Quote:
Originally Posted by El Blanco
Well, are the blogs and online communities themselves raising the money, or is it the traditional donors using electronic means as opposed to signing a check?
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It's a little bit of both. The "blogosphere" is a lot things, not easy to pigeon hole. Think of them like a union or a local GOP chapter of diehards. It's not like they're all this new breed of people who have never been involved in politics before--these are the same partisans who stuff envelopes, knock on doors and make phone calls.
To answer your question, it's most certainly the blogs themselves.
ActBlue is a Kos founded site dedicated to electing Democrats, and to this point, the
FEC has declared them essentially exempt from traditional campaign finance laws.
But what makes blogger fundraising so powerful is its ability to pull in and pool low-dollar donors, at a relatively small over head. In direct mail, let's say someone gives $25. You probably don't hit them up again until the next quarter, or if the campaign is closer, you hit them up every two weeks.
But this takes time, and the turnaround is slow. Also, in mail, you're always trying to bump up that $25 donor. If they donated that once, then you ask them for "$25, $50 or $100" the next time.
With the web, you get your money almost immediately, and you aren't dumping thousands of dollars into those donors. Whereas other forms of fundraising are viewed as a longterm investment that will pay out over time, blog fundraising is immediate and of little cost. That makes small donors very powerful, whivh makes the ability of bloggers to whip up a frenzy something for the candidates to pay attention to.
Bloggers also make and break careers. Ned Lamont was made relevant by bloggers, and turned over much of his campaign to idiots like Jane Hamsher, who brought heat on the campaign for depicting Lieberman in black face. They keep people like Wesley Clark relevant, even though he didn't do well electorally in 2004, and has decided not to run in 2008. Look at Ron Paul--Granted, his on-hand cash looks impressive because he doesn't have the field staff of a Romney or McCain, but the internet is keeping guys like him in the conversation.