Online Activity Increasing in 2008

We've noticed this in the last two months based upon the level of fundraising we've processed in what traditionally are some of the quietest in political fundraising- 2008 is not going to be any normal election.

In two pieces this weekend, the effects of the Presidential race have been pointed out in the changing strategies not only with fundraising but online engagement on the part of campaigns.

From the Wall Street Journal...

But the Web is about buzz as much as it is a tool. An ability to convey early online success of some kind has an importance all its own. With at least 13 candidates actively in the running so far, and the New Hampshire primary still 10 months away, it is a way for campaigns now to show concrete momentum and garner crucial early attention.

"You had the money primary. The endorsement primary. Now, you have a Web 2.0 primary going on concurrently with the traditional money and consultant chase and stuff like that," says Howard Mortman, a former MSNBC producer, blogger and now head of the public-affairs practice at New Media Strategies, an Arlington, Va., Internet market-research firm.

...

  Still, the amount of money and attention being spent by the campaigns on their sites this year is significant, Mr. Noble says. Greater emphasis by campaigns on the Internet "is recognition that the game is radically changing ... It's the Moore's Law in politics. Every two years it all doubles or more but this year, it's more than doubled."

And from Matt Stoller at MyDD...

We'll see what happens when the candidates report their Q1 numbers. Despite a largely undistinguished set of internet campaigns, I'm going to guess that online donations have exploded.  Hillary Clinton, the most conservative of the Democratic candidates, is getting lots online. Barack Obama and John Edwards, positioned slightly to the left, are probably getting in huge quantities of online small dollar cash as well. 

I know a fair number of online fundraising experts, and they all say that transparency in fundraising is a really powerful tool.  Say how much you want to raise, say why you want to raise it, ask for it, and show how much you've raised so far.  Rinse, repeat.  None of the candidates are doing this.  Clinton has come the closest with her million dollars in a week, and Edwards did well with Coulter Cash (he blew through the $100K target but didn't announce it for some reason).

That these campaigns are not working their online fundraising channels as well as they will later in the season, even as they bring in massive numbers of small dollar donors, suggests that a new and dramatically expanded hunger for a way to participate in politics is real.  We could see between 5-10 million donors in the political system this cycle, which is around 1-3% of the country's population.  That's huge.  Americans are paying attention, and an increasingly large number are getting involved.  If that translates, like it did in 2004, to a post-Presidential election involvement in local politics, we're looking at a political system with different levers of power.

Comments

[Nate de la Piedra]

It's a shame the WSJ didn't look at facebook numbers, Barack Obama is crushing on facebook, with over 320,000 members of "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)" which was completely self-organized.

[Karl-T]

I agree, though I would suspect they didn't have as easy of access to Facebook since it's a more closed off system and only until recently open to the non-college crowd.