Election 2004 - The Role of the Internet
by Ed Rampell
Hail to the 'Net - A Dec. 5 "E-mail Alert" from presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's (www.kucinich.us) campaign groused: "Alexa.com, a leading internet company that serves as a source of information on the strength of websites' activity, is deliberately excluding from its reporting the Kucinich website, despite the fact that, according to Alexa.com's own numbers, the Kucinich site receives more traffic than do several of the other sites that Alexa reports on. This is not accidental... The Kucinich campaign has repeatedly called the matter to the attention of Alexa.com and its parent company, Amazon.com."
Kucinich also put the "date" into candidate, thanks to a sort of online dating service that set the bachelor up with Gina Marie Santore. The left-leaning Ohio Congressman arguably received more media attention for www.PoliticsNH.com's "Who wants to be a first lady contest" as Kucinich pro-peace politics has. And during the Dec. 9 Democratic candidates' debate at New Hampshire, regarding former VP Al Gore's endorsement earlier that day of Howard Dean, Rev. Al Sharpton snapped, "www.bossism doesn't work on my computer."
In this 21st century race for the presidency, the Web plays essential roles that could decide the difference in who next occupies the White House. In addition to being up-to-date on pressing issues, it's vital for adult webmasters to study how candidates use - and don't use - the 'Net, and where the industry's erotic interests lie.
Internet Insurgent: The Dean Machine's E-Business Model
Two things enabled a former Vermont governor to break out of the pack of ten Democratic candidates. While some opponents - Senators John Edwards, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Rep. Dick Gephardt - voted to authorize Pres. George W. Bush's Iraq attack, Howard Dean's (www.deanforamerica.com) early, angry outspoken opposition to the Iraq war helped propel him to the front of the pack. But it was the medium, plus the message, that rocketed Dean to early frontrunner status:
"The Dean model [see www.deanspace.org] has demonstrated the incredible potency of the Internet for grass roots organizing. I really applaud it; I think it's a wonderful use of the technology," observes Kat Sunlove, Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition (www.freespeechcoalition.com), the adult entertainment industry's trade association.
All of the contenders have websites, but Dean's use of the 'Net has been the most innovative and imaginative. On Sept. 30, California's first openly gay legislator, State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, co-star of the 1950s/1960s sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, All in the Family's Rob "Meathead" Reiner, and The West Wing's "acting president" Martin Sheen spoke onstage at a Dean fundraiser. A woman whose sole claim to fame is she was Dean's first online donor joined the stars in speaking at the event in L.A.'s Union Station.
Sunlove was "most impressed by the [Deanies'] Meet-up nodes, wherein likeminded people have a way of contacting online, setting up meetings, voting on where those meetings should be held, voting on the agenda for those meetings, and then conducting them... It's online, to get acquainted; but then it leads to an in-person meeting. It's not conference calls or virtual reality - it's actually sitting down with people who have a common interest...and all this without hierarchical leadership other than providing the software. This is very organic - it's pretty extraordinary, and in fact, I hope to adopt that model for developing FSC state chapters," says Sunlove, who's attended a Dean Meet-up.
Meet-ups were more than mere gabfests - volunteers did traditional electoral grunt work at them, such as writing pro-Dean handwritten letters to undecided Iowa caucus voters. According to Linda Tischler's October 2003 FastCompany.com article "Joe Trippi's Killer App," the Dean campaign was "the first to post the organizational group Meet-up on its site," as well as "the first presidential campaign known to have a blog and ... was the winner - by a 44% plurality - of a straw poll conducted by the online [liberal] group MoveOn.org."
Sunlove believes Dean has "a youthful, optimistic appeal," but adds: "What they've done successfully, it's a branding process in marketing terms. They branded him as: A governor who balanced the budget and was liberal on social policies [Gov. Dean signed Vermont's law recognizing civil unions for gays]... Dean was very forthright and early in his opposition to the war... In contrast to other old establishment Democrats who've been in Washington. He brought that almost outsider appeal that seems to be popular," states FSC's Executive Director.
But as money is "the mother's milk of politics," another component of Dean's e-business model has attracted widespread attention. "Dean's fundraising arm was really phenomenal," observed Sunlove, a longtime political lobbyist. "Largely, that was based on... Dean asking for small amounts of money anyone can imagine giving. It's an appealing model because it broadens the demographics, broadens your base, by having each of those persons who've sent in $30 now caring a lot in how you do. It's an investment - even a small investment builds subconscious loyalty. He was extremely successful in raising large amounts of money, because of the exponential growth online."
Campaign finance laws currently allow contributors to donate up to $2000 directly to candidates. Publicist Brian Gross, whose client list includes Adam & Eve, is an example of someone with adult industry ties who donated to Dean. Small donors made Dr. Dean's insurgency so well-funded that in November, he opted out of the public finance system, which gives taxpayer dollars to candidates but imposes campaign spending limits.
Last October, FastCompany.com compared traditional fundraising techniques favored by Republicans to the Deanies' methods. Vice Pres. Cheney "cleared nearly $300,000 from 150 businessmen and women who had come for lunch that July day. The former Vermont governor, however, had attracted $508,640 -- nearly 70% more. It was, by any measure, a stunning performance, all the more so given that 9,621 supporters had responded to the call, donating an average of $50 each."
Tischler's informative article went on to report that when the Democratic upstart's: "second-quarter fund-raising blitz raised a record $7.6 million, mostly from small donations, Dean was suddenly in the top tier of Democratic presidential candidates - third only to Senators Kerry and Edwards in funds raised... Dean had more than $10 million in his campaign coffers, raised largely from small donations... They had virtually no chance of matching the $200 million Bush is expected to raise through the usual route - shaking down big donors for $1,000 checks. But what if they could persuade a few million people to give $100 each? 'There's only one medium where, theoretically, two million Americans could... decide, 'Damn it! I'm going to do it!'' Trippi says. 'The Internet.'"
Not surprisingly, Joe Trippi, Dean's former campaign manager, has a hi-tech background. "If Howard Dean Inc. is a dotcom, then Trippi, 47, is its COO," FastCompany.com wrote. "Growing up in L.A., Trippi said he was a 'hopeless early adopter' and technophile. He enrolled at San Jose State University, planning to study aerospace engineering. Although politics intervened, Trippi has still managed to sample the Silicon Valley thing, consulting for a couple of tech companies and serving on a start-up's board."
Dean often ends speeches by telling audiences "You have the power." The Internet puts this decentralizing philosophy into practice. "[B]y running the country's first presidential campaign organized primarily through the Web, Dean had managed to attract more than 302,000 [by mid-November, that number surpassed 500,000, according to www.campaignsonline.com] supporters to a grassroots movement that was growing exponentially - much of it with little supervision from campaign headquarters in Vermont," wrote FastCompany.com, which quoted Trippi as saying: "We're actually trying to get people to participate in democracy again. And we're using the Internet to get the message out faster and earlier."
On July 4, 2003, Wired News noted: "Zephyr Teachout, who leads Internet organizing and outreach for the Dean campaign, credits this kind of grass-roots organizing for the candidate's success so far, and said the new project will only help spread the message."
PART TWO - Email's Perils
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