It’s only going to get worse… we’re closing in on Election Day and every news venue is including up-to the minute information on the latest from D.C., the campaign trail and all parties involved. But no news channel can compete with real-time updates from the congressional floor – ComputerWorld’s Heather Havenstein posted an article on the use of Web 2.0 techniques by your elected officials.

The article detailed how Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) began to publish Twitter updates on the energy bill debate after C-Span cameras were ordered to cease filming. Culberson is at the forefront of the Politics 2.0 approach, using Twitter to blog during votes and debates; his efforts are designed to shine light on the congressional floor.

Culbertson has close to 3,000 following his Twitter updates and in a post this week muses how a few other conservative members are signing up for the micro-blogging site to keep others informed, he’s even tricked out his page with streaming video courtesy of his phone.

Not to be outdone, presidential hopefuls are also making a push for the 2.0, Barack Obama has been using Twitter to offer campaign trail updates and, according to a second article, has gained over 125K friends in the past month on his Facebook page – bringing his social community support to over 1.2 million. McCain has fewer than 200K on his social networking site but should receive equal footing on the MyDebates.org site – a partnership site formed in conjunction with the Commission on Presidential Debates and MySpace with the intent of offering streaming video of the upcoming presidential (and VP) debates.