The Political Landscape:

Local politicians are just beginning to flock to the micro-blogging site Twitter to keep in touch with constituents or fire off the occasional, 140-character rant.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore appears to be the leading local political tweeter, with more than 5,000 followers at twitter.com/chuckdevore. On Twitter, DeVore shares his thoughts on the state budget crisis, gives status updates on bills he’s written, and types out the occasional witticism.

“Almost done with a long day of voting. I may need a new red ‘no’ button, I think I melted it,” reads one of DeVore’s recent tweets.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher can be found at twitter.com/danarohrabacher.

Just more than 1,000 are signed up to receive tweets from Rohrabacher like, “Just returned from observing the Russian Navy in Sevastopol and verbally sparring with European parliamentarians in Prague.”

U.S. Rep. John Campbell has yet to jump on the bandwagon, but his 2010 Democratic challenger, Beth Krom, is tweeting up a storm. Krom only has a little more than 200 followers on the site, which she uses to post updates on fundraising events and other public appearances.

“Running for Congress is an amazing experience. I am overwhelmed by the support,” the Irvine Councilwoman recently Twittered at twitter.com/krom4congress.

Mansoor makes a funny

Berating Costa Mesa’s City Council about its financial planning has become a favorite pastime at council meetings ever since the city announced that it was having serious money problems last year.

At least a handful of speakers at any meeting get up in front of the council during public comments and tell the politicians that they are bankrupting the city with their irresponsible budgeting practices.

During one such public comment section at Tuesday night’s meeting, a frequent contributor offered a little tongue-in-cheek consolation to beleaguered Costa Mesa.

The mayor of one particular city on the East Coast, he said, was mowing the lawn at City Hall to save money, according to an article he read.

“I’ll have to leave the meeting early because it’s getting dark,” Mayor Allan Mansoor retorted, drawing hearty laughter from the sparse crowd.