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Opinion: The Ticket lists the <em>real</em> top 10 Twitterers in Washington

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The Politico.com posted a pretty subjective piece Monday, listing the 10 most influential Washington D.C.-based users of the hot micro-blogging website, Twitter.

After getting over the initial resentment of not personally being named an influential social networking pundit -- nor listing The Ticket‘s rapidly growing ranks of Twitter subscribers -- we began to wonder if there was a more democratic way of defining the capital’s top Twitterers.

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After all, Politico writer Patrick Galvin places President Obama at No. 4 -- three spots below Karl Rove, a relic of an administration that many are trying to wipe from their memory banks. Granted, Obama had points deducted for a sudden halt in updates after being elected. But that’s only because he moved to a new home on Twitter: @ObamaNews.

Thanks to a Twitter stat tracking service, called Twellow, we get a list of the real top people and organizations, ranked by the number of users following their updates.

1. NPR Politics (139,688 followers) - National Public Radio secured its place on the social network relatively early on, and it paid off by making the political news page the top dog (or bird, as it were) in Washington.

2. Ana Marie Cox (82,500 followers) - She might be best known for her prior work on the political blog, Wonkette. Now, she’s a master of the social network, tweeting up a storm about goings-on in Washington.

3. John Dickerson (76,009 followers) - The Slate political correspondant gives an interesting bird’s eye view into the life of a working White House reporter. And an unusual recent influx in tweets about hip hop music.

4. John McCain (74,362 followers) - Known for his recent unsuccessful bid for the presidency on the Republican ticket, the 72-year-old Arizona senator has built a strong following on Twitter. He updates fairly regularly -- a couple of times each day.

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5. NPR News (31,517 followers) - NPR takes two of the top five spots in Washington. Who said public radio was dead?

6. George Stephanopoulos (25,029 followers) - The former senior political advisor and communications director for the Clinton administration has a potent presence on Twitter. In between throwing out statistics and tidbits about the U.S. economy, the current chief Washington correspondent for ABC News sprinkles in bite-sized chunks of his personal life.

7. Jim Long (23,359 followers) - Long is a self-described ‘social media soul trapped in an old media body.’ Though he’s not engulfed in the political sector, Long does tweet about his everyday experiences in the city at the heart of U.S. politics. His account has become so popular that he contemplated starting a second Twitter account today.

8. Barack Obama News (18,418 followers) - For those wondering where Obama’s Web presence went after moving into the White House, there he is. The account aggregates news from the Obama administration’s many blogs and press releases.

9. Karl Rove (13,887 followers) - Politico’s top Twitterer actually has far fewer subscribers than a bunch of other Washington tech-savvy folks.

10. Casey Wach (12,699 followers) - Despite residing in the nation’s capital, Wach, for the most part, shies away from chirping about politics. His niche is technology, and a ton of users are listening to what he has to say.

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Dishonorable mention: Al Gore (160,473 followers) - With more followers than anyone else on the list, the former vice-president of the Clinton administration should be at the top, right? Because he doesn’t list a location associated with his account, he is invisible to Twellow’s local ranking system.

Rule No. 1 of social media: Fill out your entire profile. Come on, Al. An Internet inventor should know that.

-- Mark Milian

Speaking of Twitter, you can register here for Twitter alerts on each new politics Ticket item. Join the growing crowd. RSS feeds are available over here. And we’re now on Kindle as well.

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