Using the internet for Political Campaigning

Despite its youth, the Internet has already had tremendous impact on political campaigns, particularly in regards to raising campaign $$$.

For example, in 2000 U.S. Presidential candidate John McCain raised $1 million in 48 hours! Peak contributions for McCain reached $18,000 an hour on the Internet.

Democratic nominee John Kerry raised $10 million on the Internet in just 10 days!

According to the article The Internet and political campaign advertising: A cotent analysis, "Grass root movements are particularly successful on the Internet. This is because of the Internet's unique qualities: there is no centralized control, anyone can set up a web page, it can be used for little to no cost, and all that is necessary is a connection."

The Internet can help you gather lots of support from the public, however, it may also work to your disadvantage. For example, the Dean campaign was addressed in the article The Internet and political campaign advertising, calling it a “dot-com miracle”. A year before the Iowa
caucus the Dean campaign was run by only six people, had no real money on which to campaign , and had about 9,000 possible (not confirmed) supporters.

The only tool in their campaign was a computer sitting in the corner that had not yet been turned on. The change in momentum occurred when the computer came on and the first important Internet link (www.Meetup.com.) went up on the Dean web site(www.DeanforAmerica.com). Meetup.com arranges for people with like interests to get
together. Simple concept, but its power is incredible. Dean’s campaign made jumps
from 432 online supporters wanting to meet up to 2,700, to 190,000 and so on. With
their own version of Meetup, www.GetLocal.com , netting another 170,000 supporters,

Yet, the Dean Internet campaign did not have the strength to save him from
traditional media, after the loss of the Iowa caucus. A brief moment when Dean was seen
screaming to the crowd was quickly run repeatedly on traditional media. In the end, even
the dot-orgs could not counter. Ironically, the Internet assisted in the demise of the campaign as voters went online for more information about the spot traditional media dubbed the “I have a scream” speech.

What a realistic example which all of us can learn from!