Alternate indexes crop up for measuring strength of presidential candidates

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

The waxing and waning of a political campaign can be measured through polls and fund-raising, of course, but there are alternate indexes as well.

How about t-shirt sales? Or overall media coverage?

Both are being used today to offer fresh perspective on the group of Republicans vying to take on President Obama next year.

Cafe Press, an e-commerce platform that offers user-designed merchandise such as candidate t-shirts, has seen the creation and sale of Herman Cain products rise with attention to his “9-9-9” tax plan - and plummet in the aftermath of sexual harassment charges.

They peaked at 58 percent of overall sales the week of Oct. 9-15 and fell to 38 percent the week of Nov. 6-12.

Mitt Romney, meanwhile, has held steady at about 8 percent of overall sales - mirroring his constancy in public opinion surveys.

Another firm, HighBeam Research, a service that sifts through more than 6,500 publications, including journals, magazines, newspapers, and transcripts, offers another lens for viewing the contest.

In July, for example, Michele Bachmann was on top among the candidates, garnering 19.5 percent of all media attention.

She has dropped ever since, as Rick Perry got into the race and attention fell elsewhere. By early this month, she was in fourth place, with just 7 percent of all media attention.

Perry vaulted to first in August, the month he announced his candidacy, with 23 percent of attention. But by this month - after a series of debate and speaking gaffes - he had fallen to 18 percent of coverage earlier this month.

Cain went from 5 percent in July to 28 percent earlier this month, while Romney has again shown consistency.

He has risen fairly steadily from 14 percent in July to 20 percent this month.