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Culture

by Mike Masnick

Thu, May 22nd 2003 11:27am





Internet Fund Raising Pays Off For Presidential Hopeful

from the a-sign-of-things-to-come dept

I'll admit that I haven't been paying much attention to Presidential election politics yet (trying to avoid it for as long as possible), but the one name I keep hearing come up in conversations concerning how the candidates use the internet is Howard Dean. Now he's announced that he's the first candidate to raise $1 million from online-only fundraising. While all the candidates are using the internet to some extent, Dean has really been focusing a lot of his efforts on the internet - which makes sense because he's less well-known and doesn't have the same offline fundraising powers as some of the more well-known candidates. I also have seen a number of articles about how Dean has embraced internet-organized rallies via Meetup. Not knowing anything about his politics, it is good to see any candidates learning to embrace the internet for what it allows them to do. Update: Wired is running an article about how Dean has embraced new technologies as well.

2 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Dean and the net

    identicon
    Rick Klau, May 22nd, 2003 @ 12:40pm

    Mike - It goes a lot further than just fundraising.

    Governor Dean's campaign has been a broad and deep embrace of the Internet. Consider:

    • They were the first presidential campaign to maintain a blog.
    • They were the first presidential campaign to use smartmob technology (through a service at upoc.com); volunteers receive SMS text messages about important announcements, campaign appearances, etc.
    • Their use of Meetup has resulted in over 25,000 citizens self-organizing for the campaign. (That number is more than 20 times larger than the next closest candidate.)
    • They're relying on an eCRM company to help supporters host house parties (I hosted one at my house last month); users can manage contact lists, send invitations, manage contributions and send follow-ups - all from the website.
    • A just-released website using new high definition video technology allows supporters to passively download DVD-quality video from the campaign. (MSNBC covered this yesterday.)

    In addition, they secured Rep. Zoe Lofgren's endorsement early on - a critical supporter given her connections to Silicon Valley. Governor Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, is originally from San Jose and understands the important role the technology can play (he is a frequent contributor not just to the campaign's blog but to other blogs as well).

    These guys get it.

    --Rick
    (You can also visit my blog focused on the campaign here.)

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: Dean and the net

    identicon
    Mitch Manzella, May 22nd, 2003 @ 5:09pm

    The is the absolute truth. I am the Middlesex County, NJ Coordinator and a Meetup leader for this campaign. I've had the honor of meeting Dean, and WOW... what a better country we would live in if this man was on the bridge.

    Check out my website, I have a lot of Dean info with a lot of downloadable video as well.

    -- Mitch
    http://mcmanzi.tripod.com

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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