Will Internet savvy make Cockrel a winner?

With just two weeks until Detroit’s special mayoral election, the two rival campaigns are heating up. And since pollsters are calling it a close election, it might not take much to swing the vote. That’s a good sign for interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr., who narrowly trailed Bing by two percentage points (27-29 percent) in February’s primary.

And while it’s not clear how large a role Internet organizing might play in giving one candidate a decisive edge, if the election were to be decided only on a candidate’s Web savvy, Cockrel’s aggressive Internet campaigning would likely carry him to victory on May 5.

Just examine Bing and Cockrel’s outreach on Twitter. While Bing’s Twitter page was just created during the past week, he still had only 17 followers on Thursday afternoon. Cockrel’s campaign started using Twitter months ago, and counts 300-plus followers.

There are other signs that Cockrel’s Internet game is tighter than Bing’s: While Bing e-mails supporters from a Yahoo account, the Cockrel camp has its own campaign e-mail address (info@cockrelforDetroit.com). And although Bing’s people do send out a massive amount of e-mails — some of which could be considered spam-worthy — the content hasn’t been as engaging as Cockrel’s. Bing’s camp wrote to supporters Thursday morning: “Feel free to come by the headquarters to watch [the final debate] with us!”

Cockrel e-mailed supporters Thursday morning about the same topic except Cockrel was inviting Internet junkie supporters to check out a a live blog that will be churning out live comments, information and possibly video from the final mayoral debate.

While the long-term value of being a high-level Twitter user is not clear, for what it’s worth, Cockrel’s camp tweets constantly, getting followers involved with questions and engaging commenters. Bing’s camp tweets once or twice a day with sometimes-dry statements like “talking to supporters asking what their priorities are.”

Still, the majority of Detroit voters are likely not as plugged in Web-wise as his opponent. But with May 5 shaping up to be a nail-biter election, one liveblog and creative spam e-mails with enticing teases like “shhh, it’s a secret” might just be enough to keep him in Detroit’s top spot.

Watch the final mayoral debate between Cockrel and Bing live Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. on Detroit’s channel 7 (WXYZ-TV)