leaves one wondering, where's the photo of the kitchen sink?

Style Points

In contrast, the Roberts site is clean, uncluttered and straightforward, his architectural background coming through perhaps. It introduces the candidate and his site, and provides a limited number of links to underlying pages. The same style continues throughout the site, which is easy to navigate, although a second set of buttons at the bottom of the underlying pages would be useful.

On the technical side, Roberts' site gets a big ding for having a button on the home page that ostensibly goes to an astronomy page (Roberts is a star gazer?), but gets you a "file not found" message. A second button is not labeled and a third just takes up space.

The most egregious error, however, is that his home page has no imbedded description or keyword meta tags, nor do any of the underlying pages. These are critical to getting placed in search engines. A search on Yahoo quickly turned up a link to Murphy's Web site, which has imbedded keywords, but not to Roberts.'

Also, and these are two of of my pet peeves, neither of the sites is friendly to low-res 640x480 screens. (Yes, this is becoming less of an issue, but it still needs consideration.) Murphy's home page doesn’t even fit within an 800x600 screen. In addition, the Murphy site has a counter on the home page. Does he really want the world to know that in the city that boasts the greatest percentage of Web surfers in the nation that there have been less than 4,000 site visits since Jan. 1?

Final Word

These days, candidates using the Internet to promote and further their campaigns is a no-brainer. Indeed, it’s mandatory. But like any campaign medium — whether a TV or radio commercial, printed leaflet or mailer — if candidates are going to bother doing it, it ought to be done well. Their political future may come to depend on it. George W. has figured this out. His site is worth a look.

Larry M. Edwards is a new-media consultant and the author of the Official Netscape Internet Business Starter Kit. He may be reached online at: larry@larryedwards.com and www.larryedwards.com.