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The Growth of the Political Website
By MARTIN EDLUND July 7, 2000 - While I was wading through last week's stack of Internet business magazines, one cover caught my eye. Issue 34 of Silicon Alley Reporter features Dick Morris dressed as Uncle Sam in the "I want YOU to join the Army" pose. This isn't the Dick Morris we're accustomed to seeing: the savvy political consultant out spinning for his latest client. This is Dick Morris, Internet CEO. And wearing this hat--in this case, a ridiculous red, white, and blue one--Morris is stumping for his new for-profit political Internet venture, Vote.com. When you consider his business prospects, it isn't surprising that Morris felt the need to dress up--in fact, I'm surprised that more people in his position aren't doing the same. Since the April 14 "correction" in the tech stock market, venture capital money has evaporated, the IPO market is cold, and people are rethinking the wisdom of Net start-ups of all shapes and sizes. And for political dot-coms, the worst is yet to come. The April correction is nothing compared to an impending crash that no bull market will withstand: the one that will hit on November 8. That's the day after the fall elections, when the country will settle back into its happy ignorance of politics. Morris is only the worst-dressed of a long list of political-celebs-turned-Net-politics-mavens now facing the inescapable November 8 crunch. John Sununu, Ralph Reed, Randy Tate, and Geraldine Ferraro are just a few of the people who have lent their fame and know-how to online politics start-ups. How are they supposed to entice people to take interest in an organization that hardly anybody will care about as soon as the election ends? They're not the only ones worrying about this question--it spells trouble for political parties, PACs, professional campaigners, and rest of the world of online politics (offline, too, for that matter). Luckily for Morris and the online politicos, there may yet be cause for hope. There is at least one proven way to build and sustain communities in online politics--you just need to know where to look. The story of US online politics is really one of political moments. This pattern first appeared in 1996, when Bob Dole became the first presidential candidate to use a televised debate to plug his website. Despite omitting the second dot in www.dolekemp96.org, his site received more than two million hits in the 24 hours following the debate. The Internet became the one bright spot in Dole's otherwise lackluster campaign. By Election Day, Dole/Kemp had built an impressive e-mail list of 75,000 supporters, dwarfing Clinton/Gore's 10,000. But even this silver lining was short-lived. Although the Dole people initially tried to keep their momentum going by transforming the campaign list into a self-sustained online community, the interest of the supporters dissipated, and by the time the 2000 cycle rolled around, the list was virtually useless. The growth of the online population since 1996 gave this year's candidates the opportunity to secure a much bigger payoff if they could seize on a political moment. John McCain demonstrated just how much bigger after his New Hampshire primary victory. In the 48 hours following New Hampshire, McCain raised more than $1 million through his campaign website, www.McCain2000.com. Two weeks later the figure had swelled to $2.8 million, with over 40,000 new volunteers recruited online. Thanks to an FEC ruling made at the request of the Bradley campaign, most of this money was eligible for federal matching funds, giving McCain the boost he needed to weather South Carolina, and survive through Super Tuesday. http://www.thenewrepublic.com/online/edlund070700.html | ||
