Jul. 21, 2003
Internet Fundraising Gains Attention
By J. Barlow Herget
RALEIGH - When the comic strip Doonesbury starts to make fun of something, you know it’s serious.
Doonesbury’s creator Gary Trudeau has been drawing delicious satire from former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s campaign for president and its use of the Internet.
Politicians have recognized for several elections that they must have a campaign Web site if for no other reason than to demonstrate that they “get it” when dealing with the wired generation of voters. But many campaign Web sites are worthless decorations and their sponsors treat them as such.
Howard Dean put the proverbial 2x4 upside the heads of such politicians and got their attention. He showed them the money.
Dean raised over $3.6 million via the Internet in the second quarter of the year, with $820,000 collected on one day, June 30, the end of the period. He led all nine Democratic presidential candidates for the quarter by raising about $7.5 million.
And much like North Carolina’s own Sen. John Edwards who was the top money raiser in the first quarter, national attention turned to Dean and particularly to his method. Washington insider and Los Angeles Times’ columnist Ronald Brownstein, for example, quoted Simon Rosenberg of the centrist New Democrat Network, who said breathlessly:
“This was a historic week where you had for the first time an unbelievably profound use of the Internet to mobilize regular people to participate in politics again. It has changed American politics forever.”
Carolyn Guckert, an editor for an electronic data company in Raleigh, is a down-to-earth illustration of Rosenberg’s enthusiasm. “I was watching C-SPAN in February and saw this guy I’d never heard of,” she explains. It was Dr. Dean—he’s a physician in his day job.
She was impressed and turned to her computer to learn more. “If I want to find something out, I’m going to go online,” she explained.
On Dean’s Web site, she found a link to another Web site called MeetUp.com. She clicked to that site and learned that some other people interested in Dean’s campaign were meeting at a Franklin Street coffee shop in Chapel Hill. Using her computer, she signed up to attend.
About eight to 10 people went to the meeting and shared their enthusiasm. One bystander who was eating soup overheard their conversation and joined them. “We were just regular people, a mixture of ages, young and old,” she says. “We got excited and ended up getting together again. I’ve told friends and directed them to the Web site.”
They have held a fundraiser. Did she give money? “Absolutely. I wish I had more money to give,” she declared. When the Web site sign-up reached 150, they split into three groups, one in Chapel Hill, one in Durham and one that meets at Mitch’s Tavern in Raleigh. “Now, Cary people want to start one,” she says. When Dean formally announced his candidacy on June 23rd, 30,000 Americans in over 400 cities were plugged in.
Dean’s Web site shows you how to insert your zip code and find a meeting nearest you. When I checked, four gatherings appeared within 100 miles of my address. There were the usual suspects in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Durham, but there’s a Sunday brunch in Winston-Salem, too, on August 3rd at 2:30 p.m.
Whether Carolyn Guckert represents future politics remains to be seen, but she certainly is the kind of committed supporter candidates want right now in their campaigns. And she gives money.
President Bush is collecting unprecedented amounts of money in his re-election campaign, and he’s getting it the old fashioned way -- from mostly rich people at $2,000-a-ticket dinners and gatherings. He raised an astounding $34.7 million in the past three months.
In contrast, Superior Court Judge Ed Wilson of Eden, the new chairman of the nonprofit NC Center for Voter Education, believes that Dean’s experience opens up politics. “It’s a way to get people excited,” he says. “A lot of smaller contributors believe they have a stake in the system.”
Wilson also observes the economy of the Internet. Compared to elaborate fundraising events and expensive television advertising, the Internet is a cheap way to reach people.
Ferrel Guillory, director of the Southern Politics, Media and Public Life program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, thinks candidates and consultants are still learning how to use Web sites and the Internet. He says, “It holds the potential for energizing and connecting with younger voters. It’s a way to have a dialogue with your core supporters, and in Dean’s case, it’s a place to raise money.”
A final thought: The Internet remains, like the once-new technology of television, a tool. It’s still the candidate’s message that ultimately generates the Internet’s electricity.
Barlow Herget is a writer and consultant. He served two terms on the Raleigh City Council.
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