Intellectual Property Law

Can the GOP Ever Catch Up with Web-Savvy Dems?

By Cynthia Brumfield

Two articles I came across today highlight how amazingly effective the Democrats have been in deploying social networking, direct-to-voters video and online grassroots organization, while the Republicans have generally missed the Web 2.0 boat this presidential campaign season. The first article is an easy-read by Time magazine entitled "Why Democrats Rule the Web."

The second article, though, is a must-read for any student of politics and the Internet. The National Journal offers a rich, insider-ish, detailed examination of how Obama and Clinton (though mostly Obama) have triggered "a vast evolutionary leap in the way candidates pursue the presidency" in a cover story entitled "The First 21st-Century Campaign."

Just one aspect of how the Democratic candidates have used the web, namely fundraising among millions of small donors, tells the story.

Through February 2004, Bush, a sitting president, had raised $155 million and Kerry just $31 million, according to the Campaign Finance Institute at George Washington University. Through February 2008, Obama had collected $197 million and Clinton $174 million.

When it comes to organizing volunteers, the Democrats have developed vast pools of local supporters through online volunteer registrations and social networking. By the time Clinton geared up for her campaign in Texas, she had the names of 40,000 volunteers ready to be mobilized, while Obama had 125,000 foot soldiers ready to do his work.

Contrast this with McCain's campaign, which actually let the bulk of his online staff go last fall. Clinton and Obama have combined raised 15 times the amount of small donor funds (mostly online) that McCain, formerly a pioneer of Internet political strategies, has raised. His website, as the Time magazine article points out, was until recently

the technological equivalent of a soapbox-derby car on a busy freeway. The McCain blog has been infrequently updated, many organizational tools were absent, and the social-networking feature, called McCainSpace, was left unfinished, with a note for supporters to "stay tuned." Even today, if you go to McCain's website, you are more likely than not to find a page that just asks for money and broadcasts the campaign's message, with issue papers, press releases and videos.

This disparity is all the more surprising given that Republicans revolutionized the use of campaign technology (mostly TV advertising and phone calling) and elevated to an art form the concept of direct mail fundraising and grassroots organization. But, the Internet is something new, something alien to the centralized, top-down campaign typical of the 20th Century and something that is probably far less effective for Republicans.

It's safe to say that the low-hanging fruit that has served as the GOP's "base" for all these years, namely blue-collar, uneducated voters, are not the most savvy Internet users. They're not likely to join candidate-affiliated social networks, they're not likely to be Facebook users, they're not likely to watch political speeches on YouTube, they're not likely to whip out credit cards to make online donations and so on.

In other words, in contrast to the energetic activists that Obama has been able to whip into small, volunteer armies through the use of these and other tools, GOP-leaning voters can't be easily reached on the Web. Even if McCain spiffs up his web strategy, will it be as effective as the Internet efforts of Obama and McCain?

Given enough time, Republicans will no doubt be able to figure out a way to recapture their former technological and grassroots momentum on the Internet. But it won't likely happen during this presidential campaign or even the next.

Full post as published by IP Democracy on April 19, 2008 (boomark / email).