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Aug

23

Online strategizing: what’s new (GOP’s Slatecard) is old (Dem’s ActBlue PAC)


This article, New Wave of Strategists Tap Web to Transform GOP, in Wired magazine is a must-read. It details how Republicans hope to successfully mimic Democratic online efforts to engage, embolden and activate voters through online tools.

Now why would they need or want to do that?

“What Republicans have traditionally done is flown a candidate into a city and get them to meet with $2,500-and-up donors,” says Gravatt. “Well, a lot of people don’t have those resources…. This is a way to reach out to younger, hyperactive segment voters who dedicate a lot of time to offline political involvement as well as online discussions.”

Both Gravatt and All hope to imitate the Democrats’ success at soliciting smaller donations, and to reach out to friends of their own age who might donate small amounts over time. All mentions a hometown friend who recently donated $15 to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. It was the first time his friend had given money to a campaign, but having spent money, he’ll feel a stake in the candidate and the party — and may become a lifetime donor.

“He’s evangelizing to everyone he knows about contributing to Barack Obama, and he gets 10 of his friends to contribute, and now they’re all on the $15 plan,” says All. “That’s what we’re trying to do with Slatecard.”

Can the Republican incarnation of what the Democratic netroots’ worker bees have created work?

Notwithstanding the efforts of the GOP 2.0, Sifry and others predict that grass-roots organizing from the right won’t take off until the party’s rank-and-file are energized by the same discontent that fueled grass-roots Democrats.

“The Republicans have had complete power until 2006 — they’ve had their own infrastructure of think tanks … and talk radio and Fox,” Sifry says. “This is the system that they built, and it worked very well for them. It was the grass-roots Democrats feeling betrayed by their own party and Bush that strongly felt a need to organize themselves in a new way.”

But online activism among Republicans is likely to grow if enough GOP voters start feeling similarly betrayed, Sifry predicts.

The online strategists “are going to pick up a lot of support because you’ve got a lot of frustration from grass-roots Republicans,” Sifry says. “They feel like their party has lost its way, and they think this (online activism) is their salvation.”

Ironically, today, the Washington Post details the GOP’s failure to embrace the need to change methods and new tools in this article, “Elections sneaking up on GOP?” It has to do with an email from the National Republican Congressional Campaign which misstates when the 2008 election will occur…by several weeks. Typos happen, I’ve written about mine before (Tip O’Neill spelled with just one “l” in a letter sent to every member of congress). But if you’re already scared to try new things, but when you move online, such mistakes become far more obvious and subject to attack and spreading, as incorrect information, virally.

Bucket o’challenges.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:56 pm August 23rd, 2007 in Politics 

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