Both political parties are web laggards

'Campaigns run by both incumbents and challengers that use the internet have typically hovered around 55 to 60 percent. Despite strong evidence that the internet is a moneymaker, that already low number appears to be dropping.'

Both political parties
are web laggards

Study: But Repubs are a tad savvier than Dems

By Marty Beard

Democrat Al Gore took endless flak for allegedly claiming he invented the internet. And though he would later deny the claim, the effect was to leave the nation nonetheless believing that Democrats are more web-savvy than Republicans.
    Turns out that impression holds about as little substance as the alleged Gore internet claim.
    When it comes to political candidates making use of the internet in their campaigns, Republicans are a few steps ahead of Democrats, according to a recent study from the Bivings Group, an internet communications agency.
    But just a few steps, and the fact is that both parties could do a lot better, says the study, taking far greater advantage of the internet and the tools it affords, such as email and fundraising utilities.
    Given that the internet is now well established as a relatively inexpensive mass communications medium, candidates neglect to maintain current campaign sites at their peril, the researchers opine.
    "While there may be a few sub-regions across the country where the impact of internet campaigning would be limited, the overall penetration rate for the general populace is now well over 50 percent," says Bivings Group senior associate Andrew Dimock.
    "Considering that sizeable donations generally come from more affluent constituents and they are the most likely subset to embrace the internet, it would seem that nearly all campaigns would benefit from a significant online presence," Dimmock says.
    Senate candidates, according to the study, are twice as likely as House candidates to have campaign web sites.
    The campaign committees for Democratic Senate incumbents are the most likely to have fully operational internet sites, while the committees for Democratic House members are the least likely.
    Twenty-nine percent of incumbents up for re-election this fall have functional, up-to-date campaign web sites, but 42 percent of those congressional incumbents have no internet presence whatsoever.
    The rest have web pages that are either out of date or under construction, and some have done nothing beyond registering a URL.
    But aspiring or returning members of Congress aren’t maintaining their web sites at the rate they once did. As of August 2000, for instance, 602 of 1,175 House candidates had internet sites.
    "Campaigns run by both incumbents and challengers that use the internet have typically hovered around 55 to 60 percent," says Bivings Group president Gary Bivings.
    "Despite strong evidence that the internet is a moneymaker, that already low number appears to be dropping."
   As support for the notion that the internet is in fact a gold mine for congressional candidates, the study cites how Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., used the web to great effect back when he was running for president in the year 2000.
    McCain raised $1 million in campaign contributions over a two-day period via his web site alone, which helped him claim victory in the all-important New Hampshire primary.
    In all, 42 percent of congressional candidates’ web sites have the technology to securely accept donations.
    Republican candidates, like McCain, are in fact more likely than Democratic candidates to offer a place on their web sites where donors can contribute to their war chests.
    Their web sites are also more likely to provide easy-to-find contact information, on top of information about how to volunteer for a campaign.
    Additionally, Republicans are 29 percent more likely than Democrats to have working web sites. Republican incumbents’ campaign committees are 52 percent more likely to have up-to-date web sites for this fall’s campaign than are Democratic committees. And Republicans’ web sites are 25 percent easier to locate than Democrats’ web sites, according to the study.
   Why is it that right-leaners are more likely to have web sites than left-wingers, and why are Republicans’ web pages easier to find than Democrats’ web pages, as the study determined?
    "That is a subjective question that is best left to partisan debate," says Dimock.
    What is clear is that congressional candidates look rather foolish if they don’t have a web presence.
"The internet is moving towards 100 percent penetration far more rapidly than it took television to approach that figure," Dimock says.
    "Can candidates afford to ignore it much longer?"

-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.

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