The Billings Gazette published a story on Tuesday about the problems former Congressman and current candidate for Montana Governor, Rick Hill, is having with his biography on Wikipedia (Wiki).

For those of you not acquainted with Wiki, it’s a free on-line encyclopedia that anyone can edit.  The problem comes from the “that anyone can edit” part because if someone has some negative or embarrassing things in their past, then someone can add that information to their Wiki biography or edit the information that is already there to sensationalize it or subdue it.

People who know how to use and create social media sites, keep up with the latest and greatest web sites, can conduct opposition research, and understand how to get in and out of places on the net are highly valued in political campaigns. 

OK, “we” should be highly valued…

Now the Rick Hill biography on Wiki is “locked down” from editing because there are some disagreements about what is listed in it.  The official Wiki statement is “This page is currently protected from editing until disputes have been resolved.”  So what’s there is there.  Now there’s a story posted on the Billings Gazette website that is directing people to the Wiki website, and the article is not exactly a campaign manager’s dream article, either.  But at least they posted Hill’s photo with the story…

Another interesting part is in the “Discussion” tab on the story.  As of this morning 47 people had left comments about the story – and although the comments on the Gazette website are monitored, some are pretty pointed toward Hill.  Plus the story has been put on Twitter (Tweeted) about 17 times and 35 people clicked “Like” on the story for their Facebook account.

Stuff like this shows why campaigns should have (or hire) a “designated troller” on the web – just to post things and keep positive things flowing for the candidate for whom they are working.  It is a 24/7 job.

It’s been over a decade since Rick Hill was a candidate for political office – so there’s some rust from not being in the arena.  GOP “insiders” tell me Hill is the odds on favorite to win the GOP nomination.  Right now he’s getting hit from his fellow GOP candidates, those who feel he is not conservative enough, and from the Democrats who are pretty concerned about his campaign.  To that I would say, welcome to frontrunner status, Mr. Hill.

But this is just the tip of the old iceberg – because we’re still about 16 months from the General Election…