Liberal Bloggers Buoying Democratic Efforts
Donation
Cape Cod Times
Paul Crocetti
Boston University Washington News Service
November 2, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 —Bloggers are having a direct effect on campaign contributions during the midterm elections, according to experts in the media field.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., donated $250,000 last week to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and another $250,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But in the week before that, a number of liberal bloggers posted messages asking members of Congress with excess campaign cash to give more to the candidates who need it.
Kerry, who is not up for re-election this year but is expected to seek the Democratic presidential nomination again in 2008, was a particular focus of the campaign.
A posting Oct. 19 on DailyKos.com, a liberal blog, was typical of the effort, criticizing Kerry and three other senators for holding onto an excess of campaign money.
“They can hoard that cash,” wrote Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the site. “That’s their prerogative. But we shouldn’t forget when they ask us to sacrifice for their efforts in 2008.”
Chris Bowers, a contributor to MyDD.com, started the “Use It or Lose It” campaign in an Oct. 20 blog posting.
MyDD (for direct democracy) describes itself on its Web site as “a group blog designed to discuss the progressive movement and political power.” It does polling, research, commentary, analysis and activism, its site says.
“It’s hard not to see a connection between that [campaign] and Kerry’s recent donations,” said Jonah Seiger, managing partner at Connections Media, a Washington-based Internet strategies firm. “I would suspect that Sen. Kerry would not say that’s why he made the donations, but the timing reflects otherwise.”
The Kerry camp denied that the donation was in response to campaigns such as “Use It or Lose It.”
“Sen. Kerry wants to go the extra mile to make sure Democrats here in Massachusetts – and across the country – have the chance to put America back on the right track,” Brigid O’Rourke, Kerry’s Massachusetts press secretary, wrote in an e-mail message.
Kerry had almost $14 million in campaign cash left over in his presidential campaign fund at the end of September, the most recent filing period, according to the Federal Election Commission.
“To Kerry’s credit, he stepped up and made the contribution,” said Simon Rosenberg of the New Politics Institute, a Democratic group that studies the effects of technology and media on politics. “I think he made a thoughtful judgment as to what to do. He made a donation to the right place at the right time.”
Rosenberg said Kerry’s donations were a direct result of the efforts of the “netroots,” the term online activists use to describe themselves.
Unfortunately for Kerry, his controversial statements about the U.S. military in Iraq earlier this week have cast a pall on these donations.
“He’s not getting much benefit because of what he said,” Seiger said.
The chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee agreed that the Internet-based groups have helped the party.
“Throughout the cycle, the remarkable grassroots movement for change has buoyed Democratic efforts to expand the playing field, support our candidates and ultimately win a Democratic majority that can take our country in a new direction,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) said in a statement.
But politicians should not respond to pressure that could be perceived as threatening, according to Seiger.
“They shouldn’t be intimidated,” he said. “They should stick to their principles and strategies.”
Nevertheless, Web sites of this nature can be helpful in the end.
“The amount of information out there, the discussion around campaigns and elections, is only a good thing,” Seiger said. “More transparency is never a bad thing.”
###
