Two potential U.S. Senate candidates had two very different Twitter announcements today in an event that was both a sign of the times and a cautionary tale.

Tim Bridgewater announced to his Twitter followers this morning that he was dropping out of the race for Utah Republican Party chairman to explore a federal race, presumably to challenge U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett.

He did it on purpose.

Several hours later, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff suffered a Twitter spasm, shooting out a series of messages while on a trade mission to Israel, apparently announcing to his nearly 2,000 followers that he was also going against Bennett.

"I'm announcing I'm running at 12," Shurtleff wrote in part of a series of garbled messages, called tweets on the digital networking system.

In another he said he would have "all of the legislative conservative caucus and other senators and representatives there endorsing me. Time to rock and roll!"

He later sent a message saying he thought he was responding to one individual and quickly pulled down the messages, but not before they were widely distributed.

Shurtleff's Twitter epilogue: "Thinking of 'texting while drowsy' law after private 1AM tweet went public. Formal announcement on 5/20 about senate race and tweeting plans."