Internet Politics in the News - Campaign Advantage

Campaign 2000: Parties Vie
for Internet Dominance

by Emilienne Ireland and Phil Tajitsu Nash

www.campaignadvantage.com
Copyright (c) 1999 Campaign Advantage

As published 10/99 in Campaigns & Elections Magazine

Neither party is effectively using the Internet to advance its campaign goals. While Republicans are well ahead of Democrats, both have a long way to go.

In America 2000, a document released in March 1999, Democratic National Committee Chair Joe Andrew announced that the Democrats would "mount an unprecedented $1,000,000 effort to upgrade the software and operations in our state parties," allowing them to "build their professional resources, invest in a high-tech infrastructure, and implement the best practices from around the country." In a subsequent interview, Andrew stated, "...whichever party can figure out how to most effectively and efficiently communicate through the Internet will be the party that will dominate the future."

The Republicans have also publicized their commitment to a systematic and aggressive Internet strategy. In July, GOP chair Jim Nicholson unveiled the eGOP Project, a comprehensive program by the RNC to harness the Internet's power for communications, organizing and fundraising. Among its goals were to broadcast live news conferences and special events over the Internet, put all RNC communications online, establish a secure extranet with the 50 state parties, and build an e-mail database encompassing 30 million registered voters. With the live broadcasts from the Iowa Straw Poll, one of the key milestones was met last August.

Based on these lofty goals, one would expect that both major parties would be well along in their work to bring Campaign 2000 online. Yet based on an exclusive analysis of all Senatorial campaign web sites we've recently completed, it is clear that no party is effectively using the Internet to advance its campaign goals. While the Republicans are well ahead of the Democrats and the Independents, all have a long way to go.

In this study, all Web sites supporting candidates for the United States Senate, including both incumbents and challengers, were analyzed in September 1999. Out of 33 races, one would expect to find at least 66 sites, even if there were no primary contests or third-party challengers. Instead, in a field of 102 declared candidates, only 68 had Web sites. This number includes both campaign Web sites (31) and public officeholder sites provided at taxpayer expense (37). Because candidates cannot legally accept donations, recruit volunteers, or collect any campaign data from their public officeholder sites, this article focuses on the political effectiveness of the 31 campaign sites only.

The number of sites was approximately even between the Democrats (32) and Republicans (30). Independents had six sites. Leaving aside subjective factors, such as quality of graphic design or written content, the Republicans were found to be ahead in eight of ten objective criteria (see table). These criteria constitute minimal standards for a politically effective Web site for a federal-level campaign. That is, unless a site meets these minimal standards, it is losing ground on the Internet. Particularly critical are the first four criteria, that allow a campaign to systematically collect contributions and volunteer information with little or no cost or effort.

How to Evaluate Campaign Web Sites

Online credit card contributions
Can supporters use their credit cards to make campaign contributions directly from the Web site itself (without having to use an indirect route, such as printing out a form and then faxing it in to the campaign)? Is the fundraising link right on the home page, where it is easy to find?

Volunteer sign-up form
Does the home page have a button or link to an online form that efficiently collects the names and contact information of would-be volunteers and sends them directly to the campaign database, without requiring the volunteer to send a fax or paper printout by ordinary U.S. mail? Note that it is a good strategy to provide the option of mailing or faxing data, but a bad strategy to provide that as the only option.

Form to collect e-mail addresses
Does the site provide a way to collect the e-mail addresses of supporters who are interested in establishing a connection with the campaign, but may not yet be ready to volunteer or donate?

Form to collect U.S. postal addresses
Does the site provide online forms to allow visitors to type in their own U.S. postal addresses, allowing the campaign to collect valuable information already keyed in at virtually no cost or effort?

Links to Issues
Does the site provide clearly labeled links to the candidate's issues?

Newsletter sign-up
Can interested visitors sign up to receive a newsletter or other regular update from the campaign?

Sign-ups for alerts and special bulletins
Can visitors sign up to receive action alerts regarding issues of particular importance to either the candidate or the visitor?

Events calendar
Does the Web site provide information about scheduled appearances of the candidate, and highlights of other upcoming campaign events?

Updating and providing date of last update
Does the site specify when the information displayed was last updated, or are visitors left to wonder whether they are reading stale news?

Download time 15 seconds or less
Do the pages of the site download quickly at ordinary modem speeds (for instance, 15 seconds or less for a 28.8 modem), or is the site so badly designed and slow to download than many users are likely to give up and go away without ever seeing the candidate's message?

Results of Comparison of Campaign Web Sites

Results of our study of all 31 sites as of September 1999 are summarized below:

Minimal Standards for an Effective Campaign Web Site		Do Sites Meet Minimal Standards?						Who's Ahead
		DEM (12 sites)		GOP (13 sites)		IND (6 sites)		Who's Ahead
		YES	%	YES	%	YES	%	DEM	GOP	IND
1.	Accepts donations online	2	17%	8	62%	1	17%	—		—
2.	Recruits volunteers online	6	50%	7	54%	1	17%	—		—
3.	Collects e-mail addresses	6	50%	9	69%	2	33%	—		—
4.	Collects postal addresses	0	0%	5	38%	1	17%	—		—
5.	Has links to issues	9	75%	13	100%	4	67%	—		—
6.	Signs up newsletter readers	0	0%	4	31%	0	0%	—		—
7.	Signs up bulletin recipients	2	17%	6	46%	1	17%	—		—
8.	Lists scheduled events	1	8%	4	31%	0	0%	—		—
9.	Provides date of last update	2	17%	1	8%	0	0%		—	—
10.	Downloads 15 secs. or less	5	42%	4	31%	3	50%	—	—
Average for all 10 criteria		28%		47%		22%		—		—
Research by Campaign Advantage, September 1999
Note: Ratios rounded to integers; integration with database not tested.

Summary of Results

As you can see from the table above, Republicans had a big advantage in the following areas: ability to take credit card donations online and send newsletters and campaign updates to supporters; ability to post a schedule of upcoming campaign events; and to send action alerts to recipients who are most likely to read them. In addition, Republicans were more likely to provide links to issues.

Democrats took the lead in only one criterion, by posting the date the site was last updated. Independent sites, on average, downloaded faster than either Democratic or Republican sites.

At this early but critical moment in the campaign season, the Independents download quickest, the Democrats are the best at posting site maintenance information, and the Republicans are leading in every other category.

Overall, averaging results for all ten basic criteria, Republicans sites were roughly twice as effective and Internet-savvy as those of the Democrats or Independents. Nevertheless, Republicans have scant cause to celebrate, because their pass ratio (47%) shows that the Web sites of over half of all Republican candidates campaigning for U.S. Senate fail to meet minimal standards for strategic effectiveness on the Internet.

Why Are Republicans Leading?

Although the jury is still out on this question, discussions with Republican and Democratic political consultants at recent C&E events in the United States and Canada elicited the following opinions:

Republicans are more likely to have direct experience in business, where the practical necessity of using computers has made them more familiar with Internet technology, and aware of its strategic importance.

Democrats are more likely to rely on volunteer and in-house labor, and are hesitant to hire professional Web site developers. In fairness, however, some Republicans also exhibit such thinking-witness the Bush campaign, which claims it sees no need to pay for professional Web services, despite the bad press it has received for allegedly amateurish handling of its Internet strategy, especially in regard to the widely-publicized parody site www.gwbush.com.

Misconceptions about Web site costs and benefits, such as the notion that Web sites are a net drain on campaign resources, have not been adequately refuted. Many campaign decision-makers do not fully understand that in many campaigns, a professional Web site that accepts online donations can quickly pay for itself, and become a net money-maker for the campaign, as well as a key source of volunteers, news releases, and voters.

While another year remains in the 2000 cycle, neither Democrats, Republicans, nor Independents appear to be prepared to exploit the unique strategic advantages of the Internet. And while Republicans have an early online advantage, it probably is not insurmountable, if Democrats and Independents move quickly. Looking at all parties together, with only eleven out of 102 declared senatorial candidates who are equipped to take online donations, the main issue is not how to get donors to contribute, but how to get Internet-shy candidates to accept contributions.

Future Trends

During the next few months, we see the following trends emerging in politics on the Internet:

Integration of Web sites and campaign databases
In today's campaigns, the key to harnessing the power of the Internet is to use secure Web sites and databases that work together efficiently to attract, collect, process, and store precious data-whether it is credit card contributions; secure online check contributions; or contact data for your donors, volunteers, and other supporters. The front end is the Web site, the back end is the database. If you have one without the other, you have only half the animal.
Internet-savvy campaign managers will not waste money on "brochure in the sky" Web sites that can't accept direct online contributions or collect precious contact information from supporters and volunteers. Likewise, they will make sure that the campaign database is fully hooked up to a Web site that is specifically designed to feed data back to that database. Anything less is old technology.

Increased fundraising through online credit card contributions
Because online fundraising is so cost-effective, every candidate in a federal race should be equipped to accept online contributions as soon as they announce their candidacy, if not before. In 1999, if a candidate is several months into a grueling fundraising schedule, yet still has no Web site to accept online contributions the easy way, someone should be asking who's minding the store.

Secure online checks
In the coming months, candidates who use the Internet effectively will be accepting contributions online through both credit cards and secure online checks. A technology already used in commercial transactions, online checks allow campaigns to keep a higher percentage of their online contributions by avoiding the credit card merchant fees charged by banks. In addition, the per-transaction fees for online checks are substantially lower than those for credit card donations.
A key advantage of online checks is the ability to take donations directly by phone, without the inconvenience and inefficiency of paper checks and U.S. mail. As a result, the funds are available virtually immediately. The campaign staffer takes the donation over the phone by typing the data into a secure check form that feeds into the database. As with any banking technology, campaign managers should discuss security and accountability issues with prospective vendors.
This cost-effective fundraising technology is being adopted by several candidates campaigning for U.S. Senate and Congressional seats. Their Web sites, featuring the new technology, are due to be launched soon, giving you a chance to see electronic check fundraising for yourself. Launch dates will be announced on the Campaigns & Elections Web site,www.campaignline.com.
To receive a press release when the new sites are launched, send us an e-mail at info@campaignadvantage.com.

All text and tables for this page only may be republished in any format with Campaign Advantage cited as the source, and a hot link to www.campaignadvantage.com provided on all web-based formats.

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