E-lectioneering

Two years agowhile Howard Deans then campaign manager, Joe Trippi, was hailing his candidates rapid ascent in the Democratic primaries as a dot-com miraclea true revolution in online political campaigning was happening some 7,000 miles across the Pacific. In South Korea, the worlds most wired country, presidential candidate Roh Moo Hyun was harnessing the power of the Internet and cell phones to reach South Koreas tech-savvy youth. The result? Roh, a self-educated human rights lawyer and political outsider, made history by capturing a winning 49 percent of the vote.

Rohs use of interactive video clips, Internet chat groups, and e-mail policy recommendations to reach young voters make Deans cyberfundraising seem parochial, a notion supported by a recent report released by the Pew Internet American Life Project (pewinternet.org/PPF/r/134/report_display.asp). In an examination of the 137 online ads used by President George W. Bush, Sen. John Kerry, and the Republican and Democratic national committees between January and August 2004, Pew researchers found that none contained political endorsements or invitations to campaign events. When the Bush and Kerry campaigns did utilize the Web, it was to raise (nominal) funds, organize volunteers, or get out the vote. Only a single ada banner in which First Lady Laura Bush invited viewers to click and read a special message on educationattempted to sway tech-savvy voters with a specific policy proposal. Michael Cornfield, a senior Pew researcher says that, overall, online advertising in this election cycle was a failed experiment.

Despite the campaigns meager inroads on the Internet, however, Jonah Seiger, cofounder of media consulting firm Connections Media, cautions against counting the Internet out too soon. The Pew Internet study was hugely important, but it is also just a snapshot, Seiger says. There has been a lot of spending since the report was released. After the first and third presidential debates, for instance, the Democratic National Committee spent $400,000 on ads posted on 50 Web sites, including MSNBC and Salon.com, that touted the reasons Kerry won. Not to be outdone in post-debate spin, the Bush campaign launched a massive Web advertising effort called Debate Facts (www.georgewbush.com/DebateFacts) to counter many of Kerrys online ads.

Rohs ability to harness the power of the Web in the ways that distinguish the Internet from traditional media outletsabove all, by encouraging voter involvementhas yet to be mimicked in the United States. Every political campaign consultant, including myself, would welcome the opportunity to have won the race because of shrewd online experimentation, Seiger concedes, but no one is willing to risk losing because of that decision. Perhaps another four years will be long enough to muster the courage.