Description
The political process is seeing the impact of disruptive technologies that are leading to dramatic changes in the marketplace of ideas and action.
Crossing the River: The Coming of Age of the Internet in Politics and Advocacy, Karen A.B. Jagoda (Xlibris 2005) documents how attitudes changed about the convergence of the Internet and politics from 1998 through the 2004 election.
Until only recently, the Internet played no role in campaigns as television advertising, direct mail and phone banks took the vast majority of campaign budget dollars. By 2004, candidates effectively used Internet tools for fundraising, persuasion, and mobilization.
The focus of this collection of provocative essays and research from a broad range of leading political online strategists and Republican and Democratic insiders, is on the most effective use of online tools to better allocate valuable campaign resources.
Candidates, political strategists, campaign mangers, media planners and buyers, fundraisers, grassroots organizers, public affairs experts, web publishers, political scientists, and entrepreneurs will gain insights into this new political landscape through the lessons learned and predictions from some of the political and advocacy online pioneers of the 21st Century.
Contributors
Raoul Bhavani, Westhill Partners; Michael Turk, Bush-Cheney 04 and Republican National Committee; Nancy Eiring and Morra Aarons, Democratic National Committee; Michael Bassik, Malchow, Schlackman, Hoppey & Cooper; Carol Darr, George Washington Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet; Larry Purpuro, RightClick Strategies; Eric Porres, Pericles Consulting; Rob Stuart, @dvocacy Inc.; Joe Rothstein, Rothstein & Co.; Paul Wilson, Wilson Grand Communications; Ben Katz, Complete Campaigns; Peter Krasilovsky, Krasilovsky Consulting; Albert Thompson, Internet strategist; Brian Reich, Mindshare Interactive Campaigns; Sean Cain, University of California, San Diego; Nick Nyhan, Dynamic Logic; Ed Reilly, Westhill Partners; Cliff Sloan, Washingtonpost Newsweek Interactive; Mike McCurry, Grassroots Enterprise; Hal Malchow, Malchow, Schlackman, Hoppey & Cooper; Chris Young, Klipmart; Tom Jolly, Jolly/Rissler; Cyrus Krohn, Microsoft; Trevor Potter, Caplin & Drysdale; Bill Hillsman, North Woods Advertising; Mark Walsh, Ruxton Associates; Joe Sandler, Sandler, Reiff & Young; Mike Connell, New Media Communications; Rand Ragusa, Voter Interactive; Melinda Gipson, Newspaper Association of America; Jonah Seiger, Connections Media; Gary Arlen, Arlen Communications; and Phil Noble, PoliticsOnline.
Excerpt from Crossing the River: The Coming of Age of the Internet in Politics and Advocacy, Karen A.B. Jagoda (Xlibris 2005)
Chapter 5 Side Effects
Michael Turk
eCampaign Director
Republican National Committee
One of the great, untold stories of campaign 2004 is the use of the Internet as a tool to attract, mobilize, and deliver votes. Votes. Those pesky little things that determine the outcome of the election seem to have been ignored in the rush to proclaim a new era of Internet campaigning based on cash raised, the number of blog comments, or how many Meetups were organized.
In many discussions of the Internet’s impact on the campaign, there is talk of an “Internet movement” sweeping the world and transforming politics.
While most of this discussion looks at the number of people who comment on a candidate or policy, write a check, or arrange a gathering to discuss issues of the day, what is missed is the fact all of these things took place offline for generations before they found an online representation.
Millions of people who believe in the same approach to governance banding together, choosing to elect a candidate or to support a party, and organizing themselves to carry out that activity is a remarkable thing – but a remarkable thing that took place before the Internet was conceived.
What is remarkable about 2004 is the return to retail politics.
During the campaign, the two political parties chose to pursue different strategies on the Net based on their approach to this “new” phenomenon.
The Republican Party saw the revolution for what it is – a focus on the grassroots of a national party. Following losses in 1992 and 1996, and a close election in 2000, the Republican Party went in search of its roots and discovered the same “movement.”
Rather than coming to the conclusion that we had stumbled upon a revolutionary concept, and claiming it was the Internet that made it possible, we recognized that the grassroots support has always been the cornerstone of successful elections – the heart of the Party. The movement itself is not new; it is the ability and the desire to mobilize people that had been lost in the age of mass media.
Understanding the nature of the movement, the GOP pursued a strategy of getting votes. Rather than organize coffee klatches to discuss the nature of the grassroots, we used small gatherings to reach every possible voter – every like-minded supporter – and mobilize individuals to spread the president’s message to friends, family, neighbors, and strangers.
It was a simple strategy - take a candidate and a party with ideas and convictions; provide a vision for where they will lead the country; gather supporters to spread that message and recruit new volunteers; give them the tools necessary to do it all; and let them go forward.
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Crossing the River
Karen A.B. Jagoda, Editor
ISBN 1-4134-8764-5 (Hardcover and trade paperback versions available)
