Why Claire McCaskill tweets

Why is Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) one of Congress’s more prolific twitterers? A focus group, of course.

Washington Whispers reports that after McCaskill lost the 2004 Missouri governor’s race, she found in a focus group that voters viewed her as smart but cold.

“One woman called me Cruella De Vil,” McCaskill told Washington Whispers.

In Twitter, McCaskill said she has found the perfect medium to be personable and show off her policy chops.

“I realized that I was probably too focused on my technical answers to questions and showing off how much I knew,” she said. “I probably needed to take a deep breath and just be more open and candid about me as a person. So Twitter’s perfect for that. I get to do it all. I get to do policy – and I get to share recipes.”

Another interesting tidbit: McCaskill, who is one of our favorite twitterers, has 24,000 followers.